There’s No Room You Don’t Belong In
I had a call earlier this week with a former client.
We had a great conversation looking back at how things have been going for him and forward to what he wants to create over the next year.
At one point, we started talking about being in rooms that make us feel uncomfortable.
You know the kind of room I mean.
The room where you look around and immediately start comparing yourself to everyone else.
They seem more successful.
More accomplished.
More confident.
More important.
And the moment that comparison starts, most of us contract.
We hold back.
We play smaller.
We defer.
We minimise ourselves.
We lose sight of who we really are.
I know that experience well.
It still happens to me.
That’s one of the reasons I have my document.
It brings me back.
It reminds me who I am when I forget.
For decades I didn’t see greatness in myself at all.
I mostly saw “not good enough.”
Broken.
Boring.
Useless.
So much of my energy went into trying to compensate for that or trying to make sure other people couldn’t see it.
Then something shifted.
I began to see a completely different possibility.
Not just for me.
For everyone.
And once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.
I don’t mean greatness in a comparison sense.
This is not about being better than other people.
I mean the greatness that exists within every human being.
Marianne Williamson’s famous quote points to this beautifully …
“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 and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s 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.”
We live in a culture that constantly encourages people to fit in, conform and play small.
A culture that often seems more comfortable with people doubting themselves than fully expressing themselves.
But I don’t believe we are here to play small.
I don’t believe we are here to be insignificant.
Every one of us has something unique and brilliant to bring into the world.
And because we are all different, that greatness looks different for every person.
But it is there.
Which means, there is no room you don’t belong in.
I’ll finish by sharing a short clip of Barack Obama speaking powerfully to this idea from his own experience of being in rooms most of us could only dream of entering:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOcTrdlEbCN/?igsh=cXd1Y2twNWJnbnc=
What would become possible if you truly knew there was no room you didn’t belong in?
Much love
Peter