What If You've Been Wrong About How Small You Are?
Welcome back to your Peak of the Week, where we explore what it means to live aligned, lead authentically, and build a life that feels as good as it looks.
This Week →
Why the belief that kept you safe is now keeping you stuck
How to recognize when you’re deflating your own contributions (and what it’s costing you)
Three ways to question your smallness and step into what’s already true about you
Read Time < 3 minutes
Sometimes we mistake hiding for humility.
What I'm Noticing
Have you ever done this?
You share an idea in a meeting—something you've been thinking about, something that could really make a difference in how your team operates. And the second you finish talking, you hear yourself add: "I mean, it's probably nothing. I'm sure someone else has thought of this already."
You just deflated your own contribution before anyone else could even respond.
Or maybe it looks like apologizing before sharing your perspective (why do we do this????). You downplay your influence. You sit on a solution and wait for someone else to say it first.
We've become so practiced at making ourselves small that we no longer even notice we're doing it.
I spent decades doing the same thing. Even when I was generating close to $900K in revenue, I kept waiting for someone to figure out I didn't actually belong there. I had built a 15,000-person network, but I still didn't think it was that big of a deal. Part of me worried I was a fraud—like if people could see how I really was, they'd know I didn't deserve to be there.
I still saw myself as the rejected girl being bullied from 8th grade when all my friends turned against me, wrote a "top 10 reasons we hate Laura list" and that's when I began eating lunch in the bathroom by myself.
FOR ALMOST 6 MONTHS!!!!!
The world kept showing me I was big, and I kept insisting I was small.
I hadn't gotten over the insecurities from my 8th-grade experience.
What IF?
What if the story you've been telling yourself about your smallness was never actually true?
I know that belief felt necessary at one point. Maybe visibility brought punishment when you were young. Maybe standing out meant becoming a target. Maybe the safest way to survive was to not take up too much space.
That made sense then. It protected you.
But what's it costing you now?
You're saying no to opportunities before they fully form because some part of you is still convinced you're not ready. You're watching people with half your experience step into spaces you're more than qualified for. You're holding back contributions that could change entire conversations because you're still protecting yourself from a threat that no longer exists.
The people around you already see your bigness. They've been seeing it this entire time. They're waiting for you to catch up.
When I finally told my boss I wanted to expand beyond recruiting a year ago and step into deeper transformation work, I expected resistance. Instead, he looked at me and said "Absolutely" to creating flexibility. He'd been seeing me as big this entire time.
I was the only one still holding onto my smallness.
What if you've been wrong about how small you are? What if your bigness isn't something you need to earn? What if it's already true, and the only thing standing between you and it is your willingness to see what everyone else has been seeing all along?
Micro-Moves
This week, pick one way to question the belief that’s been keeping you small:
If you’ve been hiding: Think about something you do naturally that others have told you is valuable—but you’ve dismissed as “not that special.” Write down three times that thing actually made a difference for someone. Let yourself see the evidence through their eyes, not your own diminishing lens.
If you’ve been waiting for permission: What’s one thing you’ve been telling yourself you’re “not quite ready for yet”? Now ask: What would I do this week if I trusted I was already big enough for this? Do the smallest version of that thing before next Friday.
If you can’t see it yourself: Ask three people you trust: “What do you see in me that I might not see in myself?” Then sit with their answers. Don’t deflect. Don’t minimize. Don’t explain why they’re wrong. Just receive it.
What belief about your smallness are you ready to let go of?
With deep belief in your magnificence,
Laura
And if you're ready to stop waiting and start taking those bold steps with support in your corner, here are ways I can serve you.
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