I’m a 50-year old man, and I’m not embarrassed to share that it took me close to 35 years of my life to get just ONE lesson burned into my consciousness.
For most of my life, I freely gave my power away to anyone who wanted it. Actually, even if you didn’t want it, I was happy to give it to you anyway .
Here are some cuts from the soul-destroying album that played on repeat in my brain every time I walked into a room:
“I don’t belong here.”
“I’m not good enough.”
“No one here likes or respects me.”
“These people are so much better/smarter than me.”
“No one in this room wants to hear what I have to say.”
These beliefs ruled most of my adult life, and the results of these beliefs were devastating. Because I lived in fear of other people and their opinions of me, it almost destroyed my career, my social life, and anything else meaningful in my life.
Almost.
The only reason why those beliefs didn’t completely destroy my life was that after years of being governed by them, I finally woke up to the truth. Here it is:
None of those beliefs are true.
I believe that in most cases, the feeling of intimidation has nothing to do with the person who intimidates us.
Instead, it has everything to do with our insecurities.
For real, how often do we give away our power by allowing our insecurities to create bizarre stories in our mind about other people?
So please allow me to set the record straight:
The people who are intimidating you are not better than you.
They aren’t more special than you are.
In fact, they’re probably just like you in more ways than you could ever imagine.
Most importantly, the story that you’re telling yourself in your mind about how scary they are, isn’t real (even though your insecurities are trying to convince you otherwise).
I don’t care if it’s the CEO of your company, the significant other of your dreams, or even a group of strangers in the audience at your upcoming presentation during the next staff meeting. The key is to remember (and believe) this:
When you walk into the same room with them, you belong there. ❤️