Insecurity

Hey,

I know you struggle. I know you feel inadequate. I do too. Everyone does. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, but sometimes it can be really hard to see our strengths. We are usually our own worst critic. We see our weaknesses before our strengths, but when it comes to other people, we only see the strengths. We only see what others want us to see. We only see their highlight reel.   We don't see the out-takes. We know ourselves, we see the out-takes, the bloopers and the behind the scenes. We see ourselves as we really are. We compare our worst to other people's best, and that's not fair. It's not fair to us, and it's not fair to them. 

"What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person." -John Green, Paper Towns. 

Deep down, we all know we can be great. We know our own capabilities, and our own strengths. We know we can do amazing things. Our problem is we are often times afraid that other people will put us down. We are afraid that because we can see our flaws, other people can too.

 Some people will put us down. There will always be negative people. That's no secret. The real secret is, the people that put us down, 9/10 won't put us down based on our flaws but on our strengths. They will try to make us question our strengths because the areas where we are strong are the areas where they are weak. It's sounds like something you'd hear in Elementary school but it's true throughout our entire lives. 

Our greatest strengths are also often our greatest weaknesses. One strength I have is that I am highly analytical. One weakness I have is that I'm extremely judgemental. There is two sides to every story. Finding a balance is difficult.  The playground bullies are going to find something we are good at, and twist it around until we can only see the bad. Satan does the exact same thing. He wants us to compare ourselves to others. He wants to make us insecure and hurt. He wants to make us miserable like he is. 

But we don't have to let him. 

We know what we are capable of. You know you can do wonderful and great things. I know I can too. Most people aren't going to try and stop us. I don't know why that seems to be such a big secret. Most of the people who are close to us are going to encourage us. They can see our strengths too. They know what we are capable of and want to help us. These are the kind of people you should hold onto. These are the kind of people who believe in you and want you to succeed. They are sad when we are hard on ourselves. They know we can be amazing. Deep down we know it too. These people are our cheerleaders. Everyone needs cheerleaders. Everyone needs friends. We need people who will help dream big and set goals. We need people who will stand by us even when we don't deserve it. Not only do we need these cheerleaders  in our lives, but we need to be these cheerleaders in other people's lives. 

Set a goal. Do something great and help someone else do something great too. Stop seeing people as more than people. Stop seeing yourself only for your flaws. 

Change your perspective and your perspective will start to change you. 

And let me know if you ever need a friend to cheer you on.