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“Get Your Life On Track!:Â How one small change can turn everything around.” That’s what the headline said on the cover of a recent issue of O Magazine.Â
You just KNOW I had to pick that magazine up. If you know me, and I hope you all are getting to know me by this point, I am intrigued by how other experts view “change”.Â
The expert in this case was Martha Beck. In the article, she said that there’s really only one thing that can derail our lives, keep us off course, and leave us living an unmotivated, uncomfortable, unhappy and blah existence. It’s our lenses.Â
Think of Superman and those thick rims he puts on when he wants to turn into Clark Kent and cover his true identity and hide his superpowers. The comic book hero dons his lenses intentionally.
But many of us use our lenses–our excuses–without even knowing it.  And… it’s those very same excuses that keep us stranded in the slow lane to nowhere.
Just like Superman, though, if we can learn to remove our lenses, we can then reveal our own superpowers–our loves, interests, and abilities that get us motivated, accelerating, and aimed for goals and success.
In the O Magazine article, Martha mentioned one of her favorite quotes: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure … Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.” (A Marianne Williamson quote.)Â
I particularly love that last line. Â Does playing small ever make sense? Â How will playing small ever help you reach the full, large life you are meant to live? It’s no coincidence that we all talk about wanting to “live large.” The good life.Â
So it’s time to put our money where our mouth is. We have to take on life in a big way–like Superman, not Clark Kent–if we’re ever to have that long, happy, dream-filled life free from hardships and trepidation. After all, “living large” means, put simply, living a happy existence.  And that is all any of us can ask for … happiness.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
That MW quotation has long been a favorite of mine.
What I think about isn’t whether playing small is ever appropriate, but whose view/version of playing big should any of us be paying attention to?
Is it our own? Is it what someone else envisions for us?
For instance, someone recently told me I have a billion dollar business. I would just have to shift a few things to make that happen.
And maybe he’s right. Would I be playing bigger if I went that way? I’m sure he would say I would be. And I know he would say that it would be playing bigger because I could serve more people.
But what I know for sure is that it’s absolutely the wrong direction for me to go in. And that’s not fear talking. That’s not fear of playing big or being big. It’s just a clear recognition of knowing where I belong in the world, and what’s right for me, my business, and the customers I love serving.
I say that playing big is an inside job–first and foremost. And big or seemingly small, if you’re playing the game you know you were meant to play, and you’re open to having that change as YOU change, that’s what matters.
Thanks for the great post!
Stacy
October 8th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Stacy,
You make a great point. Playing big could correlate to simply stepping out of your comfort zone, which of course, doesn’t have to correlate in dollar amounts at all! For you to take charge of your own business, going in the direction you are led intuitively (I’m big on following your gut instincts!), that means you’ll ultimately step out of your comfort zone to do bigger and better things. I applaud your efforts to not only play BIG, but use your internal guidance to do so!
Jennifer