Inadequacy vs. powerful

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heretostay

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What do you all think of this quote by Nelson Mandela:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”

I disagree with it. I feel inadequate. plain and simple. I wrote that on some enlightenment board and this is a response i got from Howard:

"The idea is that the feeling of inadequacy is the protection against the unlimited power you have within you to create. The real fear is "Who will I be without my story of inadequacy?" You would be someone who goes right into action to create your dreams. You would become an entirely new version of yourself. So the real fear is in that undefined, unbounded idea of who you can become. The unknown. However, once you realize that there is nothing to fear and nothing to lose, life magically changes!"

Howard says that if we realized our feelings of inadequacy are just a story we tell ourselves for protection against our unlimited power, then we'll create our dreams. at least, that was my take on his response. but i dunno. arent there some people who cant attain their dreams because of inadequacy's? that's how i feel about it anyway. what do you all think?
 
For some reason this thread makes me think of this song:

[youtube]zzhgfy5N9_M[/youtube]

And in serious response to this thread i think this only applies to people who are actively suppressing their uniqueness for fear of being different than others. For example, say someone had a really IQ, but they acted dumb. Or, someone was really tall but they did everything they could to hide it. Now that THAT is limiting yourself. I dont understand why some people think everyone is masquerading as an ugly duckling to supress that they are a swan.

Maybe they just want everyone to feel loved and valued. We arent neccesarily suppressing ourselves but blocking ourselves off from feeling as though we are worthy of other's love/respect and that's where inadequacy comes from....
 
hmm that's interesting, but I kinda doubt that

If I really had that much power i could have finisged Algebra 2 without out a D-
 
Haha ya know, I really sort of agree with that. I think that every single person is capable of amazing feats and accomplishments...but they settle for what's "comfortable" instead of ballsing up and just going for it. I think it IS fair to say that most people are afraid of unbottling their full abilities.

One of my favorite mottos comes from the British SAS, "Who Dares Wins." If you just DARE to TRY, you're better off (even if you fail) than those who never tried at all. I see too many guys who just settle for a 3rd shift at a crappy factory, stumble home, get drunk, and pass out until work the next day. No change, no variation or extraneous activities...just the same thing day in, day out...because it's comfortable. It's not stepping up and out and putting yourself in harm's way. No risk.

I believe that everyone has an idea, everyone can contribute so much to the world...but they don't because they're afraid to just try. What makes it worse is that these days society tells us to behave and settle down. Look back into history and you'll see that the important people who moved the world forward were always rebels and innovators. Teddy Roosevelt, M.L.K. Jr., Gen. D. MacArthur, Col. Beckwith, John Adams, the list goes on....They dared, when we settle for the mundane--the routine. *shrug*

So I guess I'm in Mandela's camp on this issue.

----Steve
 

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