Ever notice that when you set yourself up to accomplish something great, you fall far short of it? But when you say, “I’m going to phone my friend today,” you do it? When the To Do List is so long it’s overwhelming, but when you’re gentle with that little child inside, she responds.
We’re hard on ourselves, especially around the busiest times of the year, when we’re planning some huge event; when we’re stressed out. Does that mean we shouldn’t set our sights so high? That we should play small? No. It just means that we humans are fallible, that we need bite-sized pieces towards attaining something.
“Take tiny steps,” a teacher advised me. So, if we want to write the great North American novel, we have to first put those little words on a blank page, then keep on going. Along the way, we may want to quit, we may veer away from it. But do it anyway. It may NOT be the great American novel, but it will be your unique book.
Go for greatness, but don’t let the term scare you.
Greatness means having the courage to face your littleness — the one that wants to puff up your ego because you feel so tiny. Greatness means to face the fear and do it anyway. Greatness means to be still, to allow whatever wants to emerge, to do just that. Greatness means to continue to live fully with all of your self, even though you know you are a human being with limitations, with bad habits, with old patterns.
Greatness also means to call forth that higher self and let her express; to give Self time. Doing so, you feel your vulnerability — as well as your deeper connection to it all.
If everyone aimed for our fullest expression of self, we could heal the planet. We may very well live happier lives, accepting ourselves as we are. Loving what is. When we do that, we are also kinder to those around us.
So, go for your Greatness, and love the small, tiny human being with all her foibles too. Love counts.
(c) Melba Burns, Ph.D.