If you are hesitating, make sure that it's not to avoid provoking the insecurities of someone else. There are many reasons to pause, reflect, and use your power judiciously, though one of them is not acting out a childhood fear that someone more powerful than you will be scared by your potential. I have a suggestion. Try on the world from two points of view. In the first, imagine that everyone around you is threatened by your existence. Make no exceptions—imagine that every response or reaction is the result of a threat that someone else feels, and it's all about you. In the second, imagine that nobody is threatened, that everyone embraces you, and that anyone's apparent response or reaction to you is all about who they are and has nothing to do with you. Practice this for a little while and the difference will start to become stark. I suggest you develop sensitivity to when you're trying to compensate for what you think are someone else's potential reactions to you. Notice when you cut yourself off and therefore don't give yourself a chance to get anywhere near full expression. Notice when this whole dynamic is influencing your decisions. There is another way to be—though it calls for a mix of self-awareness and bravery. If at any time you feel yourself compromised, add one or better yet both of these ingredients, and see how this shifts things. Note, there is an efficient way to access both in one gesture: curiosity.
