I read the following story in “O’s Little Guide to Finding Your True Purpose” and couldn’t help sharing it.

A friend had an Indian guru who was the embodiment of love, and the guru died. Bereft, my friend, went back to India and stayed with the guru’s principal disciple, and one day the disciple said, “Do you want to see the precious thing the guru left for me?” Then he pulled out something wrapped in an old Indian cloth and ceremoniously uncovered a beaten-up pot. He said, “Do you see?” My friend answered. “No. What are you trying to tell me?” And with a mad glint in his eye, the disciple said, “You don’t have to shine!”

What a great idea! You don’t have to shine.

We have such high expectations of ourselves all the time. Whatever we do, we want to be top-class in it.

We want to write a perfect story in the first draft. We expect our very first blog to be amazing.

We want to dress perfectly, work effortlessly, speak fluently, and so on.

What if we take the pressure off ourselves and just be ourselves?

Mediocre but daring; inept but forgiving; troubled but enduring.