After all these years… I am still battling my insecurities.
I had a chat with a friend yesterday. She opened up and told me how her insecurities are harming her professional and personal life.
She told me that when she feels insecure, she lacks confidence, her motivation and self-esteem decrease, and finds it difficult to communicate and collaborate with others at work and how that is negatively affecting her job performance and career advancement opportunities.
She also explained how her insecurities are leading to trust and communication issues and how that is making it difficult to maintain healthy relationships. What’s more, she has realized that her insecurities are contributing to her having a sense of unhappiness and dissatisfaction with her life.
After she stopped talking, I just pause for a moment, reflected and thought “f..k, you have just described the larger part of my life” – well, to be completely honest, I actually said that out-loud. Do you know what her reaction was? She laughed and said, “that makes me feel a lot better”.
Of course she didn’t mean she felt better because my insecurities have also harmed my personal and professional life in the past -and to this day although to a much lesser extent-, what she actually meant is that knowing that someone like me who comes across as been very self-confident has been battling with insecurities for most of my life shows her that you can have insecurities and still be successful in your professional life as well as improve your personal relationships.
Body image issues
If you read my first post, you already know that during my puberty, I was skinny and dealt with serious body image issues. I hated what I saw when I looked in the mirror and that made me feel very insecure.
If you have worked with me, you probably see me as a very self-confident person. And to be honest, I am self-confident, but I am self-confident not because I don’t have insecurities but DESPITE having them.
– Leverage self-acceptance and self-awareness to overcome your insecurities and be successful at your health and wellness goals –
Addressing and overcoming insecurities
The two factors
The two factors that have helped me the most when addressing and overcoming my insecurities are self-awareness and acceptance.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness has been a key factor in addressing and overcoming my insecurities. The more self-aware I am, the better I have become at understanding my thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and how they are influenced by my past experiences and internal biases. This understanding has helped me identify the root causes of my insecurities and work to address them in a more effective way.
Here’s how self-awareness has helped me deal with insecurities:
- It has helped me Identify triggers: Self-awareness allowed me to recognize the situations, people, or events that trigger my feelings of insecurity. This enabled me to can prepare for and manage them more effectively.
- It has made me challenge negative self-talk: Self-awareness helped me identify patterns of negative self-talk and learn to challenge and reframe these thoughts.
- It has enhanced my self-esteem: By becoming more aware of my strengths and abilities, I developed a more positive self-image and my self-esteem increased.
- It has improved my decision-making: Self-awareness helped me make more informed decisions, as I have a clearer understanding of what drives my behaviours and choices.
- It has helped me develop better relationships: With a deeper understanding of my insecurities, I am able to communicate more effectively with others and build stronger and more meaningful relationships.
Self-acceptance
Self-acceptance is the other crucial factor that has helped me overcome my insecurities. Self-acceptance involves recognizing and embracing your own flaws, weaknesses, and limitations, rather than trying to hide or deny them. By practicing self-acceptance, I have developed a more positive and realistic self-image, and have learned to value myself for who I am.
Here’s how practicing self-acceptance has helped me deal with insecurities:
- It has reduced self-criticism: Self-acceptance has reduced my feelings of self-criticism and negative self-talk, which are often the root causes of insecurity.
- It has improved my self-esteem: By accepting myself as I am, rather than constantly striving to meet external standards of perfection, I have increased my self-esteem and I feel more confident in my own skin.
- It has helped me to reduce anxiety: Practice self-acceptance has reduced my anxiety about being judged or rejected by others. This significantly reduces my feelings of insecurity.
- It has increased my resilience: Self-acceptance has helped me develop greater resilience in the face of life’s challenges by learning to rely on my own strengths and resources, rather than seeking validation from others.
- It has helped me develop healthier relationships: Being more self-accepting allows me to communicate my needs and boundaries better, and build stronger, more fulfilling relationships with others.
The difference...
After all these years, I am still battling my insecurities, the difference is that in the past my insecurities controlled me and now, I have the tools and skills to deal with them and I am the one who is in control (most of the time 😊).
My mission is to positively impact as many lives as possible by helping people live a thriving life through wellness. I could not impact a single life if I didn’t put a huge emphasis on mindset and behaviour.
Mindset and behaviour change are the key to success in achieving your health and wellness goals. These enable you to identify false beliefs about yourself, identify cognitive distortions, and it gives me the opportunity to reflect back to you what you just said but didn’t take the time to analyse and extract meaning from, it allows me to help you become more self-aware and accepting on yourself.
I refuse to only focus on helping people achieve their goals. Of course I want to help everyone achieve their goals but that alone does not guarantee long-term success so my goal is to also help you build the skills that will enable you to maintain your gains long-term, create and sustain new behaviours on your own, and even apply those skills to improve other areas of your life.
I hope you all have a fantastic day!
Recommended reading
Recommended reading
Additional Resources
Feeling in control of your health
If you are interested in improving your health and wellness, check out other resources such as Our Blog, Free Resources and/or join our private Body-Mind Transformation Secrets Community on Facebook, and The 360 Transformation Blueprint Podcast on Spotify and go on an even deeper dive with me to uncover how to succeed in your health and wellness goals.
You may also be interested in our Sleep Secrets Cheat Sheet. It is a great resource with strategies to fix and optimize your sleep which is crucial to succeeding in your health and wellness goals.
Resources
Pictures
