Below is an excerpt from Human Stuff by Lisa Olivera’s latest blog post. I loved it! And I think you will too.

My arms are around you all, readers!

Have a good week.

Love, Vicki

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Not the best

On not needing to be the best at anything

(Excerpt)

If being the best, being unique, and being ranked as superior are the only things that make creating worth our time, we’re putting ourselves in quite a bleak bind, because those things often won’t be the case. Yet when we choose to show up for our work, our art, our callings, our passions, our creations, and our gifts anyway, we put more goodness in the world. We put more beauty in the world. We put more meaning in the world. We put more connection in the world. We put more hope in the world. We put more humanity in the world. And that matters, whether or not it’s one of a kind. That matters, whether or not it’s the best. That matters, whether or not it fits into some hierarchy we never even opted into.

We’ve been so conditioned to view what we do in comparison to others, to rank it and place it into a better or worse category, to find its value not in how it makes us and others feel, but in how individually unique and superior it is. We’ve been conditioned to think there’s only room for a select few so we must be the best — to see others as competition instead of companions — to dismiss our gifts if they don’t meet some externally-based standard — to view outcome as more important than the process of creating itself. We’ve been conditioned to think in terms of productivity and winning, of constant growth and surpassing, of individual success and social status. It’s no wonder we constantly question what we’re creating, sharing, and doing.

We easily forget that what we create is part of a web — part of something bigger — part of a huge tapestry of others sharing themselves and their work in the ways only they can, right alongside us. And when we choose to show up for our work, we add to the web in a way that makes life more full, more rich, more beautiful. We place our piece in the tapestry in a way only we can, which enhances the whole of it. We add our voice to a collective choir who may all be saying the same thing, but how much sweeter is it when there’s a whole room of it, a whole stadium, a whole world?

Since starting this newsletter, I’ve been focusing less on trying to make it something totally unique and amazing, and instead on making it something heartfelt and true, real and honest, aligned and fully me. I’ve been focused on making it a spiritual practice, a way of showing up for my writing consistently with devotion, and a way of honoring what I have to say. And only I can do that, so it is inherently enough — even when it isn’t for everyone. Even when it isn’t perfect. Even when it isn’t one of a kind, or the best. It matters. It is important. And it is worth sharing. I may forget this sometimes because hello, I am only human — yet orienting toward my work in this way has been a gift.

Some reminders for your creative heart:

• What you make, share, create, and do doesn’t need to be extraordinary for it to matter.
• What you have to say doesn’t need to be mind-blowing for it to be needed.
• What you want to offer the world doesn’t need to be original or the first of its kind.
• What you create doesn’t need to be the best.
• What you have to put out into the world doesn’t always need to be profound.
• You infusing yourself into whatever you do is enough.
• You choosing to show up to the work you’re called to create is enough.
• You being willing to put yourself out there without knowing the outcome is enough.
• Your desire and longing to do it is enough.
• Your own pleasure, fulfillment, and joy from doing it is enough.
• Your inner nudge to do it is enough.

You don’t need to be the best at anything for the thing to matter, to be needed and desired and enough. You don’t need to get first place or win an award or be publicly recognized for it to count. You don’t need to become famous or gain a following or get your name on some list in order for what you create to be complete magic, for no other reason than it coming from you. You don’t need to make a huge impact or touch millions of lives for whatever you put in the world to be enough. You don’t need to reach any goals or finish lines, make it big or make the most money, have the grandest life or the widest reach for anything you do to be so undeniably worth doing.

• May we let our creations, our work, and ourselves be the gift.
• May we trust what we have to say matters.
• May we let a desire to do what we do be proof of its belonging.
• May we listen to our inner nudges and allow them to point us toward our next creations, our next shares, our next experiences.
• And may we know there is room for all of us to share ourselves in the ways only we can, in the form only our souls can shape, in all the ways we seek to.