An ex-boss of mine once gave me advice that was soul-crushing yet helpful.
I just met with the head of another team who needed us to build a new website for a big new company project. My boss called me into his office to get the scoop.
The meeting went great, I told him. I recapped what needed to be done and how fast we could do it. I was confident we could pull it off. Yet he was alarmed, made clear by outlining an unlikely worst-case chain of events that would cause a train wreck.
I tried to justify my positivity through evidence that my optimism was not fantasy-based but attainable.
He didn’t buy it. Don’t over-promise, he said. It’s dangerous.
“I’m not here to get people’s hopes up, and neither are you,” he told me. “We are here to mitigate risk.”
Remarkably, the chance for more risk mitigation did not instantly fire me up. Managers seldom motivate their charges with a mandate to be more negative and cynical.
I pictured my boss as a young child dreaming to someday work as a middle manager in a dreary office park mitigating risk for a faceless conglomerate.
Highly doubtful.
Every kid imagines growing up to somehow serve, inspire, or bring joy to others: Doctor, firefighter, astronaut, teacher, rock star….
Why? God implanted each of us with a seed of desire to make a bold difference on the planet. We are born with unlimited potential. And we are all connected, since God created all and is inside us all.
When we are children, we are innately in tune with our true identities at our soul level. Our confidence is yet to be limited because of other people’s limited thinking. We have high expectations for ourselves since others have not yet lowered their expectations of us due to perceived set-backs and failures.
The good news is it is never too late to recommit ourselves to living lives powered by the divine promise of infinite possibility wrapped in abundant love and joy. Our dreams do not come marked with a “best used by” date; they do not expire, even though sometimes our egos convince us to throw them away.
We need to continually remind ourselves that all things are possible in the mind of God. Not “all things are possible” with an asterisk instructing us to read any fine print conditions. Not all things are possible once you lose 30 pounds, or all things are possible once you have 50,000 Twitter followers, or all things are possible once you have the right job title or live in the right neighborhood.
No. All Things Are Possible. Period. Full stop.
All Things Are Possible. Feel this truth deep within you, in the seat of your soul. Live and breathe it until the light from this truth is as natural to you as walking and talking. Then everyone will see you shine.
Feel this truth while you move through the world, taking the action steps that will make your dreams real. Make and believe.
Know that wherever you are, you don’t need to settle, nor give into fear.
Instead, renew your commitment to your own greatness.
Then go set the world on fire.
Photo: Loving Earth/Flickr.com