“You need a reason to keep showing up that is bigger than all the reasons the world will give you to stay small,” Ashmi Pathela.  It’s easy to be discouraged by the state of the world.  The inherent divisiveness, the fighting, the emphasizing the few ways we are different over all those we are the same.  The world makes us feel different if we aren’t the same.  If we stand out, the world will find a way to bring us back down.  Following our lotus discussion yesterday, we are meant to be who we are—we aren’t meant to play small.  We all have the potential to impact those around us even if it doesn’t feel like it.  Even if our impact doesn’t expand globally, think if we are the initial ripple in the pond.  It all starts with an idea, an influence and then that experience cascades out to others.  We (especially us in the West) are trained that if we don’t see immediate results it isn’t worth it or that we have failed.  We are also trained that standing out is a negative or that if we are different we’re weird. 

What if we consider ourselves differently?  When we look at the relationship we have to ourselves an others, what if we saw what we brought to the table as enough?  What if it was enough?  Well, I hope this serves as a reminder that it IS enough.  I think we get lost in the bigger picture of purpose because we’ve looked at the scope of our lives as a series of things to prove or acquire.  We feel we need to prove who we are by the number of people we influence or the number of things we have—or how big our house is, the car we have etc.  We need to understand that even if our influence only expands to our inner circle, that too is enough.  We never know how our actions impact those around us so we need to continue being who we are—no one else can be us, no one else can do what we do and that means no one around us can have the impact that we do.

We need the courage to continue on our path and that means no matter what others think we need to stay true to our purpose.  No one said our journeys were meant to be easy, and honestly, sometimes sticking the course is harder than blazing the trail.  I mean, it’s incredibly difficult to decide on a new course and step off the traditional path, but once we are there it’s tempting to turn around and go back to what others expect of us.  It’s those moments we feel like giving up that we need to stick to it and follow our course.  There comes a point on our journey we all have to go it alone for a while or when it feels particularly lonely if we have to do something new.  We must keep going anyway.  Being alone doesn’t mean we’re doing it wrong—sometimes that’s exactly what we must do in order to learn all the facets of what we need to be great.  We must do it to inspire confidence in ourselves and perhaps a few other people who can then do the same.  Keep going.  Keep going as big as you need to be.  The world is calling.