why-pretend-to-be-great-when-you-really-are

Why Pretend To Be Great When You Really Are

One of my favorite movies of all times is Pretty Woman with Richard Gere (Edward) and Julia Roberts (Vivian). It’s an amazing story of how good things can come from unideal situations, and despite your past you can still live the life that you once imagined.  I have several favorite moments in the movie, but the one that I identified the most with while writing this post is the scene when Vivian is telling Edward about her upbringing. She’s sharing the hopes and dreams that she once had before becoming a prostitute.  And he says to her “you can be so much more.” And she replied “the bad stuff is easier to believe.”

Has that ever happened to you? 

Have you had someone see something in you that you didn’t see in yourself? 

And even if you did see it, there was something limiting your ability to fully believe it? 

It’s happened to me on more than one occasion, and every single time I find myself thinking why didn’t I see that in myself.  I mean, deep on the inside I believed that I would do great thing, but I had a hard time convincing my mind to align with my heart. 

Years of playing small and doubting myself lead to me being frustrated. One day I did it. I began believing the best about myself.  I declared that I would stop self-sabotage, negative self-talk, and self-doubt.  I began eliminating negative people, and circumstances from my life.  More importantly, I began truly believing what God’s word said about me. 

That’s when things started changing in my life. I was able to see the greatness that was intended for me. I have been able to live my dreams out loud.  That’s the beauty of greatness, it is determined by you.  As moms, we have different ideas of what it means to be great.  The same goes with being a wife or a woman for that matter.  However, there are a few common threads between great people, no matter how you define your greatness. 

 

Being Great Means Taking Responsibility.

Taking responsibility for your actions – what you do and how you feel is significantly important to being great.   Don’t make excuses and blame others for where you are or what you believe about yourself. We have all experienced our own degree of let downs, set ups and pitfalls.  While some of those experiences made be tied to other people, you are the only one that can truly allow those things to impact your success, your greatness. 

For me, taking responsibility meant changing what I believed about myself.  I had to take responsibility and acknowledge that I was holding myself back, based on how I saw myself.  Jim Collins once said, “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.” When we believe that we are great, our actions and behaviors model it. 

Greatness-is-not-a-function-of-circumstance.-Greatness-is-largely-a-matter-of-conscious-choice,-and-discipline.

 

Being Great Means Setting Goals.

Setting positive, attainable goals helps you to see your gradual growth and leads to a feeling of accomplishment and greatness.  Realistic goal setting increases your chances of achieving them.  I’m not saying they should be “easily” attained, but you certainly want to feel that you have a chance of success. 

Goal setting was harder for me than taking responsibility.  I knew that I wanted to change, and live out my life’s purpose.  The hard part was putting the plan in place to do it that would fit into my overcrowded schedule.  As a mompreneur, juggling my home, my business, and my personal life made it extremely difficult to stick to the goals that I set.  Pressing through and clearing things out, simplifying my life was worth it.

set-goals

 

Being Great Means Being Fearless

Fear is a distraction and deterrent.  It will hinder your progress and keep you complacent and stagnate.  The word fearless means to be bold, brave and without fear.   It means to possess and display courage.   I’ve struggled with fear most of my life, I made it a goal for 2017 to live fearless.  What I’ve found thus far is, most of the things that I was once afraid of is really nothing at all.  I agree with Les Brown, fear truly is False Evidence Appearing Real.

fearless

Deciding to be great takes courage, but you possess the greatness inside. It’s there, you must acknowledge it and live it out. I mean you are already mom right? Why not be an extraordinary mom?  It’ll take a little effort, but it’s worth it.  You have it, you need to put yourself in position to become all that you were destined to be. 

Have you been slighting yourself? Are you not showing up great in all areas of your life? Benjamin Disraeli said, “life is too short to be small.”  Are you tired of playing small? Share ways that you can accept your greatness and live it out.  

[latoyia]

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16 Comments

  1. I love this so much and really needed to hear this reminder today. We are all capable of so much greatness.

  2. We all need this kind of reminder. It’s nice to let out your greatness so that you can achiever your goals in life with confidence.

  3. What great motivation. I love that movie as well and it does show that life doesn’t always give you lemons but can be so much brighter than we ever imagined. Thank you

  4. This post reminds me of a quote I read quite a while back that says, “Why try to fit in when you were born to stand out?” Many times we hide our true self just so we can fit into the norm of things. We must all get out of our shell and do great things – which are actually ordinary things that make others feel great.

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