How small do you see yourself?
Every so often I’ll see someone doing something cool and I wonder why they aren’t taking bigger steps to put their craft out into the world. You know, like when you discover a band on deep dive through recommended artists on YouTube or Spotify. You’re listening to their songs and asking yourself, “Why don’t more people know about this?”
For many of us, I think it’s easier to see the potential in someone else than ourselves.
In fact, bring to mind someone you admire right now. This can be a celebrity, an athlete, a musician, anyone!
Got it?
Okay. The same way we admire this other person, their actions, or their creations, we also have that same greatness in us.
Wild, right?
If you read that and are like, “I’m not rich and famous like them, I don’t have a house in Martha’s Vineyard, and I don’t have 1.2M followers on Instagram, so how the heck am I as great as them?!”
That’s valid and I’m not at all going to say those things don’t matter. They do! Just…not in the way you might think. Behind the surface layers of rich and famous, what is being represented? What does a large home in an esteemed part of Europe mean to you? What does a huge following on Instagram mean to you? Whittle that down. Or, you know, whatever aspect of greatness you see in the person you admire.
The thing we see as being so great in them is a quality we have equal potential to meet.
We’ve probably all heard that phrase about comparing yourself to someone else’s “highlights reel” not being a valuable use of your time. Totally true. Yet, what I’m proposing here is to nail down what you see in the person that you want. It’s hardly something as surface level as lots of money. That isn’t what would make you happy. Maybe it’s something you believe money could buy. Financial security for you and your family, perhaps?
So, we have our person. We have our aspect. Now, there’s just that roadblock of: how do we embody that aspect ourselves?
I started off this post by asking where it is you stay small. The tricky part is that we often don’t realize how small we are until we get a taste of feeling bigger. That’s what these people we admire are showing us! You might now be reading what I’m saying and be like: I hear ya but NOPE! Then, proceed to throw a blanket over yourself to stay hidden, figuratively speaking (or literally…who knows?).
Anyway, staying small is safe but it’s not fulfilling. Taking risks is scary but if we’re willing to re-frame the way we view ourselves, we could see that we, too, have a lot to offer. Think of your skills, the presence you have, the way you can get a group talking with one another, or the perspective you bring to the table. How can you bring more of that into your daily life? How can you share more of your authentic self with your community?
I know it’s scary to put yourself out there and try something new. We owe ourselves to stop playing small and give ourselves more credit for our unique abilities. Anyone can draw a picture of a bird but the way you draw it is going to be completely different than the way someone else draws it. Put your bird drawing out there because the simple fact is that there is nothing else like it. Maybe that’s a bit of an odd example to end on but hopefully you’ve caught the point. The things we have to offer the world are unique to us and not sharing them isn’t doing anyone any favors.
Be you. Share your craft.