Shine Your Light

Believe it or not, many of us fear success as much as we fear failure, and may unconsciously choose not to project our personal power to avoid the possibility of not succeeding. I love this passage from Marianne Williamson’s book A Return to Love, which so beautifully explains the phenomenon of fearing success, as well as being a light in the world:

 “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

We are “powerful beyond measure,” with our own unique contributions to give to this world. We may not know what our strengths are or what would make us happy, so spending the time to determine this is a very valuable use of our time.

You could begin by asking yourself the following questions:

1. What am I most pleased and proud about for having accomplished?

2. What makes me unique?

3. What are my top five strengths?

When we know what we want, who we are, and where we want to go in life, we won’t be so easily sidetracked, or thrown off course by the opinions or inclinations of others. We will trust that we deserve to be happy and are free to follow our own path, by taking actions that align with our desires and feed our soul.

ACTION STEP:

Write down some ways in which you haven’t been shining your light. What can you do differently?