One of the frustrations of parents with young children is that they grow out of their clothes almost too fast for comfort. To extend the length of time a child can wear a particular item of clothing, smart parents buy clothes which are just a little too big for their child, giving them just that little bit more time for the child to at least grow into the clothes before they grow out of them!
Who of us haven’t been sent off to school with a new blazer with sleeves that covered our hands? I know of some people who got a new blazer in grade nine and which still fitted them in grade 12, even though they had grown quite significantly.
Once we reach our later teen years and early adulthood, we are able to wear clothes that fit us appropriately. Of course, after a few short years and some good living, many adults start to experience problems with clothes size as a result of weight gain, leading to the need for them to increase their clothes size yet again.
But some try to kid themselves that they still fit into clothes which are hopelessly too small for them. Men are worse than women when it comes to increasing the size of their pants in line with the increase in their girth size. Many men refuse to accept that their pants size needs to increase in relation to their waist size. They seem not to notice that round, swollen belly staring back at them from the mirror, and think that, by pulling their hips back, they can somehow disguise their ample stomachs. They also don’t seem to make the connection that they need to buy bigger trousers to accommodate their growing figures, opting to retain the same size trousers which they slide under their “swelly belly”. This leads to the rather comical appearance of a pair of pants hanging on for dear life to a pair of skinny hips with the person displaying a significant hangover – their tummies.
Our failure to recognise the need for a change in our clothes size is also reflected in our failure to grasp our true “size” in life.
When you think you’re a “small” in life, you live life like that – in a small way. You think small thoughts, make small decisions, take small actions and, as a result, generally experience small achievements. You then feel quite justified in telling people, “You see, it doesn’t pay to have unrealistic dreams.”
When however you think big thoughts, make big decisions and take big actions, you generally achieve big things.
That’s because you are who you think you are. If you think you’re a small timer, you are. If you think you’re bigger than that, you are.
What size do you think you are? Do you think you were meant to just walk carefully and quietly through life, hoping for the best and then departing from this world having made no impact on it or on other people? Or do you think you were meant for greater things – to help make the world a better place by using the qualities, gifts and skills you were given?
The answer to these questions are yours alone. No-one can answer them for you. What I do want to do, however, is gently nudge you. I want to suggest that, like your body size increases without your realising it, you’re a lot bigger as a human being (and I’m not talking about physical size here) than you think.
You weren’t meant for mediocrity. Deep down in that quiet place in your heart where the truth lives, you know you were meant for greater things. Hear the voice of truth and start to live out your greatness!
Alan Hosking is the publisher of HR Future magazine, www.hrfuture.net, @HRFuturemag, and a professional speaker. He assists executives to prevent, reverse and delay ageing, and achieve self-mastery so that they can live and lead with greatness.
