If you're for everyone, you're for no-one

Today I realized that figuring out how to live fully and uniquely as myself is one of the best ways I can love myself.  

I've been going through a fascinating period of growth lately.  I'm spending more time thinking about what makes me, "Me".  What attributes, skills, perspectives and talents do I bring to a situation or relationship?  Of those, which allow me to feel in the flow and fully aligned?  Which ones feel most authentic?  What am I really passionate about? What makes me feel more alive rather than depleted?  

I arrived in this moment today by really listening to a few messages that have been circling me lately - from emails I'm getting, conversations I'm having with my boyfriend and opportunities that are coming across my path that require me to be only and exactly who I am.  

At first, I was uncomfortable.  For so long I have prioritized being "for everyone".  I have been interested in getting along with everyone; in being interested in everything; been prioritizing the idea that my work should be for everyone.  In doing so, I was diluting my Self and what I can offer.  It was hiding, in a way.  I was tucking it away, under the staircase of safety and comfort, waiting to see if there ever would come a time where someone else would unlock that little door and let me out.  

Today I realized I am the only one who can let me out.  No one else even knows I'm hiding down there. 

It's a wee bit daunting. Doing this will require me to trust and to be vulnerable and to embrace myself and whatever comes.  At first it felt like losing control, until I realized that I was actually gaining all of it.

The thing is, people want authenticity and connection.  They want real and vulnerable and amazing and beautiful and messy.  Me showing up fully will allow them to do the same and to love themselves as much as I love myself.  I owe it to all of you to do make this shift just as much as I owe it to the opportunity of my own life.  

I have no clue where this realization will lead me specifically except that I know for sure it'll involve amazing things and even more growth and awareness and love, which is the point of being alive.  Even writing this now I feel more excited.  I'll be focusing my energy on people and opportunities where I can show up fully and really contribute as best I possibly can.  I will be serving my clients and my loved ones better.  I will be loving myself and allowing myself to continue to discover and live into who I am fully.  

Isn't it interesting how at times the greatest lessons, the purest truth, and most amazing Reminders require us to unlearn what we have been told and conditioned around?  Is life then this incredible journey of forgetting in order to Remember in order to Re-learn? I think perhaps it is.