You Weren’t Born To Be Small

Photo by Hannah Wei on Unsplash

I recently had the incredible opportunity to see Brene Brown at an event called The Call to Courage. Now. If you’ve listened to a few of my episodes or read my past writing, you know how much I appreciate her research, insights, and openness about being human. So to be able to hear her speak was a definite highlight of 2019, and it’s only February.

Early on in her talk, she said, “Stop engineering smallness.”

Wow.

I’ve spent most of my life as an introvert who doesn’t like the spotlight. Sure, occasional recognition is welcome, but I’d much rather get an in-person affirmation and keep on working in the background than be discovered.

That smallness I’m engineering, though, prevents me from using my gifts to their fullest extent. Is it the same for you? Are you choosing the small opportunities instead of pushing yourself into the spotlight?

The spotlight, whether within your community, industry, state, or even national or international level, isn’t an inherently bad place to be. There are pros and cons just like anything else in life. The benefit of the spotlight, though, is that you can use it to share your message on a greater level.

(To be clear, you have a platform regardless of your follower count. The platform the spotlight brings, though, is complex. You’ll reach…