Have you ever felt like you were trying to build a beautiful mosaic, but you kept throwing away the jagged, oddly shaped pieces because they didn't seem to fit the pattern? Fernando Pessoa’s words, To be great be whole exclude nothing, remind us that true greatness doesn't come from being a perfect, polished surface. Instead, it comes from the courage to embrace every single part of our existence, even the messy, fragmented, and difficult bits that we often try to hide away from the world.

In our daily lives, we spend so much energy trying to curate a version of ourselves that feels acceptable. We highlight our achievements and our sunny moods, but we tuck our anxieties, our failures, and our lingering doubts into dark corners of our hearts. We think that by excluding these 'unpleasant' parts, we are becoming better or more capable. But when we prune away our struggles, we are actually pruning away our depth. We become smaller, flatter, and less connected to the very experiences that give us wisdom.

I remember a time when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed by my own clumsy mistakes. I was trying so hard to act like I had everything under control, pretending that my wobbles and stumbles didn't exist. I thought that if I could just hide my imperfections, I would finally be 'great' or successful. But the more I tried to exclude my vulnerability, the more exhausted and hollow I felt. It wasn't until I allowed myself to acknowledge my fears and my messy feelings that I felt a sense of true, integrated strength. I realized that my wobbles were just as much a part of my story as my wins.

Being whole means sitting with the full spectrum of your humanity. It means recognizing that your sadness teaches you empathy, and your mistakes teach you resilience. You don't need to be a seamless, flawless entity to be magnificent. You just need to be complete. When you stop fighting against the parts of yourself that feel 'less than,' you stop leaking energy and start gathering your power.

Today, I want to invite you to take a gentle look at the parts of yourself you usually try to push aside. Instead of trying to fix or hide them, just try to acknowledge them. Ask yourself what those hidden pieces might be trying to teach you. You might find that when you stop excluding the shadows, you finally find the light you've been searching for.