I Believe In Myself And Also Unicorns

In her book, “Not Much Just Chillin’”, Linda Perlstein reveals the hidden lives of middle schoolers. And while the book in its entirety is pretty fantastic, the most interesting part to me was this fact: During middle school, our brains are developing the part of our brains that handles habits. Essentially, there are all of the cells that are fighting to survive, and the ones that stick are the ones that we are using the most in middle school. This is why some people have random memories from middle school, or can recite French perfectly, or still know how to play the clarinet; whatever you practice, that’s what sticks. Your habits are formed in middle school.

I don’t know what your habits were during middle school, but mine were based around being awkward and raging hormones. I also had a relatively low self-perception because, well, middle school.

Reading this book got me thinking: is middle school when we start to doubt ourselves? Are the habits that cause low self-esteem — and make us squeeze our love handles incessantly or pick ourselves apart while looking in the mirror — habits that were formed when we were tweenagers? And does this mean that everyone struggles with self-doubt? Even *gasp* celebrities?

Studies show that once you start a new healthy habit, your self-perception — specifically what you think about your ability and your worth — is one of the key factors for whether or not you’ll stay motivated. But that’s silly because of course I believe in myself. Right?

Maybe there are more doubts bubbling below the surface than I am aware of, simply because they’ve been habits since before high school. Maybe the way I see myself influences much more than just my past — maybe it keeps me from sticking to my healthy habits.

So if self-perception is underneath the surface as we start new healthy habits, it means that self-perception has to come before the healthy habit, not just be a byproduct of it. This also means that starting a healthy habit could surface some self-doubts that we don’t know we have.

The good thing about being humans is that we have the chance to rewire our brains. We get new beginnings all the time. With every new revelation about ourselves, we gain more tools to improve ourselves. Creating healthy habits is a personal investment. We just have to believe that we are worth the work.

Do you believe you’re worth it?