A new theme popped into my awareness recently: the idea of evolving beyond a life of smallness.  To me, living “small” means I am not offering the world the best possible version of me.  That definition alone, though, feels cliché and abstract.  Allow me to delve deeper.

Let’s begin start by exploring the concept of living BIG.  Living big is living in alignment with your unique talents, passions and desires.  Living big is strengthening your self-awareness muscles.  Living big is doing what you say you will do, taking responsibility for your actions, and setting clear boundaries.  Living big is maintaining your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.  Living big is stretching yourself into the spaces where you fear failure.   

Living small, then, is the opposite of all that.  Smallness is basing your actions on how you may appear to others.  Smallness is over-promising and under-delivering.  Smallness is avoiding stillness when alone because you don’t like the company you keep.  Smallness is setting up life to ensure you can blame others when something goes wrong.  Smallness is promising yourself tomorrow will be the day you stick to your diet and exercise plans.  Smallness is avoiding risk to guarantee success.

In pondering these ideas, I discovered something important.  Smallness and happiness cannot coexist in my life.  I’m not talking about the happiness you experience when you make it through the yellow light or your partner announces you’re having pizza for dinner.  I’m talking about the deep-down, clean and pure joy that most of us have not experienced regularly since we were babies. 

Babies (and all other animals, for that matter) do not make decisions based on whether or not they will fail or appear silly.  Imagine a baby not attempting her first step for fear of falling.  “Gosh, I bet I could get across the room faster if I get off my hands, but what if I fall and people laugh at me?”  Babies act on natural instinct and do not get bogged down in reasons and rationale. 

As we age, our naturally-occurring authenticity gets compressed into a tiny seed, and endless variations of smallness fill the void.  Each time we act a certain way in an effort to look good or avoid looking bad, the authenticity seed gets squeezed tighter and pushed further into the soul.  We trade happiness for a life of frustration, anxiety, judgment and doubt. 

The good news is we can excavate the authentic happiness from within.  Today, I declare a life of being BIG.  Who’s with me? 

To explore tools and techniques that will start you on your unique path back to happiness, join us Tuesday, March 23 for a powerful event: The Return to Happiness Workshop.   It’s guaranteed to get you thinking BIG!     

 
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