Don’t Live Small || Another Lesson Learned from a Two Year Old

I love this quote—EVERY single word of it.

Like I talked about in a recent post, I got to spend several weeks in Utah between Thanksgiving and New Year’s helping Kam and Steven after Braden was born, and I also got to spend time with all of our kids and grandkids. It was a mom’s and grandma’s dream come true! I loved watching then 28 month old Tyson be Tyson.

• He was proud of every little thing he did.
• He didn’t give up when trying something new. He just kept trying. And he’s a pretty determined little guy.
• He’d look into my compact mirror and say, “Tyson bootiful.”
• He’d dance his little heart out.

• He’d sing at the top of his lungs—using one of my hairbrushes as a microphone—without a worry in the world as to whether or not he was on key or sounded good. I thought he sounded amazing, by the way. And oh, how I wish you could see the dance moves that go with these photos! #priceless

I loved his excitement in and his passion for what he was doing.

It got me to thinking…

• At what point in our lives do we stop being totally ourselves and start to worry about what those around us will think of us and what we’re doing?
• When do we lose—or stop believing in—that child-like notion of who we are and of our worth?
• Why do we shrink from who we’re meant to be and sell ourselves short?
• Why do we fear what we can do and become?
• Why do we live “small,” thinking that being who we’re meant to be might make others feel insecure?

I firmly believe—I KNOW, actually—that every one of us is a child of God with talents and a mission to fulfill in this life. And yes, I struggle just like a lot of people do to figure out how to navigate life to continually develop and use my talents to fulfill my mission.

I listened to a TED Talk by Mel Robbins while running several weeks ago, and something she said really hit me hard and made me think a lot. In fact, I loved this talk so much that I listened to it twice. Here’s what she said:

Scientists have crunched the numbers on you being born. And they took into account all of the wars, and the natural disasters, and the dinosaurs, and everything else. And do you realize that the odds, of [you] being born to the parents you were born to, with the DNA structure that you have, are one in four hundred trillion!…. All day long you have ideas that could change your life, that could change the world, that could change the way you feel, and what do you do with them? Nothing!

Each one of us, according to these scientists, are that 1 in four hundred trillion with so much to offer the world and those around us just because I’m me and you’re you!

So…

• What if we committed to shining—being ourselves, just like little kids do, no matter what anyone else thinks?
• What if we shared those ideas we continually have that are uniquely ours that could not only change our own lives, but the lives of so many others?
• What if we reminded ourselves regularly of just how amazing we are and that we have the potential to accomplish so much?
• What if we chose to let our lights shine as brightly and as largely as possible?

Think of how we could change not only our own lives, but the lives of those around us.

Don’t live small—live as large as possible!

And shine, shine, shine!