Never doubt your own greatness!

I had a dream! No really, I had a dream . . . a while back, and I knew it would make a great premise for a book so I started it a couple of months ago, but only wrote twenty pages. I got involved in my edits and just didn't get back to it.

Today, I thought it might be fun to use it as my critique group submission for this week, so I went through it just to tighten and fix little mistakes here and there and dang! It was really good! I was so surprised. I read through it shocked that I had written it. My automatic first thought was, "How will I ever finish this and make the rest as great as the first twenty pages?"

Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever gone back over something you'd written, composed or made, amazed that it actually came out of your brain? Did you ever doubt your ability to continue without screwing it up? Isn't it strange how we constantly amaze ourselves with our own brilliance? And the thing is, we are all brilliant in our own special way.

It may not be writing for you. It may be music or art or the gift of public speaking. Or maybe you can look at a car motor and know just what to do to fix it. Maybe you can look at a yard and know just how to landscape it to make it beautiful. We all have amazing gifts and sometimes, when we use and develop them, we look back and feel shocked that WE were the one who did it. I love that feeling. Here is a quote that describes perfectly what I mean...

‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves – who are we to be brilliant, beautiful, talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?

You are a child of God, small games do not work in this world. For those around us to feel peace, it is not example to make ourselves small. We were born to express the glory of god that lives in us. It is not in some of us, it is in all of us. While we allow our light to shine, we unconsciously give permission for others to do the same. When we liberate ourselves from our own fears, simply our presence may liberate others.’

- Marianne Williamson in Return to Love: Reflections on a Course in Miracles quoted by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech