What if the most beautiful, most impactful, and most life altering contribution you made to this world was made entirely by accident?
Would it matter to you that it was an accident, that it was not really your idea, and that you just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right amount of effort for this positive change in the world to take place through you?
Would you feel better or worse about it that the result was not your intention?
Would you still be proud of what you have accomplished?
Would you still look at your achievement with a smile of appreciation for a job well done?
Or, would you be disappointed and frustrated that it was not exactly your idea, it was not your vision, and that what you set out to do did not work out the way that you originally planned?
We all tell ourselves stories about our ideas, about what they mean to us and the world we hope to change with them.
We tell ourselves that, because they are our ideas, they somehow belong to us and they must become what we wanted or envisioned them to be.
But, once our ideas are in the world, they no longer belong exclusively to us.
Once our ideas are shared, what they grow into is largely out of our hands.
Of course, we must tend to them, nurture them, and guide them along the way, but we are no longer solely responsible for their outcome because we are no longer the only force acting on them.
Our influence may be the primary one, but, inevitably, it will not be the only one.
The question we must ask ourselves is whether our ideas are better off thriving in the world, living a life we did not imagine for them, or whether we would prefer to keep them to ourselves where they will never see the light of day, but will remain perfectly safe and intact.
Sharing our ideas is inherently risky, not simply because they may be stolen from us, but because we may find out that our ideas were not what the world actually needed or wanted.
We should consider ourselves lucky, however, that we ever had any ideas that were worth having at all, that inspired any kind of change at all.
This, alone, is cause for gratitude and celebration.