Take your own advice
You are giving it for a reason.
My sister called me a few days back to talk about her career choices. She is currently pursuing an MBA degree in HR, and with the market being slow — desirable jobs are tough. I told her that she needed to stick it out because this phase, right after a degree, is the best time to make a radical switch in your career.
It will be far easier now that a year or two later when you have taken up something in a different field. She came to me for advice because I have been doing “well” in my career and I couldn’t help but think that I didn’t do this when I was hunting for jobs. Heck, I can’t even do it now! I don’t dare to bet on my dreams.
But I had no problem telling my sister, with conviction, that she needs to figure out what she wants, work towards it and resist the temptation to accept just about anything. Why don’t we take our own advice?
We fear failure
This is not news, obviously! We are wired to survive which makes us risk-averse. But we fear failure so much that applying our advice on our problems sometimes doesn’t even occur to us. Our conscious self is unable to listen to our minds. Only if we let an idea percolate from our subconscious to conscious, we can assess it for what it is and take more calculated risks.
We expect us to fail more than others
“Yes, she can do it. She is strong and extremely smart. I don’t know about myself.” Or “I can’t take this up right now with so much happening already, but you should give it a shot. You have been to juggle between jobs before as well!” — have you heard yourself saying things like this? I know I have said these things to my friends. For some reason, I trust in them more than I trust in myself.
You have accomplished many important things up until this point. Why are you discounting any of that now? Just because someone’s struggles are not seen doesn’t mean they didn’t have a tough time. They did too. Your chances of success or failure are statistically the same as theirs. We tend to forget this in the face of failure. If you think they can do it, so can you!
It comes down to taking chances
We have to live our life, whatever happens, so we assume the worst and keep on living a mediocre life. Since we are not liable for someone else’s life, we can see the best-case scenario for them with little fear. This is so counterproductive! Only if we were able to see out best-case scenarios just as easily as someone else’s…
I want to leave you with this quote:
“You are only one decision away from a totally different life”
Use your confidence and faith to take a chance on yourself!
