3162: What If My Small Dreams Are My Greatness by Genevieve V. Georget with A Life In Progress

[00:00:01] This episode is brought to you by FX's The Vale starring Elizabeth Moss.

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[00:00:21] FX's The Vale premieres April 30th only on Hulu.

[00:00:28] This is Optimal Living Daily, Episode 3162.

[00:00:32] What if my small dreams are my greatness?

[00:00:35] By Genevieve V. Georgia with alifeinprogress.ca

[00:00:39] And I'm Justin Malik reading to you every day of the year.

[00:00:42] And with that, let's continue the journey as we optimize your life.

[00:00:50] What if my small dreams are my greatness?

[00:00:53] By Genevieve V. Georgia with alifeinprogress.ca

[00:00:58] Your dreams aren't big enough.

[00:01:01] Those were the words.

[00:01:03] Those were the words that came at me from across the couch and shattered my heart.

[00:01:07] I was in another country at the time, in another time zone, in what felt like another universe.

[00:01:13] I had stepped outside the comfort zone of my quaint little neighborhood in suburban Ottawa

[00:01:18] and bought a last minute ticket to attend a creativity conference 4,500 kilometers away.

[00:01:25] Upon landing, I somehow found myself sitting in a room full of people who were building

[00:01:30] orphanages in Africa and saving homeless women from inner-city streets.

[00:01:34] People who were creating clothing lines and human rights policies.

[00:01:38] People who were dream chasers and game changers.

[00:01:41] People who were brilliant and driven.

[00:01:43] People who were changing the world.

[00:01:46] And then there was me.

[00:01:48] I was sitting in the midst of a very vulnerable time in my life.

[00:01:52] I just had two children in less than two years and motherhood was tugging at my deepest

[00:01:56] insecurities.

[00:01:58] While trying to be a good parent, wife and friend, I was also just beginning to understand

[00:02:03] where the world left off and I finally began.

[00:02:07] On top of this, I was trying to build a photography business from my dining room table

[00:02:11] with a kit lens and a bare bones website.

[00:02:14] I wasn't helping the needy.

[00:02:16] I wasn't rescuing the loss.

[00:02:18] I wasn't changing the world.

[00:02:20] I was just trying to build something, to create something, to learn something.

[00:02:25] Through my family, through my work, through art.

[00:02:28] And that had always been enough for me.

[00:02:30] Enough to light my soul with fire.

[00:02:33] Enough to fill my heart with inspiration.

[00:02:35] Enough to stir my spirit with purpose.

[00:02:38] Until 24 hours later, I found myself sitting on a couch in the middle of a hotel courtyard

[00:02:43] completely surrounded by people again.

[00:02:46] People ordering drinks from the bar.

[00:02:48] People sharing stories from their hometown.

[00:02:50] People making plans.

[00:02:52] And yet again, there was me.

[00:02:55] What if my dreams aren't big enough?

[00:02:58] I felt lost.

[00:02:59] I felt discouraged.

[00:03:00] I felt very much in the wrong place.

[00:03:03] As an anxiety started to tighten in my chest, one of the organizers sat down next to me and gently asked,

[00:03:10] So how are you finding the conference so far?

[00:03:13] To be completely honest, I wasn't really sure how to respond.

[00:03:17] Um, well, I cautiously responded.

[00:03:20] I don't really feel like there's room for me here.

[00:03:23] My calling just feels so different.

[00:03:26] My dreams just feel so much closer to home.

[00:03:29] The problem, she replied, is that your dreams just aren't big enough.

[00:03:33] You don't want enough greatness for yourself.

[00:03:35] You should stop being so small.

[00:03:38] And with that, she simply stood up and walked away.

[00:03:41] I let her words wash over me, and then I slowly felt them enter through my pores.

[00:03:46] I hardly said a word for the remainder of the conference, and two days later,

[00:03:50] I went home devastated.

[00:03:53] And I stayed devastated for nearly a year, broken, confused,

[00:03:58] shattered by the impact of her words.

[00:04:00] In her defense, it wasn't her job to become my defining moment moving forward.

[00:04:05] It wasn't her job to set my course or to move my mountains.

[00:04:09] It wasn't her job to make me or break me.

[00:04:11] But the thing about our inner voice, especially in seasons of great vulnerability

[00:04:16] and seasons of great transition,

[00:04:18] is that it tends to ask a very specific question in response to uncertainty.

[00:04:23] What if they're right?

[00:04:25] And that's what happened to me in that moment and for the year that followed.

[00:04:29] All I could ask was, what if my dreams aren't big enough?

[00:04:33] What if I don't want enough greatness for myself?

[00:04:36] What if I am being small?

[00:04:38] What if she's right?

[00:04:40] And I let these doubts and these fears battle it out inside of me

[00:04:43] like demons wrestling in the night.

[00:04:45] They scratched and they clawed and they ripped me to pieces until one day

[00:04:49] I learned the most valuable thing I've ever learned about the road to self-acceptance.

[00:04:54] Ask your own important questions.

[00:04:57] What if my small dreams are my greatness?

[00:05:01] And that's where it happened.

[00:05:02] That's where the beauty began to rise, not in someone else's questions, but in my own.

[00:05:08] What if those dreams of mine are my greatness?

[00:05:11] What if the small things are the big things?

[00:05:14] What if my pursuit of raising strong children and being a great wife and documenting tiny moments

[00:05:19] can change the world?

[00:05:21] By the simple nature that doing so changes me.

[00:05:24] And does that make my dreams any smaller than someone else's?

[00:05:27] Does it make my greatness many less?

[00:05:30] The truth is that the world benefits from our happiness, it benefits from our wholeness.

[00:05:35] It benefits from us digging deep to become the best version of ourselves.

[00:05:40] For some that may be in the monumental acts that are defined as significant.

[00:05:44] For others though, it may be in the tiny details that may never seem like they are big enough.

[00:05:50] But what I learned sitting on that couch so many years ago and throughout the many days

[00:05:54] that followed is this.

[00:05:56] A life filled with runny noses and carpools and supportive phone calls to friends and piles

[00:06:02] of dishes.

[00:06:04] That too is holy ground.

[00:06:07] That path you're walking regardless of how insignificant it may seem is sacred because it's

[00:06:13] yours.

[00:06:14] And your life and your actions and your steps forward touch everyone else's.

[00:06:20] Our greatness isn't in the size of what we do, our greatness is in how we do it.

[00:06:26] It's in how we treat others when we do it.

[00:06:29] It's in how we see ourselves when we're doing it.

[00:06:31] It's in the breasts we take, in the grace we give, and the love we create.

[00:06:37] My dreams are big enough, and your dreams are big enough.

[00:06:41] Not because the strangers says they are, not because the world says they are,

[00:06:45] but because you say they are.

[00:06:48] And that my friends is pure greatness.

[00:06:56] You just listened to the post titled, What if My Small Dreams Are My Greatness?

[00:07:01] By Genevieve V. Georgeette with AlifeInProgress.ca and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:08:08] These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

[00:08:11] This product is not limited to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

[00:08:17] Thank you to Genevieve, a guest writer on Krista's site,

[00:08:20] A Life in Progress.

[00:08:21] Genevieve is a photographer, as you heard in this post,

[00:08:24] and also the author of a couple of books, Solace, a Journal of Human Experience,

[00:08:30] and Her Own Wild Winds.

[00:08:32] You can find those at gengeorgette.com.

[00:08:35] So do come by her site to show your support.

[00:08:38] I don't know about you, but I actually thought that

[00:08:40] her story of going to the conference and speaking to one of the organizers

[00:08:45] was going to be inspiring, but it turned out to be the opposite.

[00:08:50] But anyway, it's a good message.

[00:08:51] We might not think we're doing enough,

[00:08:54] especially when we're seeing what everyone else is doing,

[00:08:57] like on social media all the time,

[00:09:00] where they're curating their lives and making it look perfect,

[00:09:04] are messy, and what feels like mundane lives might not feel like it's matching up to theirs.

[00:09:11] But I'm positive that something you've done could be seen as great by someone else.

[00:09:18] Really something to remember this weekend.

[00:09:21] And with that, have a great weekend.

[00:09:22] Thank you for being here and listening every day.

[00:09:25] That's a great step in itself,

[00:09:27] and it's great to me because you're keeping me going every day.

[00:09:30] So thank you again for that,

[00:09:32] and I'll see you tomorrow as usual,

[00:09:34] where your optimal life awaits.