Our biggest fear

"Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate

Our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure

It is our light, not our darkness that scares us the most.

We ask ourselves,

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God

Your playing small doesn't serve the world

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that

other people won't feel insecure around you.

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."

Nelson Mandela

1994 Inaugural speech