There is no greater waste in the world than the difference between who we are and who we could be. Ironically, this was my senior quote in my high school yearbook.
And this idea has always stuck with me-on my own journey, and especially now as someone who is helping people grapple with and move toward their best selves.
My transition from the corporate world to becoming a therapist brought up so much for me around human potential and our need to expand toward our greatest selves in a world that often tries to keep us small and asleep.
What complicates this even more is that we are wired for comfort and safety.
As soon as we wake up in the morning, we have our inner critic to remind us that we have the option to hit snooze, sleep in, and stay comfortable.
Hopefully, we also have another inner voice that whispers get up, show up, and make the choice that our greatest self would make. The wise voice that tells us that the universe needs us to show up-that we need to move our body in a way that connects us to ourselves, do meaningful work, develop skills, tend to our family, and protect our time.
This is the voice that expands us toward the greatest version of ourselves.
But what happens when we have obstacles in our way that require us to work within a system that benefits from keeping us small? Or we deal with people who require us to perform a version of ourselves that feels small, fake, or performative.
This is when we have to quiet the external noise and start asking ourselves the deeper question of whether or not the system or person is moving us toward expansion or contraction.
Some questions we might ask ourselves…Do we like the person we are within this system? Do we feel connected to and seen by the people that surround us?
Once we start asking these deeper questions, we can move toward a life that feels more meaningful and aligned with our values-those we inherit that resonate with us, and those we develop on our own.