If you wait for permission to get started with anything, be prepared to wait a long time
When I look back at my past and notice the times I’ve had a hard time. It was all because I was looking for other people’s approval to tell me how worthy I was in order to feel confident enough with my own abilities.
The reason most people do this is that we are often forced to compete and put ourselves in front of ‘authority figures’ in order to be judged.
It wasn’t until I started this blog when I realized the reality of this and why many of us end up insecure and doubtful of our own abilities.
The game is fixed for us to lose until we decide to play our own game with our own rules.
When I started this blog, I had no idea about the challenges I was going to face: Whether what I wrote was something people wanted to read, whether I was good enough to write, the lack of motivation to write some days, and all the negative self-doubt.
I realized I was in control of my own progress and destiny. This is a really scary position to be in when you’re coming from a place of comfort and certainty.
It’s the reason many of us decide to live comfortably instead of pushing outside of it.
And it’s something that has been the biggest blessing ever because it’s forced me to start taking responsibility for everything I do. No longer could I blame my manager, my friends or my circumstances… Everything is all my doing.
I wrote a crappy article that wasn’t relevant to what my topic was about? It’s all my fault.
I changed a piece of code on my website that made my blog go offline? It’s all my fault.
Did I fail at publishing my book on schedule? It’s all my fault.
Along the way, I started to make big realizations of who I was as a person. I realized that I was enough and that what I was simply going through was a series of trials and failures to get me to where I wanted to be.
Jeff Goins wrote a really profound article about not waiting to be chosen and it really hit me when I read it. Why wait for anyone’s approval to be considered an expert?
The truth is, people’s views and judgments are always going to be subjective as everyone has different perceptions. If you spent your whole life trying to live up to their expectations then you would simply be waiting forever, because you can’t please everybody, especially yourself due to hurting your self-esteem and self-worth along the way.
You are enough
My challenge for you is simple: Start something of your own.
You will learn more about yourself and how you perceive yourself than what anyone could ever give you.
Don’t wait to be chosen… Your success and failure is all down to you.
Do you want to be a writer? write!
Do you want to be a painter? paint!
Do you want to be a dancer? dance!
Now it’s your turn…
