Inner Game (Part 2) : Remind yourselves of the things you are good at
Ok.Some of you might be in more toxic environments, and you might not be able to find the people that can accept you as you are or be able to move from these environments for various reasons. Another way to find self-confidence is to do things you like or are good at doing.
As much as we don't like to admit it because it sounds arrogant, but hey, doing something that we like that not everyone can do make us feel special?
I know there were times when I was feeling emo, and I just went to my room, closed the door and just played the guitar and sang. I mean, I wasn't a rock star or an extremely great musician, but the fact that the playing was in the correct rhythm and I sang in tune made me feel a sense of accomplishment.
All of us have things we are good at. Even listening to someone or being helpful to people is a strength. Ok, I'm just going to make you do a little exercise for a self-confidence boost. List out ten good things about yourself. Doesn't have to well awesome stuff. Maybe you could just be good at Math or playing a game. Do you feel better after doing this?
Ok, now tape this on your wall or somewhere discreet if you have toxic family members. I'm not going to ask you to recite this and look at it everyday. It gets stale if you do. Just read it whenever you feel down and you need to remind yourself of who you are, especially when people take the things you can do for granted.
The final things I wish to say about doing the things you like or starting things that you like.
Firstly,perservere. No one starts off great at something. When I started the guitar and youtube playing, for the first week, I couldn't even switch chords properly or play them in proper sound. For the second week, I was playing mostly correctly and but the moment I opened my mouth to sing I lost the next chord and the strumming rhythm. It was only by the third week that I managed to actually play and sing 70% of the song right. And it was only one song actually. I had prior practice of playing a guitar many many years back that I failed too. I don't suggest that you keep ploughing it when you are sick of it. When you're tired, just take a short break from it of maybe two to three days or as long as you want until you feel like resuming it. But in the intial stage when you are learning the thing, avoid overly long breaks because you tend to forget everything.
Secondly, keep it secret. Some people like myself tend to have a problem with this because we are so attention seeking at times and also like to share new things we learnt with everyone being extroverts. But the world is a cruel place. People tend to laugh at new people even when they are practicing. There was a point of time where I just went to a park to play my guitar at night because it was late. Unfortunately there were people there. The irony of it is, those people talk so much about how you ain't good at something when they can't even do or dare try it themselves. If you really must share, do it selectively with people you know will be supportive.