Go be GREAT! You were made for it.

OK folks. This week we’re getting real. Not that we’ve been fake in the past, but this week I want to get really real. It could get uncomfortably real. But we all know that the best things happen when you are stretched beyond the usual demands of life, so let’s dive in!

Your life is a huge, incredible, miraculous treasure. Honestly, it’s mind-blowing! I’m sure that if you think about it you could come to that conclusion on your own, but maybe you need more evidence. According to someone only a little better at statistics than I, the odds of you actually existing at all is about 1 in 10^2,685,000, or 10 followed by 2,685,000 zeroes. (Click here < for an impressive visual story of that fact). I read an article that likened that to millions of people all getting together and each rolling a trillion sided die and all rolling the same number…  Essentially impossible. It was more likely that your mom would get struck by lightning while riding an elephant in a pool of Jello during Carnaval than create and give birth to you. Seeing a camel do a rain dance on the moon is probably more likely too. Thousands of years of lineage had to come together. Millions of tiny moments had to happen. The sperm that fertilized that egg had to swim faster than about 100 MILLION other sperm in order for you to become you.

Tell me again how you’re nothing special?

The things that make up you; your personality, the way you laugh, the things you enjoy, your knack for cooking or singing or wiggling your ears, are beyond incredible. Since childhood I’m sure you’ve heard people talk about how everyone is unique and special and “you have to be yourself because no one else can be you”. When was the last time that you actually thought about that? When did you last appreciate all the freaking BRILLIANT things about yourself?! If you haven’t done that yet today, do it now. And if thinking about yourself as brilliant, incredible, miraculous, a super hero, makes you feel a bit guilty because you feel like it makes you vain or egotistical, forget that. God gave you all these fabulous traits, and you better believe that he wants you to appreciate, admire, love and unleash them. Go ahead and marvel. I’ll wait.

Now that you have fully acknowledged the gift of your existence and all of the things that make up you, tell me, what do you think you should do with that?

Bottle it up inside and never show anyone?                                                                              Tell everyone you know that there is nothing noteworthy about you?                               Tell yourself that those are nice things but lots of people have them and theirs are shinier than yours?

It’s kind of a humorous to think about, but unfortunately most of the population does EXACTLY THAT! Most of us are somehow programmed with this idea that if we are in any way exceptional we should probably tone that down. Life is OK right now, so why would I try to unleash all this cool stuff and risk it not going as expected? There can only be just so many people who are really great at stuff, so we probably shouldn’t try.

Let’s just squash that right now.

You were made for greatness. Every skill that you have, every experience in your past, all of the things that you learn, and know, and love, and want, are inside of you to         Make. You. Outstanding.

If you think I’m exaggerating, you haven’t been paying attention. Remember how your existence is a mind-boggling miracle? What do you think was the purpose of that? I can tell you for sure that it wasn’t for you to live a small little life, just making do, and settle for things in your life being tolerable. I don’t think that the creator of the universe created the sum of your life for you to sit on it.

You were created to play big. To live a life of free expression. To challenge yourself to big things. To spend every day working to be better than you were yesterday. To know your potential and live up to it. You were given this incredible gift so that you could USE IT and share it.

Don’t let yourself get trapped by the idea that living a life of greatness will dim the light of others, or that your great life is a competition against everyone else. You are you and they are them. By virtue of this fact alone, you are free to only compete against the you of yesterday. The other point couldn’t be farther from the truth. Sure, some people may see you doing your best to be incredible and feel belittled. That’s on them. The vast majority of people in the world are looking for an inspirational role model who is just like you. Ok, it is you.

There are people in the world, in your circle of influence, probably in your family, who are waiting for someone like you to come around and be absolutely outstanding so they can see what it looks like. Don’t believe me? Try it. You want your friends and family to live incredible lives full of joy and blessing and creativity? You do it first. Show them how it’s done and how much FUN it is!!

If you’ve been looking for something more in your life: A reason to get fitter than you’ve ever been before. Something to challenge you to master that “impossible” recipe and enter it in the state fair. A nudge to start writing the book that you’ve been dreaming about. Someone to ask you to do something you have never done before.

This is it.

Our lives are our invitation to greatness¹. I’m rooting for you and I know that there is greatness in you.

Let it out.

 

 

 

 

¹Dr. Joe Dispenza in You are the Placebo.