Afraid of Me

We often think that our biggest challenge is tangible. Money, connections, location barriers, and relationships. We can come up with one million excuses..."if only I had this" or "if only I knew this person." But what do you have in your hands now? I
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"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Who are YOU not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest 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."
~ Marianne Williamson

This is one of my absolute favorite quotes. Who are you? Answer these questions: Are you smart enough to speak to the CEO of a company? Do you have anything to offer to the world based on your experiences? Are you "good" enough to be in the room with the president? Are you entrepreneurial enough to turn $1 into $5 in a day? Would people believe in you enough to give you two minutes of their time?

If you answered yes to all of the questions above, I have one more for you to answer: Are you jumping the cliff, pushing past fear, and living to your fullest potential now?

I want to encourage you today to answer yes to those questions.

We often think that our biggest challenge is tangible. Money, connections, location barriers, and relationships. We can come up with one million excuses..."if only I had this" or "if only I knew this person." But what do you have in your hands now? In your hands you have courage, confidence, the ability to ask questions, and the ability to keep people's attention for a couple of minutes, which is all it takes. After all, why do you think commercials are only 30 seconds? There is so much potential within you, why are you not living your best life right now? Why haven't you called the CEO? Why haven't you turned a dollar into five dollars, five dollars into twenty dollars, or 20 dollars into 100 dollars and so on?

Have you ever experienced a time where you decided to jump the cliff and just go for it (your goals)? You probably remember the feeling of being surprised at how everything turned out. But why? We look back at our brave souls with a smile, simply reminiscing about the time we put aside our fears and accomplished our goal. We talk about it because these moments give us the inspiration and motivation when trying to inspires others. But why aren't we living this life every day?

I believe that subconsciously we become afraid of that brave person, waking up to that thought. You may have the tendency of scaring the crap out of yourselves. What would our lives look like if our brave selves showed up every day? That person who we've put on a pedestal is all of us, yet how can we be so afraid of that person being unveiled.

Why are you afraid to unleash your brave self?

That moment in our lives, when we stepped out of the fear and our comfort zone, we didn't care about the unknown. We walked on water. We walked in the dark and something gave us the courage to do so. Most likely our backs were against the wall at that point and we had no choice. Now our enemy named "comfort", has made it difficult for the brave you to step forward and be free. Life is now comfortable, the brave you is now out of sight, and so we keep it moving. Forgetting the potential to be brave again, for now we wear fear comfortably.

Let's not be afraid of us--of our courage. Take the brave you out of the equation today and for one week live it. Then another week. Until a week becomes a month and a month becomes a year. You can do this--we can do this and NO we are not afraid.

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Brandice Daniel has worked as a business consultant for the Harlem Business Alliance as well as conducted multiple speaking engagements throughout New York. She has been featured in New York Times, Essence.com, NY Daily News, NBC NY, Huffington Post, and BET 106 and Park for her work with Harlem's Fashion Row. She is now accepting registration for her new workshop, "The Cliff Jump," an interactive workshop that turns ideas into businesses with a hands on approach. Her next workshop will take place Saturday May 31, 2014.

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