Life isn’t easy.
Growing up, we had aspirations to walk on the moon or solve the world’s deadliest diseases.
Unfortunately, as we got older we started realizing that achieving those dreams aren’t so easy to do.
There’s always a hindrance to our aspirations and eventually we have trained ourselves to think that we’re not good enough.
However, part of conquering life includes quieting down the doubtful voices in our head.
Yet another aspect of life is maintaining both feet on the ground.
Growth all boils down to positive self-affirmation, of knowing the difference between confidence and arrogance.
A healthy balance will help you move forward and help you become a better person.
Don’t think it’s that easy? Here are 5 ways you can practice positive self-affirmation, without being a douchebag.
1) Be A Goal-Getter
Every single day we are bombarded with tasks. It’s funny how productivity works: the more tasks that need our attention, the more reluctant we become to work.
Inertia is a dangerous thing because your 1-week break can easily extend into 3-months without you knowing. So you better watch where you’re headed.
The solution is to pride yourself on doing small things, every day. Create a task list for a week and distribute to-dos evenly so you don’t burn yourself out on the first day.
Instead of tackling every with one big swoop, it’s better to accomplish things slowly but steadily.
Got a big project? Identify the different steps you have to take to complete that project and aim to cover it over a couple of days.
Let’s face it: we freeze at the sight of overwhelming responsibility. Instead of running away, try a proactive approach.
As a solution, try to chop off that pile of work, piece by piece, until you’re at the bottom of your checklist.
2) Watch What You Think
It’s much easier to listen and obey the voices in our head that say, “Hey bud, you’re never going to achieve that deadline” or “You’re never going to find a better thing to do in life.”
Self-doubt is just there, shadowing our every move and waiting to pounce from the darkness and pull us under. The question is, should you let it?
It’s easy to get lost in the thicket of sadness and unhappiness but sometimes the solution to the most complex of existential problems is a mindset change.
As cliche as this advice may be: always focus on the positive. It’s alright to feel bad about life.
It’s alright to feel bad about your situation. But if you become content with your life and let these thoughts eat you up, then you have no one else to blame but yourself.
3) Place Yourself In A Good Environment
The way we think, act, and feel is very much affected by who we choose to hang out with.
If you’re surrounding yourself with people who are goal-getters, you are likely to inherit the same characteristics and apply it to your own daily routine.
Hanging out with good people is one of the easiest ways to positively affirm yourself. If you’re in a good crowd and feel a deep sense of belongingness, that instantly gives you a support system that will tell you time and time again just how awesome you are.
4) Get Some Perspective
If there’s any good use to social media, it’s that we have access to millions of private lives on the internet.
A lot of people say social media has been detrimental to the growth of our species when really, some good uses can be fished out of it.
For example, you can find stories from real people. Realize that feelings of self-doubt, anxiety, fear, sadness, and loneliness are spread around the world and are not unique to your personhood.
The point is to know in your heart that’s it’s not just you. You’re not a snowflake, you’re not the only one feeling what you are feeling.
Getting perspective gives you a different kind of humility, one rooted in understanding that if other people can get through what they are experiencing, then so can you.
5) Kill Your Anxieties
Well, that’s pretty inaccurate. There’s no way you (or anyone, not even Mahatma Gandhi, maybe) could kill their anxieties 100%.
Anxieties are going to exist for as long as wel live, and that’s because we have this very human tendency to size up our capabilities VS what is required.
And that’s a perfectly normal tendency. What isn’t healthy, though, is to let your anxieties define who you are and how you live as a person.
Being able to feel anxious and still push through with a task will open so many doors for you.
You’ll finally be able to do things you’ve always kept yourself from doing.
As soon as you realize that, more often than not, the only person stopping you from achieving great things is you, the road to success is going to be clearer.
