Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is not our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, and famous?
Acutally, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing elightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to magnify the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
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I love this quote! I think we have to be brave enough to allow ourselves to shine and along the same lines feel valuable enough to “allow” amazing and wonderful things to enter our lives.
I think it is important to have a morning mantra that loudly declares “I allow all the goodness of the universe to freely and abundantly flow into my life…and btw, thank you very much!!!”
If we’re afraid of our light we don’t “allow” it thereby depriving the universe (and eachother) of our full, beautiful, amazing selves.
Thanks for the inspiring quote!
Fantastic! What a great perspective. This is the kind of thing that needs repeating, and thanks for doing it! It’s unfortunate how frequently folks sell themselves short and then feel trapped by bills and perceived obligations but they don’t stop and ask, would it be worth changing my life to find a place where both my strengths and my passions are aligned? We need to get better at teaching folks how to find that place, but I think we’re starting to move that way.
Nice quote, but it’s misattributed. A quick search through that very speech on the ANC’s official web site confirms that the quotation isn’t there:
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela/1994/inaugct.htm
Nor does it appear in any other of his published speeches (searchable on the same web site).
I tracked this quote down. As it turns out, the author is Marianne Williamson, from her 1992 book, “Return to Love” (hardcover p. 165, paperback pp. 190-191).
Thanks John F,
I performed a search per your suggestion (of both the speech and the book), and it looks as though you discovered the real truth behind the speaker. Thanks for illuminating the proper source for such inspiring words. Being a wordsmith myself, it only feels right to provide the credit where it is due. Mandela is a phenomenal human being, but if he didn’t compose the paragraph, then the proper author would be respected. The title now reflects the appropriate source.
Greatest apologies to Marianne Williamson. Please consider this human error properly corrected.
-C. Biscuit
Truly inspirational! If only we have that perspective in life mentioned above there could be peace in our mind and we would live life to the fullest without fear.
“We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, and famous?
Acutally, who are you not to be?”
I’m really struck by this part, it’s motivating.
-Jan