The Slinky. Post It Notes. Cornflakes.
What do all of these things have in common?
Richard James, the inventor of The Slinky, initially created the now famous toy as a stabilizer for ship equipment. When he knocked it off a shelf on accident, he watched it do its famous Slinky walk, and the toy that has brought joy to millions of people of all ages was born.
Many of the greatest creations we have in the world today often come from seemingly unrelated ideas or projects that have gone slightly awry.
What if the same was true for your life?
What if everything you would call a failure is actually a springboard into possibility? What if all the things that you’ve been told were wrong about you were actually what makes you strong?
When I was in grade school, my report cards always came back with something along the lines of “Paula is very intelligent and easy to be around, but she talks too much in class.”
Fast forward to adulthood and I have multiple business that require me to engage with the public, including conversing with strangers with a level of warmth and ease. In fact, the feedback I often get from my clients is that they feel so comfortable around me and love that they can be themselves.
What if I had taken that projection about being “too talkative” and cut off that skill at a young age? What if I bought that wrongness as just that, a wrongness, and stopped engaging with the world around me? I’d have less joy, less fun and certainly less money.
What’s the thing that you’ve been made wrong for that if you didn’t actually buy it as a wrongness would catapult you into the life, business and living that you truly desire and know is possible? At the foundation of happiness and success is you acknowledging you. Two of my favorite questions that got me out of the wrongness of me and into acknowledging my brilliance are:
What is great about me that I have never acknowledged?
What have I been refusing to acknowledge about me that if I acknowledged it would create my life as far more ease filled and joyful?
Asking these questions daily is a practice in self-acknowledgement.
Start by writing down the things that come easy to you. The things that you often dismiss because you can do them with your eyes closed, an arm tied behind your back and standing on one foot. All at the same time!
What if, just like the Slinky, that difference that is uniquely you, is the key to not only your happiness and success, but an absolute invitation to the world around you?
Will you acknowledge how brilliant you are?