Your post on power made me remember one of my favourite quotes:
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?
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.
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
There's something about this quote. It always makes me think. Why would we be so scared of our power. Maybe because if we succeed then we have no excuses left for not trying every time? Do we think we don't deserve such success, or such happiness? Maybe we are scared of looking vain, or or making others uncomfortable?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what it is. It just seems like there's something about trusting in your own personal power that is scary - maybe we worry that we aren't strong enough to survive the fall. When I think about asking a guy out that is definitely what comes to mind first, that I'll die from the awkwardness. But when you think of all we have been through we should know by now that we are...maybe I am actually more scared of what it would mean if he said yes than no.
Maybe that's what it is. Trusting your personal power means you have no excuse to play it safe, it means you have to take risks. Tell me your thoughts.
PS Wow, mini essay. This quote always does it for me :)
Yes, so true. I do think that we are afraid of our own power. I think you are right when you say that if we succeed then we have no excuses left for not trying.
ReplyDeleteWow and I agree on the looking vain/making others uncomfortable statement. If I do well at uni I don't want to tell my peers that I did well, when I'm at aqua aerobics I don't want to kick my hardest against my opponent because I think they will feel bad. I don't want to look vain.
It is, now that I think about it, almost disrespectful to them. And it is definitely disrespectful to ourselves.
No excuses to play it safe. Maybe that should be our new moto? I think it works beautifully.