I refuse to limit myself due to the ignorance of others.
There are so many opportunities presented in life and yet the ones I find myself avoiding aren’t the ones I’m least suitable or qualified for, they’re the ones others have told me I shouldn’t go for.
I listen to them out of uncertainty. Out of naïveté and a lack of self confidence. Out of sheer laziness when it comes to believing in myself. Eventually you have to ask yourself, at what point do you start to value yourself so that others can value you half as much? Because no one will value you as much as you ever will, so why do we insist on valuing ourselves a little when we are the only ones capable of valuing ourselves a lot?
I refuse to limit myself due to the ignorance of others. Refuse.
“At what point do you start to value yourself so that others can value you half as much?”
In life we hold so much fear of being told no. It’s something that doesn’t go away with age or conventional maturity.
No, you aren’t the right candidate for this job.
No, you aren’t the right person for me.
What we sometimes fail to realize when we’re actively trying to avoid getting into these situations of being told no, so called failing, is that being told no can be more beneficial than harmful in most cases. A quick google of the term “being told no” gives you countless articles on how to handle being told no and how to turn it into a positive.
You can’t do something without attempting it and so being told no means you tried and that’s way freaking better than sitting there doing nothing because you were too afraid.
When you don’t try, you throw away a potential yes because you were afraid of a possible no.
People who learn how to suffer through and handle rejection are usually better off for it because by learning how to handle a no, they put themselves out there more and so are more likely to at some point receive a yes.
If you devalue yourself, how can you expect others to value you greatly?
You can’t.
“Why do we insist on valuing ourselves a little when we are the only ones capable of valuing ourselves a lot?”
If there’s one thing I’m starting to learn, it’s that it doesn’t matter if I think I’m the frog princess, I sure as hell won’t allow someone else to see me as such. Ultimately I need to start valuing myself more, but for now, I’ll fake it ’till I make it and make others believe I value myself highly and see my own potential because only then will they stop to consider I’m more than they thought.
Being told by others that you aren’t good enough, that certain opportunities aren’t really for you even though you were pretty sure you might have a fair chance of achieving that goal; that is disheartening. That is crushing. That hurts.
Eleanor Roosevelt said it best.
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” – Eleanor Roosevelt
So stop passively allowing them to. Every time you sit there and agree with someone who tells you that you shouldn’t go for your goal; whether it’s your goal of the hour, the day, the year or your life, you are giving them permission to make you feel inferior and to limit you with their ignorance.
And it is ignorance. They don’t know you like you do. They don’t know your limits or how close you are to not only pushing your limits, but expanding them so you can better accomplish your goals. Every trial and experience you have in life tests your borders and either nudges it or paves the way for expansion. It wasn’t until I recently started to shoot my shot and aim for goals outside of my comfort zone that I realized my borders, my limits, were a lot further down the road than this checkpoint someone had conjured up for me with their negativity and disbelief.
So I refuse to limit myself due to the ignorance of others. I’ll shoot my shot and be told no countless times, but ultimately I’ll live to see another day and eventually I’ll be told yes.
You should too.
Tiff Takes the World 