We are our most potent at our most ordinary.

We don’t always value what comes naturally or effortlessly. I am a brilliant cook! I love food and never strike out on choosing a good, if not great restaurant when the need arises. I gave up my career as a chef (some years ago) after achieving a distinction Diploma in Cookery for the Catering Industry and 3-4 years work experience in hotels and restaurants. I left to do something that was ‘more creative…’

False comparisons, I believe are in the realm of jealousy. It’s such a taboo emotion to admit to experiencing even though we all do. When I began working for myself in 2009, I compared myself to peers and people in the literature, self-dev and/ or teaching fields. This hurt me and hampered my progress. Marie Forleo has the perfect antidote, which I just have, to share, watch.

False expectations? I’m trying to remain grounded. Ambitious, confident and courageous, but grounded.

 False investments in a story? Not really. Okay… I have an inkling about my stories being concerned with those that I tell myself about the to do’s that have been on my list for a very, very long time. The gap in my internal knowing and my strongest offer to the world. 

Finally - good or bad, right or wrong do not exist. Only what works (for me) and what does not.

Thanks for taking a minute to read my response to the day 25 prompt:

Most Ordinary by Patti Digh

Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are our most potent at our most ordinary. And yet most of us discount our “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary. Or so we believe. But my ordinary is not yours. Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons with others (I’m not as good a writer as _____), false expectations of ourselves (I should be on the NYTimes best seller list or not write at all), and false investments in a story (it’s all been written before, I shouldn’t bother). What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments in a story? List them. Each keep you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary.

(Author: Patti Digh)

Namaste