Own Your Success

Photo by Jungwoo Hong on Unsplash

You work hard to see your goals become reality. Everyday, you have exercised commitment, sacrifice and determination.

One day, it happens. You’ve achieved success. When it hits you, it’s an indescribable feeling. So many things and various moments have gone into getting you here.

The entire time, it’s been an internal struggle. After success, it becomes an external struggle.

The internal struggle is you. The doubts in your mind, the way some people make you feel with their indirect comments, the avoidance of failure by not doing anything at all – it’s all internal.

These are the negative thoughts you have to deal with during every waking moment. It consumes your mind. The awesome thing is, you’re strong enough to not let it hold you hostage all of your life. You’ve become better at managing those damaging thoughts.

It takes practice to get past these whispering voices of doubt. They sound so comforting and convincing. “You don’t have to prove yourself – no one else is stressing over personal success. Let’s do it some other time – see what’s on social media.”

There’s another tiny voice in your head that pushes you. “Let’s see if we can do something extraordinary – why not? Let’s not sit here and do nothing. Let’s see how much we can get into!”

That’s the voice you listened to and it carried you to success. Yes, there were times when things didn’t go right, or an outside force made things go left, but you remained focus. According to your mind, nothing was going to stop you from winning.

The external factor is your environment. Some people are genuinely happy for you and others seem a little distant. They make off the wall comments whenever your success comes into the conversation. The voice of doubt rears it’s ugly head, once again.

“Don’t talk about your accomplishment – it makes them uncomfortable. It makes you look like you’re better than them.” All of this is not true at all, but you give in and dumb down your existence, just to put them at ease.

If they were your real friends, you wouldn’t have to do that. You wouldn’t have to explain your achievement or not mention it at all, just to save their hurt little feelings. Don’t brag about your success, but don’t downplay it for the sake of someone else who may be jealous. That’s their problem.

You deserve the success that you create. You deserve a positive mindset that allows you to imagine those fantastic ideas. You deserve people around you who are supportive and happy for your wins.

You worked hard and you achieved success. OWN IT! There are people who will appreciate it and there are people who will criticize and give negative feedback. Instead of being jealous for no reason, they should figure out their own path and look upon you as inspiration.

Don’t ever cut yourself short for someone else. You are worthy of your success. Everyone has to take responsibility for their own future. Don’t let other people’s weak emotions stop you from what you want to achieve. Everyone’s path may be different, but we all have a shot at being successful.