For a few years now I’ve been following various online teachers who are all about identifying your niche or greatness and capitalizing on it. Over and over again I come across blog posts and emails that are asking about my inner greatness and telling me I have it. They can also help me give that greatness to the world!
And guess what! The world needs it. The world needs me to be great! For a fee, they will help me find my tribe and be great!
Or maybe its part of being a Millennial. Everyone tells us we are special and we can do whatever we want.
What they don’t tell us that not everyone is going to be good at whatever we want to do. And not everyone can be whatever we want, especially right away. They also don’t tell us about the amazing amount of work and experience it takes to be the best in our chosen field and the amount of time it will probably take us to reach the greatness that we want to achieve.
Schools aren’t really set up to prepare us for the realities of life or to moving beyond mediocrity. Our society is generally set up so we are more focused on fulfilling our base needs or too tired to pursue bettering each others lives (unless your a lucky philanthropist). Our culture has a general set route for the successful to take – a system in place to keep us in the system and not let us out so easy.
Maybe it was my youth and naivety that led me to believe I could somehow get out of this system and live the life I really want to live (it involves living in the forest. With bees, and flowers, and crystals. And a round house. With a room just for spiritual activity. And an ocean nearby.).
Maybe it was just one of those factors or maybe it was all three combined that led me to feel this weight of being great, maybe like it is a mandatory thing to the human experience, like if I want to make a difference I need to let this greatness out.
I knew a long time ago that a more traditional life was not what I wanted. I didn’t want to be another cog in the wheel of a system of oppression via discomfort, stress, and in general dysfunction.
Eventually I found people who were all about Lifestyle Design and I tried really really hard to design my lifestyle and create it. I haven’t been successful at that yet for the past eight years because it takes just the right skill sets, knack, training and initial investment with a mix of investment and knowing what you are doing. I’ve had to learn all of that.
I’m not saying all of this because I am depressed or cynical or angry. I am saying this because a few days after I injured my back this is part of the process I went through. This thought process led me to a big shift in my life. I decided that I would give up on my greatness.
Most of my stress and anxieties in life have come from me trying to be great, or trying to make my greatness happen, or trying to fit in, or trying to do something different from what is laid out in the moment of life, or whatever.
And then I had a conversation with my greatness that kind of went like this:
Me: I’m going to give up on you.
Greatness: Why? I’m here.
Me: I know. But I can’t seem to unlock you so I’m going to at least let go of you.
Greatness: Greatness is not something that is meant to be obtained. The greatness that resides in you is already there and will shine of its on accord when you are ready.
I came to realize in that moment that even though I see a lot of people achieve greatness or success in their lives, and even though I can compare my greatness to theirs, their greatness is not my greatness. My particular brand of greatness is not going to come from running a multi-dollar corporation, or saving the world, or inspiring millions – at least not yet.
My greatness will simply be uncovered living my life with grace and presence.
And if that is all my greatness requires, then why stress out about the things I’m trying to achieve?
In that moment I lay down my goals as I used to have and opened up a new way of aspiring and flowing in my life to get to where I want to go. Because I tried doing it the way we are “supposed to”, and now, I’m doing it my way.
I did a quick chart of the way I’m moving to operating my life. 🙂
I feel like we are moving more towards that as a culture, or at least the women I know who do powerful businesses and teach Priestess work, but its not a norm yet. It’s taken a lot of reprogramming and self acceptance to be okay with the way I want to live my life, that I can live my life that way, and with a little bit of visioning, acceptance and patience I can allow it to manifest too. 🙂
What do you think? Where is your greatness hiding?
