I grew up as an only child in a lonely home with working parents. School and books became my refuge. I often felt insignificant with belittling beliefs to keep myself safe and make sense of confusing and challenging situations. I felt unseen, unheard but could not relate it to the lack of attention from the people around me. It was more palatable to see something wrong with me. At some level, I felt that my life did not really matter. I was invisible, but that did not prevent me from exploring the world in my imagination and later in real life.
As adults it can also be easy sometimes to buy into the illusion of our own insignificance when we look at the world and feel so powerless to change anything. We are surrounded by celebrities, powerful people, and we may conclude that fame and material power confirm how little our lives amount to. Compared to the suffering of people in places like Syria, we may decide that our challenges are small. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Every single one of us matter and all our challenges matter. We tend to forget how our very existence affects countless people around us in countless ways.
You are important and your life matters because you are a microcosm of a larger whole. Your life is a piece of a puzzle connected to a larger universe where your internal experiences affect the whole of life around you. In reality, life organizes around you! This is a shift of perception around your impact in the world that has the potential to affect your life in profound ways. You may discover a creative power you never knew you had, and generate energy to connect with the world in a different way. This is a different basis for leadership in the world.