You are not special. You were not put on this planet to engage in some extra special mission that will save all of us, forever.
You are not inherently better than or worse than others. You are extremely normal. You are incredibly average. And, in a very comforting and real way, we pretty much all are.
But our egos love to cling to our specialness.
And there are two main ways that these special thoughts rear their ugly heads.
Specialness shows itself in any thoughts that are about us being ‘better than’ or ‘less than’ others.
Maybe you consistently feel better than people in most areas of your life.
I’m smarter. I’m more successful. I’m funnier. I’m better looking. I have a more agile mind. I’m more creative. I’m harder working. Is this stupid event even worth my time? Because my time is valuable. Because, haven’t you heard, I’m an extra special person.
Or maybe you feel special in terms of how much worse you are than others.
I’m special in my brokenness. My pain is special. I am an especially shitty and shameful person. I am more evil than others. I am the devil incarnated. I deserve to be punished more than others. I have suffered more than others.
Whatever noise your ego-mind feeds you… you can always find a way to rank yourself as better or worse than others around you.
It’s important to name, that specialness is very different than uniqueness.
We are all inherently unique. We all have our own unique gifts to contribute to the world.
As my mentor P.T. Mistlberger often says, “We are all different colours of the spectrum… but we all came from white light. We are of the same source.”
So when you catch your mind ranking your uniqueness as better than or worse than the uniqueness of others, that’s when you’ve succumbed to the endless ramblings of your ego-mind.
First, acknowledge the special thoughts that you carry, share them with a trusted, non-shaming friend, laugh at them together, and then begin to let go of them.
Let go of the ranking system.
Celebrate yourself for who you actually are, and love others in the same manner.
If you want to find someone who you think is better than you, your mind will be able to find it. Conversely, if you want to find someone who is worse than you (by whatever metric you are tracking in that moment) you’ll be able to find that too.
It’s an endless game, and it’s a game that no one can ever win.
So…
Just let go.
Stop playing it altogether, and get on with the business of fully engaging with life as you are.
