Practice a healthy humility

“To understand man’s significance, I saw, you must first accept his insignificance. Only then could you focus him into importance against this stupendous, unshruggable background [of the Grand Canyon]. And now, accepting this vision utterly, accepting it without fear and with joy, I had, for the time being at least, found all I needed.” Collin Fletcher: The Man Who Walked Through Time

The first time I ever hiked in the Grand Canyon I had recently been terminated from my job as a hospital chief operating officer, had no idea what to do next, and was frankly terrified. A week in this vast, natural cathedral did not bring any answers, but it did help me start to ask better questions. The humbling experience of feeling totally insignificant in a canyon millions of years in the making, sleeping under the light of billions of stars – light which had traveled billions of years before reaching my eyes – was, I think, an essential factor in being able to give up the ego-driven dream of being a highly-paid big shot executive and beginning the quest to find my real purpose here.

It might be the ultimate paradox: when your world has been turned upside down it is easier to accept your insignificance on the cosmic scale but, as Fletcher says, that is often the essential first step to truly grasping your significance on the human scale.