You take responsibility for your mistakes, but not for your greatness.
Is taking responsibility for your greatness scarier than owning up to your mistakes? I hear a lot of my coaching clients be really hard on themselves, while I rarely hear them own their awesomeness.
I’ve been contemplating what it means to take responsibility for my greatness and it does feel scary! It means I can’t hide behind excuses and play small. I have to own that I have a valuable impact on my community, and that what I do and say matters. When I own my super powers, then I’m free to think big and go big with my ideas and actions. For me, the fear that comes up is fear of failure.
An easy place for me to practice and contemplate this idea is whitewater kayaking. I realize that when I allow my nerves to get the best of me, or buy into my brain’s worst case scenario tendencies, I’m not owning my great paddling skill and experience. The impact of that is that I play small, get really nervous and don’t have as much fun. Sometimes I even paddle worse because I don’t own my skills.
When I don’t take responsibility for my greatness I suffer needlessly, AND I’m not able to contribute to others because I’m so wrapped up in my own head.
The same is true for whatever your super powers are.
It’s scary to declare that you are a contribution to the world, because your brain then asks: “But what if you’re not that awesome? What will people say? What if you fail?”
One thing is for sure, if you never own your greatness then there’s no opportunity to fail because you’ll always be playing small.
I firmly believe that we should all take responsibility for our mistakes AND take responsibility for our greatness. If you spend a lot of time beating yourself up, imagine what it would be like if you spent as much time, or more, building yourself up?!
So I ask you, what greatness are you taking responsibility for today? If you’re not ready to take responsibility for your awesomeness, then what is holding you back? Email me and let me know!
