The problem is, we think it’s us

I had a catchup call with one of my dearest friends, Cassanie this week. During that chat Cass said something which has been reverberating through me ever since. “I’ve stopped walking around acting like I’m responsible for my own creation,” is what she said.

It struck me, so I’m sharing it with you in case it touches you too. It reminded me of this piece I wrote a few weeks back…

The problem is, we think it’s us.

We believe we’re the ones creating, solving, serving. But that belief is the ego at work grasping for identity, finding value in doing, in achieving, in being seen as the one who made it happen.

The payoff? A fleeting, unsustainable sense of worth built on the scaffolding of outcomes.

And even for those of us committed to purpose, love, and service, the ego hides well. It slips in quietly, disguised as virtue. It tells us our existence means something because of the good we do.

And yet it is not us doing the doing. We are being done.

And far from this taking anything away from us, it is the greatest liberation - the homecoming of all homecomings.

For oh, the freedom when we remember. (Or perhaps more accurately, when we stop forgetting.)

If it is not I who is responsible for any greatness, beauty, or achievement that unfolds through me, then it is also not I who must carry myself alone through sickness, grief and loss.

What joy, what relief, to realise the responsibility for our lives has never rested on our weary shoulders alone.

Life’s sweet twist when we discover that until we surrender the idea that I am at the helm of my life, we are like people pushing a heavy wheelbarrow of ego uphill.

The invitation is simple, though not always easy:
to let go, and let go some more.

To pour ourselves out until we become clear enough vessels for inspiration to flow through us, knowing we are merely a conduit through which life can work.
To stay humble enough to recognise ideas not as our own brilliance, but as gifts. Directions for us to follow and act on.

Then those ideas that once felt too big, too hard, too complex no longer overwhelm us. We don’t need all the answers. We don’t need the perfect plan.

Ask, and it shall be given.

Perhaps then, the most important determinant of the success of any idea is how we relate to our role in its creation.

The ego says: “I am creating.”
The soul knows: there is no “I.”

And from every client interaction to the ideas we bring into the world, the outcomes are shaped by this choice - whether we see ourselves as the conductor, or simply one essential note in the orchestra.

Wishing you a blessed week x