If you are the type of person who has no problem with believing in yourself, you’ve pretty much already won at life. For those of us who have a bit more trouble…
Are you aware of this massive power that you have in your possession? Everyday when you wake up, you can decide to be as courageous or as cowardly as you want to be.
Some of us allow outside influences to make that decision for us, so we just go with the flow. Whatever happens, happens.
There are others of us who make that decision every single day and we choose to be as happy and confident as we want to be. Nothing’s going to bring us down — we can handle it!
Why can’t we all be that way?
We are all born into different environments. Some grew up in a loving, forward-thinking home and others grew up in a negative, stagnant way of thinking home.
When your surroundings are positive and motivating, it’s easy to believe in yourself. Everyone is always rooting for you and they acknowledge your efforts.
When your surroundings are negative, there is no acknowledgement for anything. Everyone is stuck in the same place, with the ‘it’s always been like this,’ mentality. The possibility of doing any better is nonexistent.
Although your environment doesn’t determine your outcome 100%, it does play a major part.
It’s hard to go against the grain in a bad environment. The easy way out would be to accept what everyone else is doing and continue to ‘go with it.’
The harder thing to do is be proactive. Even when people say negative things to you 20 times a day, you find a way to turn it around.
- “I won’t give in.”
- “I can break the cycle.”
- “I can do better than this.”
- “I don’t want to end up like them.”
This is what pushes you ahead. Although they keep telling you that you’re no better than them, you believe that you are and you can do better.
On the other hand, some people believe in themselves so much, they abuse it and think they can do whatever they want.
When you become used to things turning out in your favor, your efforts can become lazy. You don’t stop after success happens — you have to put in even more effort to keep it going.
As you can see, your environment can work for you or against you. Some people want to break out of their negative environment so bad, they do the total opposite of what’s around them.
Others come from such a positive environment, they expect people to believe in them everywhere they go. When they come across a set of people who really don’t care, they become depressed and fall into a trap of believing what others say about them.
These scenarios don’t happen with everyone, but again, the environment does have an effect on a person’s self-belief.
Let’s teach our children to believe in themselves, no matter what others say or think about them. Teach them that everyone is not going to be encouraging of everything they do. Some people will tease them just to get under their skin.
Most of all, teach them that their self worth is not determined by what others think. Believing in yourself can be difficult, but with the right foundation and mindset, we can push ourselves farther than our thoughts can take us.
Just make that decision every morning. I am courageous. I am beautiful. I am helpful. I am worthy. I am powerful.
Don’t wait for permission (you don’t need it) or for somebody else to tell you (you know it better than they know it). Believe it!
#BeGoalden
As published on Medium.com.