Are you afraid?
15 years ago, I wrote an autobiographical essay as part of a course…
Until too recently for my taste, I always avoided what I could avoid that seemed too difficult or too long. I could dodge fundamentally important - even essential - questions by simply telling my someone, or myself, that I was not capable, or that it was too complicated.
It was then that, at the stage where I no longer even made the effort to think of an answer or the feasibility of an act according to my physical or psychological capacities, I met an angel, or rather, an angel met me, since never at that time could I have believed myself capable of going to speak to this natural beauty.
I spent an entire class with her, but from the first few weeks, I noticed that she regretted having spoken to me in the first place, without really knowing why.
Finally, a few days later, she let me know why: she didn’t appreciate my multiple “I can’t do it”.
It was a very simple sentence, which she had perhaps said hundreds of times to other people, but it left a deep impression on me, because it came from the mouth of my angel, but especially because before she told me, I hadn’t noticed what she was saying.
I initially thought she said this because I had said that I was unable to do particularly difficult actions a few times that particular day, but when I thought about it again – because I thought about it very often – I realized that I was systematically saying it, without even paying attention to it, and that it affected my life to the highest degree.
Following this very simple sentence, I noticed each moment when I was about to say my newly taboo sentence, and I immediately replaced it with another more positive sentence, which allowed me, among other things, to learn Für Elise, a classical music whose score I never thought I would even understand, in less time than I would have thought possible, even by an experienced virtuoso, without real difficulties.
This part is extremely important
in life. Your life as much as mine.
Why?
Because this text is about the two women who encouraged me to start giving you my advice on the Internet.
One of these women probably did it without wanting to, by increasing my confidence and self-esteem: my angel.
The other woman did it by asking me to write this essay, it is my teacher, who left me a note next to the 5/5 at the end of my essay:
Excellent text!
Maybe you already do it; but you should write in your free time!
Why am I telling you all this?
First, because you have to trust yourself to learn well, but that is far from being the only reason.
Having confidence in yourself is the key to success. The success of your life, of your learning, of your dreams.
And no matter your level of confidence, you can always have more and more confidence, I am living proof of this, and I am not the only one.
I was extremely shy. My ex-best friend once said that I was the most shy person I know. And I barely dared to do what I loved to do.
Today, I can talk to you about myself freely, something I would never have managed to do before.
If you consider yourself too shy, not confident enough, never lose hope, you will improve.
I would even say more: if you know that you do not have confidence in yourself, you have already taken the most important step.
You could have not known it, like me … It took me an angel to realize it.
P.S. Article written almost 15 years ago! (Nov. 2009)