Do you ever let situations or people allow you to limit your belief in yourself? Do you use it as an excuse to procrastinate or not follow what you want to do? Do you allow it to prove to you that you are not so good after all? It's like having a set of demons that can hold you back.
I was reminded of this when visiting the Botanic Gardens in Bali this weekend and so have added a picture of an interesting statue to this week's blog; the 3 storey high statue of the demon kumbakarna.
A few months ago, I wrote an article to be published in the Singapore newspaper, The Straits Times. I sent the article to an internal contact whom a friend had given me and waited in anticipation for the newspaper to tell me when my article would be published. This was my first foray in writing for a newspaper and I was hoping the newspaper would be excited to receive my article and publish it without delay, noticing me as a budding journalistic star in the making.
As the months ticked by without a word from the newspaper, not even an acknowledgement from the department responsible for publishing articles, I started to doubt my writing abilities. At first, I convinced myself that the newspaper must be swamped by articles written by hopeful writers like myself and as the silence continued I further questioned my writing abilities. Maybe I should just give up as obviously they didn't appreciate my article. I was steadily becoming the victim and allowing some limiting beliefs to kick in about my ability to write. I was even using old experiences to justify why I couldn't write - such as the time when I wrote a poem for Blue Peter (a children's TV programme in the UK) - every week I hoped that my name would be mentioned as one of the winners of the poem competition and every week I didn't get a mention. Eventually as other winners were announced, I hoped that I would at least receive a Blue Peter badge to post acknowledge my efforts. Every morning I was the first to get the post and every morning, I felt I pang of disappointment as there was no badge, surely they couldn't have known that I did cheat a little and ask an adult to help me. Consequently, I wrote off my writing abilities for Blue Peter and never entered one of their competitions ever again.
Was I going to let this newspaper incident limit my beliefs about my writing abilities as the poem situation had done when I was a child? Not this time. This time I chose to understand what the feedback was telling me. With the feedback I was able to focus on the resources I had to follow through. My friend followed up with his contact for me and my article was published in the Straits Times. None of us were informed and luckily another friend of my friend happened to see the article. What a nice surprise it was to be told my article was published when I wasn't expecting it to happen.
This simple life lesson reminded me to believe in myself and keep on believing in myself, no matter what could put me off track, delay me from moving forward or stop me from doing what I want to do.
"Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful."
Mark Victor Hansen
Don't let those demons hold you back.
Janet
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