One thing that you might hear a lot these days in the spiritual community is the idea of “playing small” and all these ideas of what to do to stop go big.  There is something about this whole playing small thing that I feel compelled to explore because I often find myself wondering “Who’s making the judgement of how small is small and how big am I supposed to go?”  Basically, what’s the measure of small or big and what does this all really mean?

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
Nelson Mandela

I love this quote from Nelson Mandela because it brings up the finer point to the issue of playing small.  Are you living a life “less than the one you are capable of”?

YOU…yes you and your life, not the life of someone else.  Are you living the life that you are capable of?

Taking this from a bit of a Soul Biz perspective, we see this a lot in the coaching industry and especially when we’re dealing with business coaches who coach other entrepreneurs.  In my personal experiences this has shown up as: “If you’re not making 6 figures a month you’re a ‘C level player’ so you need to ‘stop playing small’ and go big!  Once you’re making 6 or even 7 figures a month and reading thousands of people you’ll be playing big like you should.”

This is something a coach said to me about my own business and it struck a huge cord with me.  Just because this person feels that how much money someone make denotes the capacity they are living up to and how big they are playing or how successful they are, then that’s fine.  That’s them.  That doesn’t have to be me, or you!

 

What more are you capable of in your life?

Where do you hold back and how can you live more authentically and more as your true self?  That’s what I consider to be playing big as opposed to playing small.  It’s not measured in how much money you make, how many clients you have, or even how famous {or, maybe more to the point, internet famous} you may be.  It’s about knowing that you are really doing all you can and living as authentically as you can.

 

Playing Small or Playing Big?  You decide!

• What is my real purpose?  Yes this is a big questions that has it’s own big list of questions to dig into but for starters just ask yourself what your purpose is, right now in your life, and how clear are you about that.
• How am I living my purpose? What are you really doing to be in alignment with your purpose and how do you make it a part of your daily life?  If you don’t make it part of your daily life, you’re playing small.
• Am I living passionately?  Do you really make sure that what matters in your life plays a big role in your daily life?  Do you find ways to live your passion?  No?  Then you’re playing small.
• Do I take action on the things that matter to me?  If you really want to follow your passions or stand up for something in your life, are you doing it? Are you taking action in some way every day to do that? If not, you guessed it.  You’re playing small.
• Are you getting out of your comfort zone in pursuit of your passions and purpose?  Do you allow yourself to try new things, explore new spaces and techniques, and to take new opportunities that pull you out of your normal zone?  When you don’t, you make the choice to play small.
• Do you truly believe in yourself, your passions and purpose?  Do you feel like you really believe in what you’re after or are you allow other people to decide what you should be doing and pursuing in your life?  If you really believe in yourself and you are in complete alignment with your purpose, when it authentically comes from the heart and your spirit, you’re playing huge!

At the end it comes down to simply asking yourself: What more could I be doing with this?  What am I not doing that I could be?

Playing small means holding your gifts within rather than sharing them with the world.  How you share and to how many people you share it with doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you’re sharing it to begin with.

Playing big isn’t about making a lot of money.  It’s not about being well known or being the biggest and loudest in the crowd.  It is about owing your accomplishments, living with passion, and following your purpose.  Whether you’re sharing those things with 10 people or 10,000 people isn’t the measure of big or small, it’s the authenticity and impact you make that matters most.

[Tweet “It’s not whether you play big or small but how passionate you are about your game.”]

I honor you for playing authentically, big, small, or otherwise!