Let The World See You

I have this quote on my bulletin board, so that I see it everyday:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

© Marianne Williamson, 1992
Found in “A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles” Harper Collins, Chapter 7, Section 3, 1992.

And at the bottom of the page, I have written:

Part of our strength is sharing our weaknesses and failures.
For as we let others see into our darkness, we are reminded of our shared humanity.

Let the world see your light and your darkness, your successes and your failures, your strengths and your weaknesses. 

Being vulnerable is both difficult and powerful.
But knowing that others have the same fears and imperfections that we do makes us stronger!

Why?

Because it’s easy to sit back and say “I can’t do that – I’m not as great as that person is”.  You think you can’t possibly achieve anything amazing and wonderful.  You think that people who do amazing and wonderful things are different than you are – they’ve figured out how to be great all of the time!

In order to step into your own strength, passion and greatness, you have to realize that it’s okay to fail, it’s okay to have weaknesses because everyone does, and you can still push forward anyway!  This is what Pete Reilly refers to as the power of public mistakes.

I used to think that people who accomplished great things must be different than me – I thought they were stronger and better and more successful.  I thought they must have conquered their demons and were able to live their lives so much better than I knew how to do!

One summer I was attending the “Every Woman in the World” conference.  After a fantastic weekend surrounded by fantastic women in a supportive environment, I went to the final dinner looking forward to hearing the inspirational speaker.

The speaker was Gina Mollicone-Long.  My assumptions were that she was an expert – after all, she was getting paid for speaking so must have it all figured out better than I did! 

Well, I happened to sit at a table next to Gina that evening.  She was real and authentic and (surprise!) nervous!  She had been away from speaking while staying home with her young daughters – so she openly shared how nervous she was about doing well that evening.

I suddenly realized that she was just like me!  She wasn’t on some pedestal and so much better than I was – she was genuinely human and vulnerable.  I may have said it before, I may have understood it intellectually – but when Gina shared her fears and insecurities with me that evening, I could finally understand and feel in my heart that it was okay to have weaknesses and I didn’t have to hide them for fear of being judged. 

Then she got up and gave an amazing and wonderfully inspiring speech about moving beyond fear and owning your greatness – made all the more powerful by the fact that she was “walking her talk” right there in front of us all!  She was conquering her own fear in that very moment! 

That night, “greatness” moved from being something external to me to being an internal possibility.
I don’t believe anymore that greatness is something that other people do – I believe that it’s something that I can do.  We all can!