We tend to think of things in the big picture, the large chunks, and ignore or negate the small things that make up the big picture. Like the fact that it can take 10,000 hours to become a master of something. That you didn’t start as a virtuoso, an expert, a part of a community, or the vital part of the team over night. You grew into it, built up to it, enjoyed the crap out of doing this/that/the other and therefore became excellent at it even if it seems like an irrelevant thing.
So we look at things such as trusting ourselves, listening to our intuition, following our dreams, doing what we know is best in the big picture and we feel overwhelmed by our failure to have done so in the past and the mountain that we need to climb in order to do them now. And we struggle and we collapse and we panic and we give up, because it’s too much for one person to do and we’re human and….
The thing is, taking on huge projects like this, foundational, root of the soul things such as this, isn’t something that happens very often and is rarely successful. They are the stuff of legends and stories and movies about underdogs for just that reason. We love to watch the hero do their hero thing because they are extraordinary. Because they do what we cannot and yet make us feel that we can strive in that direction. They give us permission to fail because real people can’t do what they do.
Which is fine and I’m all about the hero movies and seeing my life in its small perspective. But instead of looking at things in the large scale heroic format, it is usually more effective is we look at things on the small scale. Bring things back down to a human level. Instead of, from today onwards, always trusting yourself, why not validate yourself? Why not validate one thing you did well today? One way in which you listened to yourself? One time that you acted on what you knew, instinctively or otherwise? Validate that one small moment, that one response, that “one hour” that you put into being truly you. One hour might not seem like much, but add another and another, add one small moment today with another one or two tomorrow, and before you know it you have validated yourself into trusting yourself. And who knows what could come next? Dreams becoming reality? The sky’s the limit.