Believe in yourself

When I look back on the jobs I've had, there's one regret common to them all. Why didn't I trust my instincts and believe in myself earlier? That's it. I could have had so much more fun, and accomplished my goals with much less worry and effort, if I had just believed in my instincts and acted upon them.

The obstacle is overcoming fear, uncertainty and doubt. Everyone doubts themselves, Everyone is afraid of failure. Everyone is uncertain that they can make their dreams come true. When you add in the pressures and anxiety of daily life, just walking out your front door can be a scary business.

It goes as far back as my first junior lifegaurd competition at Cavendish beach. I was the youngest member of a four person junior lifegaurd team, working on our first aid casualty exercise. I noticed that the victim had a couple of red markings drawn on his legs. He was unconscious. Our team went about administering first aid. I suggested that we should care for his wounds and treat him for shock, by raising his legs. My team thought I was wrong, and so ignored me. I liked my team and so was perfectly happy to let it go, even though I was pretty sure I was right. It was just a competition after all. He wasn't a real victim. It was much more important to me, to give my friends the last word.

During the review of our performance, the adjudicator said not bad, but why didn't you listen to the kid. If you had, you'd have received perfect marks. He turned to me and said, you need to believe in yourself more kid. I still look back on that now that I'm middle aged. When I'm in a group of people who don't like to consider other ideas, I make my point anyway, knowing that it's just one man's opinion.

Oddly enough, it was a conversation with a family friend that gave me the final little push by accident. We were talking about dreams coming true. I said you gotta start by believing in yourself. Everybody deserves to believe in themselves and make their dreams come true. She nodded her head and said, if you can't believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to. Whether she knew it or not, it was just what I needed to hear.

I believed in myself, but not nearly enough to do the things in my life that I wanted to do. So when that cold fear, uncertainty and doubt came knocking on my door, I just thought of my friend. Got up. Dusted myself off and moved on down the road toward my goals. I still do.

Nobody ever tells you how hard it is to believe in yourself, except your friends. Nobody ever tells you how important it is to learn to forgive yourself for being human, except your friends. Nobody ever tells you how much you deserve to touch the stars by just believing in yourself, except your friends. I like to think of myself as a friend of the working man. Believe in yourself!

Technorati Tags: Business Life Career