In the social media era, we are constantly inundated with well intended aphorisms that offer encouragement, e.g., to reach for a dream, and to dare to “be more” and “believe in ourselves.”
These are all well intended statements, but I fear they miss the point, and that is, how did we get so discouraged in the first place, that we need lots of encouragement to do something so obviously appealing?
What this kind of well-meaning advice tends to cover up is all the training we get in the opposite direction, of not believing in ourselves.
So here is today’s homework: Find a baby picture of yourself (if you have one), and ponder for a moment just who you were before you moved in with your parents, and before you went to school. Were you, at age 20 minutes, a person with no belief, no faith in yourself, no courage, no dreams? Hardly. That person is still in you. Be mindful of all the effort that has been made to instill doubt and hesitation, and instead of reading aphorisms about trying to overcome it, just harken back to a time when you had no knowledge of such things.
(c) Justin Locke
