“It’s up to you, you are the only one [to take action], and you can break the barriers,” Loren Ridinger.  This is a nice follow up to yesterday.  No one is going to take the time to develop us to the level that we can develop ourselves.  We have all experienced those people who would hold us back at all costs—the people who actively stop us from moving forward; some of them prefer to spend their time looking for ways to stop people from succeeding rather than even find something that interests them.  Then there are those who prefer the status quo, and while they don’t try to stop us, they don’t promote us either; this is usually borne out of fear and the desire to keep their heads down.  They aren’t harmful, but they aren’t entirely helpful either.  Then there are those who cheer us on but won’t actively do anything to assist—to be fair there are multiple reasons for this (not enough means to support others, actively engaged in their own projects, already committed to other things, etc.) so if we can find those cheerleaders in our lives, they are worth having around.  Then there are the rare breed who support their own ideas as well as our own and have shared resources—those who learn to collaborate and share the responsibility of progress.  Then there is the tippy top which are those who have already developed their goals to a point where now they are helping develop other people’s goals—this is true progress.   

If we ignore our brilliance and choose to hide behind what we are told we are capable of rather than finding our brilliance for ourselves, we will never be able to take the reins, take action, or break the barriers.  So many of those barriers are imagined anyway—they are from people who aren’t able to see the bigger picture, who aren’t able to choose a path, who are afraid to break out, who are afraid to listen to their inner voices and trust creativity or their ability to work with others.  For many of the systems in place, ignoring our own brilliance is a plus for them.  When we have someone (a person or entity) telling us they have all the answers, we tend to follow that because we feel that is our only option—or we feel it is a safe option.  Now, entering that type of arrangement is fine if we have a plan or an overarching goal and are using that as a resource to further develop who we are.  But if we are using that to hide our brilliance, afraid to step out and share our skills, then we have fallen into a trap that becomes harder to escape with time, and more attractive as we seek comfort and believe that we are running out of time or have limited resources.  We can choose to do something different at any time, we have our own beliefs, we have our own ideas and we are meant to hone them and use them.  Break the barriers, develop the idea, take the chance—that is the most important part—take the chance to take actions on our ideas.  That is when we shine the brightest.