What Greatness Requires of You

I talk a lot about rising into your greatness. It is my belief there is a seed of greatness divinely planted inside each of us, and it is the responsibility of our lifetime to rise into that greatness.

When I talk about greatness I don’t mean name in neon flashing lights but rather I am talking about living out the life and purpose you know you are meant to be living. It is not living someone else’s version of your life instead it is you living life from a deep place of knowing what is right for you.

But to live life from that place, there is work that has to be done, work that is not always pretty or glamorous but is always fulfilling and deeply satisfying.

The image of what a seed goes through when it is planted comes to mind for me as I think about what greatness requires of you as you rise into it.

Disclaimer: I am not a gardener by any stretch of anyone’s imagination so this is my best guess about the experience a seed goes through once it is planted 🙂 

It’s Already In You

The full essence of what a seed will become is already in it. An apple seed will yield apples, a marigold seed will only yield marigolds, and an acorn can become nothing other than an oak tree.

The full essence of who you are is already in you. Even if you can’t name exactly what that might mean, you have likely caught glimpses of it here and there in your life. You sense it in that dream you can’t shake even though it doesn’t seem “realistic”.

You feel it when you’re doing the things that are easily in your wheelhouse. Something in you knows you are meant for more (I think of that as your greatness trying to get your attention).

Darkness

But the seed has to go into the ground for its full potential to be uncovered. It cannot become what it is meant to be sitting on top of the surface; it has to go into the dark of the dirt.

It is in the dark that it sheds what it is, in order to become what it is meant to be.

Steve Jobs once advised a group of young people to “follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.“

Unfortunately, society trains you to do the opposite. Ignore your heart long enough, however, and eventually life will step in and offer you the opportunity to course correct.

Ask anyone who has done anything significant with their life and they will tell you, at some point, they experienced a “dark night of the soul”. A moment in time when something shifted inside them and they KNEW they could no longer keep doing what they were doing and they made some difficult changes in life.

Letting go of other people’s expectations, releasing the roles in life that aren’t working for you, admitting that this isn’t what you want from life is not easy.

All of it is hard, all of it feels like losing everything you’ve ever known while at the same time, KNOWING that you will, somehow, gain everything you’ve ever truly wanted.

The dark night of the soul allows you to let go what you are, so you can become who you are meant to be. Greatness requires this of you.

Deep Roots

As the seed begins its transformation, it first reaches down and grows some roots. It anchors deep into the earth and takes hold of the things that will nurture and nourish it into its fullest potential.

In personal transformation, this is where things sometimes go wrong. It is tempting to look outside you for something to anchor into but growing roots is inner work.

Growing roots requires you to look within yourself and deciding what it is true and right for you.

This is about quieting other voices so you can clearly hear what your heart is saying to you.

This is about knowing that fear is going to show up but deciding that the pain of staying the same is too much.

This is about knowing that you are enough and, as I said at the beginning of this post, you ALREADY have everything in you to become who you are meant to be.

When your roots are settled into this kind of knowing, it will nourish and nurture you to rise into the greatness that is calling you.

I am in the process of creating something to support you in growing your roots of greatness. I can’t wait to release it to you. Because I believe so strongly in you and the impact you are meant to have, I want to do everything in my power to support you in your journey.

Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks but for now, here’s to you rising into your greatness.

From my heart to yours,

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