You've Already Earned It
The days all seem to be melting, don't they? Time has become a strange thing this year, as many of us work from home, and work and home and family and school merge and start and stop and change.
It makes getting stuck in the small things easier, unfortunately. We get mired in the muck of our day to day work -- the paperwork we need to complete, the employee we need to check in with, the umpteenth Zoom meeting this week, and did we find toilet paper at the store last time?
I've been working with a few individual clients who have surprised me recently, though, because they seem to have forgotten who they have been. I guess it makes sense -- we all are seeing life through a sweatpants lens lately, and more than ever it feels like others have it "together" more than we do.
And thus, I've had to remind them. When wondering if they were good enough for a title they have, or if they were accomplished enough to launch a new consulting business, or if they had enough credentials to impress the people they were pitching a new idea to -- I've had to remind them of how amazing they are.
They've graduated from the best MBA program in the country, they became a VP of a tech company before they hit 30, they spent 40 years becoming a specialist in aviation, they worked for decades in marketing for Fortune 100 companies and international nonprofits.
And they all have felt like they weren't good enough.
Guess what? You are all good enough. You are amazing.
Take the top three most interesting or accomplished things in your life. What are they? What impresses yourself when you think about it?
Having trouble? Okay, what about if you heard someone else tell you their story, which was exactly like yours -- what would be impressive to you coming from their mouths?
Now, why aren't you proud of that and find confidence within it? Why don't you stop yourself every once and a while to remind yourself of what you've already done and who you have already been? The interesting lives you've already lead?
I know that now is a strange time, and we are all struggling. There is so much going on, but don't forget to take a moment and check in with yourself and who you really are. Find your confidence, or find it again. You've already earned it.