Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary

Trust30 for June 24th: http://ralphwaldoemerson.me/patti-digh

My task was:

We are our most potent at our most ordinary. And yet most of us discount our “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary. Or so we believe. But my ordinary is not yours. Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons with others (I’m not as good a writer as _____), false expectations of ourselves (I should be on the NYTimes best seller list or not write at all), and false investments in a story (it’s all been written before, I shouldn’t bother). What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments in a story? List them. Each keep you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary.

My answer:

Wow!  This one really hits the bullseye!

In Toastmasters alone, I know I have raised my internal bar for speeches so high that I paralyze myself into doing no speeches at all.