Personal-Development

5 Things You Must Tell Yourself When You’re Being Judged

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Judgement. We all have experienced it at one point in our lives and quite possibly we are still guilty of judging others. It’s so easy to do. For some it almost comes naturally. Your neighbour John had a bad experience with the new family that moved in a month ago and before you even meet them, you have already judged them based on John’s experience. Yes, we all do that. It’s difficult not to. If you’ve ever heard of the test where someone tells you to not see a blue elephant, don’t think about a blue elephant, there is no blue elephant, but you can’t help but see the blue elephant. It’s already been ingrained in your mind. Judging people is a lot like that. People tell you something bad about someone and you already have a vision of that person being exactly as that person told you.

So how do we stop judging? What does it take for us to not judge? A lot of mind over matter, really. And what about when we get judged? We truly dislike that feeling. We know we are being judged. We all are. All around the world, we are all being judged. So how do we not let this bother us? How can we let these opinions of others not get to us?

judgedStay true to you.

You know who you are and what you’re all about. You know the truth about what happened or your situation. That’s all that should ever matter. People, as you know, form their own opinions and there is little we can do about it. Know who you are and embrace you and the truth. Eventually the truth comes out. It may not happen overnight but you will see, in time, people will figure it out.

Don’t waste your energy.

We all want people to know the honest to God truth about us. We don’t want them to dislike us for false reasons. We want to try to convince them of the truth and we really want them to believe us. Don’t waste your time or energy. As people form their own opinion, they will do so on their own time and own terms. Nothing you say will change their mind. If they really want to get to know the real you, they will take the time, otherwise, leave it be.

Look at the source.

Sometimes the people who are judging us, really aren’t worth our time or energy anyway. They are angry, hurtful and hateful people. They always have been, always will be. Nothing you can do will change that. Their words often fall on deaf ears. Nobody listens to their crap as they already have a history of talking nonsense about others. Let it go. Their words mean nothing.

Is it a reflection.

We are a reflection of others meaning, often, what we see in others is already inside of us. There might be a time or two when we do get judged and it really strikes a nerve or hits home, really hard. What was it they said that infuriated you so much? Was there a shadow of truth to it anyway? Is there something still buried inside of us that maybe, just maybe, we haven’t dealt with yet?

Laugh it off.

Laughing really is always the best medicine. The comment or the judgement was absolutely ridiculous. Who makes this stuff up anyway? Laughing things off takes the edge and stress off of it and makes it into a lighthearted situation that is easier for us to deal with. Many things get resolved better with a positive attitude and laughing then they do with anger and harsh words.  Just tell yourself that was the funniest thing you heard all day and have a good laugh.

In a world and society where we are judged on our clothes, our jobs, our houses and the size of our bank account it’s as important as ever to stay true to you, remember who you are, don’t forget we all have a story, and always give people a chance. A chance to show you who they are before you take someone else’s opinion at face value. You may be shunning someone who could be a good friend.

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How Much Common Sense Do You Have?

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According to Wikipedia, “Common sense is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things, which is shared by (“common to”) nearly all people and can reasonably be expected of nearly all people without any need for debate.” As is the case with many other qualities, it may vary from person to person. Even the development of the artificial intelligence has gone so far, that we are starting to ask the machines to have “common sense”. But let’s not talk about the artificial intelligence.

We are born with common sense, which is meant to keep ourselves safe from harm. It helps us or helps us assert correctly situations and people, and makes our brain go overdrive when facing a danger.

common_senseTake just now this fun quiz to see how much common sense you have

How Much Common Sense Do You Have?

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Leave a comment below to tell us what result did you got.

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How to Succeed as an Underdog

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So you think that being an underdog is a disadvantage? Sorry, but we beg to differ.

Despite the negative connotation of this word, there is something special about being an underdog. Being someone who is not considered as competition actually gets rid of the added pressure and anxiety that comes from being a “top dog”.

Contradictory to popular belief, being an underdog could turn out to be beneficial in the workplace. Working with people who are much more qualified or experienced than you implicitly makes you work harder and prepares you more to get ahead in the competition. What you need to do is to channel your energies in growing your professional exposure and getting the confidence of your boss.

Here is how:

1. Look For Every Opportunity to Prove Yourself

Prove Yourself

Underdog employees are often considered the least favorite candidate for an important task. But this is an opportunity to turn the tables on the competition and come out as an equal contender.

Let’s say you are a female employee working in an organization and you just heard about a recent internal vacancy that demands a lot of negotiation with male clients. Though you might shy away from such a job, it is actually a chance to prove your mettle as a female employee.

Instead of letting a male counterparts grab that job, you should be the first one to say yes to it. Take the interview part as your chance to convince your boss (especially when he is a male) that you are the right candidate for the job.

To win over your boss, you need to come across as a confident and poised female who can be as good (or better) as her male counterpart for this job.

See Also: The Ultimate Guide To Becoming A Doer

2. Play Your Cards Well

An underdog is a dark horse that shows his true colors only when the timing is right. Just like a champion, he only acts when the team desperately needs his support. Similarly, you can come out as a potential candidate for a job if there is something that calls for your skills or experience.

For example, if your manager is looking for a helping hand for a project that demands strenuous mental work, you can help him out by offering your sharp thinking skills. So if you are able to successfully complete the project, you will be able to earn a place in the good books of your boss and he will definitely consider you for a senior position that requires any such skills.

3. Offer Your Innovative Ideas

Underdogs are known for their knack for imagination. They are slaves to their creative ideas which keep them safe from the embarrassment of being an underdog. For employers, an underdog can be an asset than a liability. They are mentally trained enough to find innovative solutions of daily glitches in their job which could be a great help to any employer.

Considering that you are blessed with the art of creative thinking, which is a rarity in the workplace, you can stand out as a better contender for a project or job that requires frequent use of creative muscles. Knowing that you can help your employer with your original ideas, you should demonstrate this special quality while having a one-on-one meeting with your boss.

See Also: 5 Reasons Why Dreamers Can Be Leaders

4. Don’t Be Afraid of Taking Risks

Dont Be Afraid of Taking Risks

Underdogs are those breed of employees who tend to take risks where others are not comfortable. Being an underdog takes the burden off your shoulders, so you do not have to feel any pressure as you have nothing to lose even if you fail. This goes in your favor as you can even take up those challenges that others might be reluctant to take on.

For example, if you are a junior employee in a research & development department of a technology firm and you get a temporary job opportunity to lead a project, you might not be as confident to take up the role.

If you think wisely, there is nothing to lose even if you fail. But if you succeed, you will earn the confidence of your boss, and he will be happy to make you a permanent authority to lead the projects.

5. Strike While the Iron is Hot

So you have completed a few projects, saved your manager from the ordeal of a challenging task, and now you want acknowledgment of your work.

Once you are in the good books of your boss, it is time to make the transition from an underachiever to an achiever. After proving your skills and competencies for your job, you now need to have a serious talk with the upper management.

You can ask for a promotion, pay raise or whatever that you deserve for your recently-acquired skills, experiences and achievements. Just make sure that you are prepared for the meeting so that you can effectively make a case for your initiatives that resulted in the benefit of the organization.

Being an underdog is a blessing in disguise. It is just that you need to identify the scenarios where you can use this blessing in your favor and make your way to the list of achievers.

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5 Reasons To Understand And Embrace Your Anger

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Yes, I said it. Embrace your anger. Sounds like a dangerous or unhealthy thing to do but really it’s not. Not entirely. No one likes to be angry. It truly is a low energy emotion that only causes anxiety, hurt and frustration amongst other negative toxic feelings. But learning to understand and embrace your anger can also help you to grow as a person and be better not only for yourself, but for your partner, family members or coworkers.

For many of us, anger is a very unhealthy emotion that leads to devastating results within our relationships but when we learn to understand our anger and deal with the triggers, the frequencies of our outbursts may become less and less. I get that some of us need anger management courses or workshops to help deal with extreme anger and I applaud all of those who have taken necessary steps to improve their lives. It’s not easy for most of us to admit we have a problem, so when a loved one does and take the steps to improve their life, support and encourage them every step of the way. That’s a big step.

angerSo why should we understand and embrace our anger anyway? Here are 5 reasons why that I think will help you next time you get angry at someone or about something.

Unresolved issues.

When someone makes us angry by their words or actions, oftentimes it is a trigger for something that is unresolved in us. A pain or trauma that we haven’t entirely finished dealing with. It might be time to reopen that old wound, deal with it once and for all and put it behind us.

Live and learn.

Cliché yes, but that’s how we learn. Through error and sometimes anger.  Often when we are angry about something, and we come to learn that quite possibly we were overreacting or didn’t get the whole story, we will know next time to calm ourselves first and then deal with the situation once all the facts are in or when we know it’s not directly about us. We learn from our anger and our mistakes.

Help others.

Yes, we can do that from our anger. When we get to the bottom of our anger and have dealt with it effectively then we can help others deal with similar situations. We may not be experts but we can teach and empower from experience. Experience really is the greatest teacher of all. It will also help you grow as a person.

Say it like it is.

You will often hear couples say “oh we never fight”. It makes me think if they are just bottling up any and all ill feelings they have or perhaps they are only revealing them to their best friends and not their partner. Getting angry at your partner isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When you passionately exclaim your needs or expectations, they get it. If they truly love you, they will respect your needs and support you any way they can.

Let’s get things done.

If you’re angry at your boss again for the 3rd time this week and you see this has become a pattern now, maybe it’s a sign or a push for you to start looking for another job and get the heck out of there. It clearly shows that your workplace is not the best environment for you and maybe it’s time to move on or perhaps even follow a passion. How many days a week do we need to be upset with our boss before we realize that it simply isn’t good for your health?

Anger is often a sign of underlying issues but sometimes anger pops up when things need to change. Is there something in your life that is ready for a change? Next time you are really angry have a look at your surroundings and what triggered you. Dig deep and find out how this can be resolved or reduced. Anger simply isn’t good for your health.

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What Type of Flower Are You?

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As you might already know, every type of flower has a meaning and is bound to  transmit the feelings of the person who is offering it to us. We can consider flowers a perfect replica of the human life: planting . . . growth . . . . bloom . . . . withering. So, in a way it is expected to associate different flowers with different personalities.

flowerAre you known for your loyalty, strength and steadiness, then you might be a sunflower! Or maybe you’re bubbly, optimistic and super-friendly, then you… might want to take this fun quick quiz just now to find out what kind of flower you are

What Type of Flower Are You?

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Leave a comment below to tell us how accurate this is

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How Your Mental Health Depends On Your Confidence

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I’d like to be able to say that confidence is everything, but that’s not exactly true. For a time psychologists and educationalists actually thought that. They worked out that confident people were generally more successful people and therefore concluded they should spend efforts to boost self-esteem.

It turned out that they’d put the cart before the horse. They forgot that correlation is not causation and proceeded to spend all their efforts boosting self-esteem. According to Mark Leary, a psychologist at Duke University, they would have been better off boosting people’s opportunities and chances as being successful.

causation is not correlation

According to his Sociometer theory, self-esteem actually tracks how successful you are.  And so, if you try to boost self-esteem without boosting people’s success at the same time, you just get people with a fragile self-esteem and inflated sense of self. These in turn can then come crashing down when reality does not match up to expectations.

The down side of low self-esteem

Of course, what we should note here is that we’re talking about unnecessarily high self-esteem. Having low self-esteem can be very harmful. This is mainly down to something called a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you don’t believe you can do something then you’ll go out of your way to avoid doing it, with all the consequences thereof.

You might end up hiding away from social situations, avoid trying new things as well as stop challenging yourself. And in the short run this will end up making you feel far better about yourself.

The thing is, in the long run this will make the situation worse. Avoiding these situations will mean that you have less opportunities to develop, grow and prove your low self-esteem wrong.

This will feed into your feelings of worthlessness and can lead to serious anxiety and depression issues. These, in turn, can lead to unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, drinking, drug use and eating disorders.

So if your self-esteem is low (in other words, if you think of yourself as being worthless than other people) you do have to take actions to boost your confidence levels.

How to boost low self-esteem

boost low self-esteem

The first thing that you need to do is realize that you’re being much harder on yourself than you are being on other people. We’re all guilty of this up to an extent, but some of us – especially those who have low self-esteem – excel at this. So you need to identify the negative beliefs you have about yourself and challenge them.

One good way to do this is to write about your negative self-image. Try to work backwards to get a better understanding of when these issues first started taking place and whether you’ve taken whatever was the original cause of these negative emotions and made it bigger than it actually is.

For example, a lot of people have parental issues, where a parent demanded more from them then they could deliver. This can be a serious source of self-esteem problems.

The thing is, this then continues into their adult life, when they’ve moved away from their parental house and don’t actually see that parental figure that often. And yet that figure still exercises undue influence over the person’s mental and emotional landscape. They loom much larger than they are. By writing about such things, people often find they can put such causes of self-esteem in their place and lessen their influence on their lives.

Battle your demons

Aim to weaken some of your most crippling demons. For example, are you not very confident about your communication? Then spend some time learning to communicate. Now the goal here is not to become stellar but rather to reduce the effects of those things so that they are at least manageable.

Now, if you do feel you’ve booked some improvement, don’t go out of your way to create situations in which you confront these problems. Take things slowly. After all, what will you do if you fail? Then all your hard work will be undone.

Instead, what you’re really trying to do is create a safety net so that if the situation does emerge, you have what you’ve learned to fall back on. This will then give you greater confidence to embrace new opportunities and try new things. And it is success at these things in turn which will boost your confidence.

See Also: 5 Steps To Regaining Confidence

Work on your strength

Work on your strength

Another way to boost your self-esteem is to work on enhancing your strengths. This comes from the very sociometer theory that I outlined above. As you’ll remember the theory states that self-esteem is a measurement of how successful we feel we are.

Therefore, if we want to raise our self-esteem, we need to make ourselves feel more successful. This can be accomplished by working on enhancing our strengths, as this will first off lead to a feeling of accomplishment and secondly a feeling of self-improvement. Both of these have been shown to boost your confidence and self-esteem.

See Also: 3 Ways To Develop Rock Solid Self-Confidence

Life is a work in progress

Also you need to change your perspective by focusing on life as a journey, not a destination. What I mean with this is that the goal should not be perfection but improvement. Or, to put it in more concrete terms, you should not compare yourself with some character that you’ve got in the back of your mind, as we can never measure up to some fictitious ideal.

Instead, compare who you are with who you were yesterday, a week ago, a year ago. See what you’ve learned since then and how you’ve grown. This will give you a far greater sense of accomplishment, as this is a far more realistic comparison. And that will motivate you to seek out further self-improvement.

What’s more, it will mean that any improvement in the quality of your lifewill also lead to an improvement in your self-esteem and your confidence levels. And those, in turn, will create a positive feedback loop, where your greater confidence will cause you to embrace new challenges and try new things.

From there you’ll see your mood improve, your anxiety drop and your sociometer rocket upwards.

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6 Reasons You Need To Be Napping More

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Ah, napping. Who doesn’t love to nap? I like to keep busy but every now and then the urge hits me and I know it’s time to act on it and go lay down, if only for 20 minutes or so. If we look at babies, kittens and puppies, they nap all the time. Why? Why do these teeny tots need so much sleep? Well we all know sleep is mandatory for mental and physical development in children but that holds true even for adults too. Sleep is important and necessary. Period. But what about napping. Why do we resist the urge to nap and why, also, do we feel the urge to nap?

Many of us are up early, off to work and/or to see the family off to work and school. Our days are busy and by midday many of us are ready to drop from exhaustion. By the time evening arrives, we’re too wired for sound to even relax enough to sleep. It’s a vicious cycle and many of us experience it. In comes napping. The one thing so many of us wish we could do, yet we don’t. Here are some reasons why you should be doing it more.

nappingRefresh recharge rejuvenate.

The 3 r’s, but the important and necessary 3 r’s. Often we forget that most days by midafternoon we are running on empty and just recycling old crap in our minds and in our lives. When we have a little power nap, we allow our brain to shut down and off and recharge allowing for new and fresh ideas. This will also prevent us from burnout, which is something so many of us suffer from.

Happy camper.

Not only can we recharge and rejuvenate, but if we were plagued with negative thoughts throughout most of the day, having a nap will help us to dump those thoughts and wake up happier. If you’re one of the lucky ones who has great dreams during a nap, then quite possibly you will experience a happy dream and wake up with a smile. No more negative thoughts.

Our defense mechanism.

Our body has funny way of telling us things and sending us messages. Too many of us simply ignore these messages and we shouldn’t be. When we can no longer focus on the task at hand, when we no longer have energy to do one more errand or get through one more hour of the day, it’s time for a nap, even a power nap. Close your eyes for 10 minutes and see how much better you will feel. Your body is screaming at you to stop. Listen to it.

Chill out.

Sometimes we just need to lock ourselves in a room, forget the fight we just had with our spouse or family member, close our eyes and sleep it out. If we stay in an angry state for too long, our risk of heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke increases. It’s important to let go of stress so as to not create or provoke dis-ease. You may think it would be impossible to calm down after a fight but you’d be surprised how fast you can fall asleep after a fight. You’re emotionally and mentally exhausted. You’ll be asleep in no time.

Watch me go.

Having naps also contributes to higher productivity. When we nap for at least 20 minutes, when we awake we are fully charged, our minds are clear and we can work at peak performance. Fresh ideas may come flooding in or perhaps we think of different ways to see old ideas. The fog has been cleared and we have a better focus. Maybe something came to you in a dream. Napping definitely can help us create and be more productive. Try and you’ll see.

Many of today’s thought leaders, celebrities, most successful business people and top performers still have naps daily. They know and get the powerful benefits of getting a bit of shut eye, half way through the day.

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What Country in the World Best Fits Your Personality?

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We have no means to chose the country in which we are born, but during our lives we can chose if we stay there or move to a different one. We can make that choice based on what’s important for us: either the lifestyle, or the cost of living, or maybe because we have fallen in love with a native from this country. Some of us are moving permanently, others just for a short time.

Even if we make that move, or we are just traveling, we have to make a wisely choice. If a country is all about spiritual experiences but we prefer the shopping, then it might not be the right choice. Not that we could not shop, but we might miss the very essence of that country.

country_worldTake just now this fun quiz to find out what country best fits your personality

What Country in the World Best Fits Your Personality?

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13 Little Secrets To Help You Enjoy Life More

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Who doesn’t want to enjoy life more and be happier. Many of us are so caught up in work and in pleasing others that we forget about ourselves. We all want to laugh more, have fun, lighten up, let loose and live but things just get in the way. Stress plays a big role in robbing of us enjoying life. It is easier to enjoy life than we think.

Many of us spend money on things that we think is gonna make life better. Others spend money on vacations and road trips. Things won’t make us happy, travelling on the other hand certainly will. Here are 13 other little things that might help you enjoy life more.

enjoy_life_2Detach from stuff.

Don’t be so dependent on your possessions to make you happy. They won’t. Things and belongings are simply material Band-Aids to temporarily make us happy. When the novelty wears off, the joy is gone.

Stop and smell the roses.

And while you’re at it, why not just pick some flowers and bring them to a senior’s centre. You make others smile, you smile. It really is that simple and seniors are just happy to have someone visit.

I remember you.

When you meet people for the first time, remember their name. Make eye contact and use their name often in your conversation. When you see them again you’ll instantly remember them and possibly even have a new friend.

Road trip anyone?

Get in the car and go for a drive. Anywhere. It doesn’t even have to be out of town. Turn the stereo up, roll down the windows and sing to the steering wheel. If you only make it as far as your local chip stand that’s ok too. Enjoy the trip.

Read, read and then read some more.

When was the last time you read a book? I mean a really good book. Maybe a travel adventure book or a murder mystery. When was the last time you got lost in a fictional story of intrigue? Do that again.

Live in the moment.

Forget yesterday, especially if it sucked. Never mind about tomorrow, it’s not here yet. Be present. Today, right now. Enjoy the moment of today. The here and now.

Smile more. Smile all the time.

Smile at strangers, kids, animals, homeless people, everyone really. Just smile. Smiling makes others smile and naturally makes you happier. Try it, it works.
Sit and do nothing. Grab a mug of your favourite tea or beverage, put on some nice soft music, get in your big comfy chair and look out the window. Watch the birds fly, the cars drive by, the clouds drift through the sky. Just relax, if even for 5 minutes.

Exercise.

This really can make you happier. When we exercise, even only 2 or 3 times a week for 20-30 minutes, you will see how much more energy you have and how happier you will be. It’s also good to know that it can add a few more years to your life and trim your body.

Think positive.

We should all be thinking positive thoughts all the time, but in reality, we know that every now and then a negative thought will slip in. Shut it down immediately. Make it stop. Turn it around and make it a positive one or simply shoo it away. No room for those to stay too long.

Be a little helper.

The world needs more helpers. If you see your neighbor struggling with the lawnmower or a granny trying to get across the street. Maybe even buy a homeless person a cup of coffee or a traffic police officer a bottle of water. Whatever way you want to be a helper, do it.

Keep a happy journal.

And write in it each day. Write out all the things that made you happy that day. Things you are grateful, things that made you smile, things that warmed your heart. Anything that had a beautiful positive impact on your day, write it out. Do this daily.

Have naps.

It’s wonderful to be out and active and enjoying the day and the people in your life, but every now and then it’s great to shut down and recharge. Naps are a blissful way to do this. Take 15-30 minutes to close your eyes and just nap. You’ll see how much happier you are after this.

There are many simple little ways to enjoy life more and be happier, most of them don’t cost one dime. Can you add to the list of things that make you happy and enjoy life more?

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How I Conquered Self-Doubt and How You Can Too

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For the longest time I was paralyzed by self-doubt. The moment I wanted to do anything the questions would start raging through my head, “Am I good enough?

Can I do this? What if I fail?” More often than not these questions would end up paralyzing me. Even when they didn’t, they’d end up become self-fulfilling prophecies, where the doubt  and fear led to the very result I feared.

The result? I played computer games. I stayed at home. I didn’t have many friends.

self_doubtIt was one class in that changed it all for me. I chose psychology as my elective and ended up getting this amazing teacher. Mr James. Unlike the other people at my school, he understood that we chose the class not because we wanted to know about all the theories and all the dry stuff in the books. We chose the class because we wanted to understand ourselves and our inner demons. And so he taught us about ourselves and our inner demons.

What he taught us

He taught us about such things as the spotlight effect, which is the belief that everybody is paying attention to us when very few people are. It was a clever little study. These researchers brought a group of students together, made one show up late and wear a ridiculous t-shirt. Then they asked the ridiculous t-shirt wearing student how many people noticed what he was wearing, while they also asked the other students (separately of course) if they noticed his t-shirt. The t-shirt wearing student always assumed everybody did, but only about half of the students really did.

He taught us about how we’re only the main character in our own story. In those of our friends we’re the supporting characters. In everybody else’s stories we’re window dressing. Everybody has their own problems to worry about and they’re much busier thinking about their problems – does she like me, is my dad an alcoholic, will my mother find my porno mags – than they are caring about yours.

And he taught us that self-doubt can be an instrument for good. It can be a tool to make you search, explore and improve yourself – so long as you don’t expect yourself to be perfect right from that start. That was instrumental that last bit. He taught us that being human = failure and that as long as you learn from it, you are becoming better.

And he taught me that self-esteem measured my success and so I couldn’t wait around to start feeling better about myself, but instead that I had to take action, improve my life and that then I would naturally begin to feel better about myself.

What I learned

Those things changed my life. I realized that it was okay to feel self-doubt, that it was a perfectly rational response. And that made me realize that I’d been feeling guilty and angry about feeling doubt.

How weird is that, right?

And it wasn’t so much my self-doubt that had been limiting me, as my self-anger that had been doing so. I wanted to be perfect, because that was the stereotype of people my age I’d been fed through the media and by looking up to the stars of the school. And because I wasn’t perfect, I felt I was good for nothing at all.

I had to realign my assumptions. I had to make certain that I wasn’t striving for perfection, as that is impossible, but for self-improvement. I had to stop comparing myself those that excelled at what I was trying to do, as there were always going to be people that were better than me at specific things (but not all things). Instead I should compare myself to who I was one week, one month or one year ago, when I was worse at what I was trying to do and so that I could see how I was improving.

What I did then

I started taking baby steps. I stopped comparing myself to others around me and instead compared myself to who I was. And I started to notice I was actually improving, that if I put my mind to it I could learn things and excel in small little ways. I stopped focusing on the negatives, like the popular kids, the basketball stars, the guys with the hot girlfriends, and started to focus on what I could do to make my life a little better, day by day.

I started exercising. I started writing. I started finding kindred spirits. And with each success, my self-doubt became a little easier to control, until finally I became a little bit like the person I wanted to be. And though my self-doubt never completely went away, I don’t resent it now. Instead, I use it. It tells me where I need to focus. It tells me where I need to improve. In the process of conquering my self-doubt it has become my servant.

For while others without self-doubt blame the world around them for their problems (because obviously the problem can’t lie within themselves) my self-doubt makes me constantly strive to change and improve myself, to see how I can be a better person and a better leader. Yes, that’s right, I lead on occasion now. And though  it’s not natural, I’m learning, I’m getting better, and I get along with my team well.

What this means for you

Self-doubt can be a tool for self-improvement, if you let it, while it can be an anchor holding you back if you don’t. To use self-doubt you’ve got to accept you’re not perfect and that you will fail, but that it’s okay to fall on your face sometimes. After all, it’s failure that makes us better, provided we use it as an opportunity to learn rather than to hate ourselves.

So don’t try to beat the self-doubt. Beat the anger that comes with it. And then you’re well on your way to conquering your inner demons.

The post How I Conquered Self-Doubt and How You Can Too appeared first on Change your thoughts.

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