People underestimate the power of words but sometimes all we really need in our lives is some good pep talk before engaging in any activity. I’m not talking about that “aspire to acquire what you desire” no that’s too vague. I mean real motivation that serves as a boost of confidence. Something to arm you with the necessary tools you need in conquering a world that is full of many challenges.
The first adversary we need to overcome everyday is ourselves. Whether we choose to believe it or not, there is a little voice(mine is Kanye West) in our heads that usually second guesses us. Constantly nagging and criticizing our every decision. It gets so bad that it paralyzes people most times stopping us from reaching their highest potential.
Most people live with this “self doubt”. That inner voice in our head keeps on playing the same mix tape for days on end. ” What if I’m not good enough”? “What did I do if they don’t like me”? “I should probably stand behind the counter, maybe they won’t notice my jeans is only N800. This consequently leads to a person having a low self esteem coupled with other bonuses like self loathing and self defeat.
The first thing to do in the case is to give that voice of negative an eviction notice, and replace it with a more happy, optimistic and cheerful one. As an individual, you must understand that life comes with unimaginable challenges, how you react is what matters. Instead of throwing shade at yourself for not doing performing a task that meets your expectations, try to convince yourself that you did the best you could and you could do better next time.
If it becomes a habit, it will boost your productivity. If the opposite is the case, you may loose interest in whatever it is you’re doing because of your inability to see any positive outcome from it. Your mood becomes affected, you get irritated easily amongst other things because you’re engaged an internal warfare with yourself.
Conclusively, I’d like to add that the way of curing yourself from this is to monitor your inner dialogue for a while to know if your inner dialogue is a cheerful or gloomy one.
Criticism is also good in small doses, its one the only way for us to grow as humans. Listen again carefully to what you’ve been telling yourself if it’s the truth or just overreaction to a simple issue. If it’s true, then you should try to get your act together.
Use more positive language, be kind to yourself because if you keep telling yourself you’re a failure, eventually your brain is going to accept it and it’s going to be a part of you.