You're Too Much
Have you ever felt that way? Or been told this "truth"?
We live in a culture that often makes us feel like we are either not enough, or too much. What does that even mean? OK, I can understand if you talk too much. Or show (way) too much skin at a business meeting. Or swear too much on a stage where your audience is diverse, and half of them can't hear you after that...
But when it's in the context of too much, as in too many ideas, that's just an opinion. Afterall, ideators have ideation as a superpower. Not only can they NOT shut down their flood of ideas, we (emotionally intelligent) don't want them too. Brainstorm with ideators in the room, and you will never have a shortage of fresh ideas.
You might be told as a person with the strength of positivity, that you are always too happy, too optimistic, even inside of bad news. Or you're too fake, because no one can be that positive, that much of the time, right?
My sister has been told that she loves too much. If I wasn't clear before how stupid that "too much" opinion is, I then really knew. Too much love? How can you love too much? I would love to double dog dare our culture to love TOO MUCH, for a week or a month, and see how it begins to change our social divides.
Sometimes, people in our country want to say you have too much money. Money is a resource. It's simply a representation that someone has figured out how to tap that resource. Like people who manage time well, or manage ideas well, or who have resources at their beckon call like people assets. Who are we to tell anyone, that any resource they have is too much? Is there a cap we are placing on one another? I think we all dislike caps, limitations set on us by others, and blanket statements.
And then there is the "not enough" message. You're not pretty enough. You're not young enough. You're not old enough. Rich enough. Influential enough. Charismatic enough. You don't have enough education. You don't speak well enough. You're not political enough. You're not in good enough shape. You're not smart enough. And so on...
There may be many opportunities that are outside of my strengths. I can accept that. But I have been told I wasn't enough for many thing in my life, and then I crushed it. I've also told myself I am not enough, far too many times.
Maybe it's when we accept the message someone else gives us, about being too much, or not enough, that enables those misconceptions to not only live, but gain momentum. That is truly us giving our power away.
If you are called to something, then do it. You can do your research, get grounded mentoring, then dip inside to your own intuition. And don't let feelings or the messages of not enoughness, from inside or outside of you, stop you.
"Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again." -James R. Cook
Sheli G CEO WomenIgniteInternational.com