Elijah O'Donnell

This Is What Happens When You Play Small in Life

You’re ambitious.

You want to do big things, make a great impact, and help others. But you’re scared. You’re terrified of the next steps. You’re scared of putting yourself out there declaring the things that you want.

You feel that you don’t deserve it.

You feel that you’re not worthy of it.

But it’s not true. You are worthy of the things you want to do—whether that has to do with money, career, impact, or whatever else your heart desires. It’s your birthright to have all the things you want.

It’s what you came here to do.

When you play small, you get small results. It manifests in your life. You might get small money here and there. Or you get one or two clients. Or you even get a “good enough” job.

All because you haven’t really declared what you want in life.

And the universe is funny that way. It’ll give you exactly what you’re asking for. And I’m not talking about asking things half-assed, like, “I think I want this.” It has to come from a place, “I want this. I am worthy of this experience.” Or whatever else you’re thinking of.

When you play small, you don’t get the big results that you want. And you also get frustrated. You take it out on the people around you. You get upset or maybe even confused more often than usual.

When you play small, you lack self-belief. So you don’t trust yourself to take the leap—the leap that you need to get to where you want to go.

When you play small, it manifests in your day-to-day life because you’re sending the universe the message that you want small things.

If you want to make the impact that you desire, you have to start thinking big. You also have to start doing big things, whether that’s saying no to things you don’t care about or don’t want to do or saying no different opportunities that come your way, but you know that it’s not going to move the big needle forward.

If you want to have the big results you want in your life, you have to define your big actions. They’re going to be scary actions, but they’re the actions that will get you the big results. You’re going to feel excitement, overwhelm, and fear, but those emotions are what you want.

When you take big actions, you don’t know where it’ll take you. But you know that the risk and the uncertainty is what will make things worth it.

Because that’s one of your superpowers—embracing the unknown.

The people around you won’t get it. They won’t understand what you desire because you crave something bigger.

And with that comes the fact that you have to make big, scary, but exciting decisions.