It’s hard to believe in yourself
We want to believe in ourselves. When we are young, we are told we can do anything.
Words offered by people who care about us…
From parents to grandparents to siblings to neighbors to teachers.
They encourage us to be more.
Filled with dreams of being an astronaut or a truck driver or a ballerina or a gardener.
Believing in ourselves starts at a young age.
Before any real failure has occurred.
Before we lose something, no matter how hard we try.
As we get older, we stop remembering who we are and the abilities we have…
…we notice other people and start comparing ourselves to them.
We begin to doubt
At about age 9 or 10, we start to become very aware of the world.
Noticing the people in it too.
How people dress, what they have, where they live, etc.
During our junior high and high school years, it seems like everything is a competition.
So we begin to wonder if we have what it takes to achieve greatness.
To do something worthwhile.
We teeter-totter back and forth between what is real and what we want.
Our wish is that they become one and the same.
Questions begin to fill our heads quicker than the answers come.
Every thing we thought we knew about who we are isn’t something we trust.
Negative phrases like “I’m not good enough” and “I can’t do anything right” begin to fill our heads.
Giving up is not the answer
With an attitude of “why should I try,” it would seem giving up would be the best idea.
Wrong.
We don’t get better by giving up.
We must believe we can do something before it will happen.
It doesn’t matter what it is.
However, believing in yourself is easier said than done.
More often than not, little successes will convince us of our capabilities, no matter the task.
Somewhere along the way, we convinced ourselves we needed to be perfect.
That no one makes a mistake, yourself included.
Here a few reasons why believing in yourself matters:
Success comes to those who believe in success.
If you hold onto the belief that failure will always be present, then you have essentially given up. Not every trial will end in error — for every attempt has a 50/50 chance of ending up wrong. You tend to focus on that fact, negating the fact that the other 50% is unaccounted for and therefore, irrelevant. Although success does not always present itself, we must understand that success is not something everyone will see. More often than not, it is in fact defined by our own internal quest to be more and do more than we dreamed we ever could.
Society will try to corrupt you
Let’s face it — society has a tendency to try to hold you down. To cram you into a tiny hole and keep you locked up there. It feeds you subliminal messages, hoping one will grab hold and lock in on your internal being. The world’s Catch-22 view of wanting you to be assured while still doing what it can to prevent you from achieving greatness is it’s way of limiting your ability to make this world a better place. I won’t even spend the time writing about the numerous amounts of rude and not nice comments kids throw back and forth at one another on a daily basis. Under no circumstances is bullying of any kind acceptable.
The world becomes a much bigger place
We have access to our past via the experiences and outcomes we remember. From those, we can develop a sense of what would happen next if we were ever put into a similar situation. We focus on what we have done…not what we are capable of doing. Having a powerful tool — such as your mind — you quickly become aware of everything around you. Suddenly, you have this urge to find out more. You walk into rooms of complete strangers with a confidence people cannot help but notice. You begin this quest of pushing your limits and become more curious about things that used to scare you.
Mindset is everything
Lifting weights in high school in college as I was preparing to participate in the numerous athletic events I did, I never once heard a coach talk about our minds being as strong as our muscles. Surrounding ourselves with words repeated over and over change not only how we think about what is going on in the world, but the way we affect it as well. If we are not going to believe in who we are, why should anyone else? Don’t sell yourself short. Honestly, you have no idea of what you are capable of until you try.
Use the right vocabulary
Believing in yourself begins with the right thoughts and continues into the words you use every day.
Your vocabulary says more about you than you think it does.
Complaining about situations in your life with an attitude of “Why me?” doesn’t help you move through life. It keeps you stuck.
Instead, try saying, “Why not me?” to help push you past the point of quitting.
Words matter.
Conclusion
When surrounded by people who believe in us, we can either refuse their comments or we can embrace them.
It may take some doing, but (believe me) believing in who we are changes everything.
Once limited by what we believed to be true, we are now open to possibility and miracles.
Dreams become a truth we can now see and hold.
Colors become vibrant and beautiful in ways we couldn’t describe before.
A sense of awakening overcomes us until we fall into a deep sense of knowing, we cannot escape it.
All because we believed in ourselves.
And that ONE thing made all the difference and changed us…FOR GOOD.
Michelle A. Homme 2017 ©
