"Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” -Mark Twain, 1835-1910, Humorist and Writer

Take a moment to think about who in your growing-up years encouraged you to be all you can be. If you were lucky, you had at least one person - a parent, relative, or teacher who truly saw you so that you could see yourself.

Many of us had the opposite. Our dreams and ambitions were belittled. We were told, "Who do you think you are?" "You're too big for your britches." "Don't bother trying - you're not smart enough." "You'll never make it." We were told that we were limited.

I was lucky in that my father always thought I could do anything I set my mind to. However, my mother was the opposite, never believing in me, always trying to get me to set my sights lower. Since she never went to college or worked, she was threatened by what I wanted to do with my life. In her mind, I should have just aimed to get married and have children and forget about going to college. I remember her saying to me when I was 18, "You'll be doing good if you finish two years of college. You don't really need more than that."

Fortunately, I listened to my father rather than my mother, using him as a role model, watching him never allow anything to stop him from being all he wanted to be. 

Who in your current life encourages you to be BIG?

Who encourages you to be all you came to this planet to be? Do you surround yourself with people who support your goals and dreams, or do you surround yourself with "small people who try to belittle your ambitions"?

We did not come to this planet to NOT express all that we are! We came here to fully manifest the love that we are and the gifts we have been given.

In order to do this, we all need someone who really sees us and believes in us; someone who isn’t threatened by our bigness, by our being great - someone who encourages us in the down times and celebrates us when we manifest our dreams. Someone who receives great joy in our being all we can be. 

You have the right to seek this kind of support

It’s part of the job of the loving adult to seek this support, and to avoid those who do not want you to be all you can be. You have the right to expect those who say they love you to support you in living your passions and dreams.

If you were brought up by parents who saw you and supported you in being big, you would likely be able to completely support yourself in fully manifesting your gifts. But few of us were brought up with two parents who fully supported us. While I'm fortunate that my father's voice is the loudest in me, sometimes my mother's voice comes in to keep me limited, and that's when I need the people who see me and love me to remind me that it’s okay for me to play big.

We all have greatness within us

We are all sparks of the Divine, here to fully manifest our greatness. And we all need others in our lives, who truly see us and love us, gently supporting us in our journey of fully manifesting ourselves.

I hope you find those wonderful people who can help you to be BIG!

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