you’re better than you think you are

YOU’RE BETTER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE

Kayiba Mpoyi

HOW IMPORTANT IS SELF ESTEEM WHEN REACHING YOUR GOALS?

THE POWER OF THE MIND

“ Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when thetough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough timesand you discover they aren’t so tough after all” – Gladwell. M (David and Goliath 2013)

YOU’RE BETTER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE

YOU WERE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME

Remember what you wanted to be when you grew up?

-Neuroscientist

-Doctor

-Astronaut

-Lawyer

Why was that?

Because you believed that you could!

You saw it somewhere maybe in a book, maybe on TV and you thought, wow I can do that!

And you didn’t wait for anyone’s approval and you certainly didn’t care about haters

Giving up??

What colour is that?

EXPERIENCE

Somewhere along the road, you were met with company, particularly failure and mistake.

And you had such a bad experience with them…but you took it TOO personally.

You had no idea that they were just hitchhikers and a lot of other people were l meeting them on the way too

People like these guys who were also on that road in fifth avenue

And for a while you kept on meeting them over and over again, and you just had no energy left in you.

They wore you out.

Now you’re tired and drained and you don’t believe you can do the things you dreamt of doing because a couple of standardized exams and tests and selection processes and bosses told you, you weren’t good enough

And they said “don’t call me, we’ll call you”

Now you’ve just thrown in the towel

YOU ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE

BECAUSE YOU’VE FORGOTTEN

That you’ve been here before

That you’ve probably been through worse

That you have been made stronger when you met them the first couple of times and they didn’t kill you

Surely this is not the first time you’ve felt

- unsure

- anxious

- scared

- like a total loser

Surely it cannot possibly be the very first time

Maybe two years ago something similar happened or you were pulled out of yourcomfort zone.

You had sleepless nights and lost appetite

If you can, can you remember detail for detail what it was?

Can you remember how it took so much from you

Can you remember feeling like it was just the end of the world

Can you remember wishing you were never born

You’ve taken for granted that you’ve overcome

You’ve taken for granted that in the midst of it all you’re still standing

You’ve taken for granted that there is a spirit in you that never gave up

Because even when you were under resourced

And under paid

And mistreated

And incapable

And lacked experience

You went for it anyway

So you think you just got lucky

That you caught a big break

That somewhere somehow life sorta kinda made a plan for you

That’s because you didn’t know

Inside you is that spirit although fragile, impossible to break

That warrior that just wouldn’t give in

That voice that said one more try after many rejections

The spirit to still be a joy to others even though there wasn’t much in your life

That smile when you really wanted to cry

That spring in your DNA that bounced back up when beat down

And you carried on with grace and the courage only heroes are made of

JUST KEEP GOING FORWARD

Because had it not been for failure you would never had known what success felt like

Had it not been for darkness, you never would know when the light shone on you

Had it not been for mistakes, you never would’ve been any wiser

Had it not been for those moments of weakness, you never would’ve learned strength

But you’ve been to war and back

And when you were in war you were younger

More naïve

Less experienced

Foolish

Weak

YET you survived, now you’re SO MUCH MORE than that

YOU WILL OVERCOME

YOU WLL MAKE IT

YOU WILL SUCCEED

YOU WILL ACHIEVE

YOU WILL, YOU CAN, SO YOU MUST

And life threw all these challenges at you because it knew, you were better than you thought you were

It was just waking a sleeping giant

And deep down you’ve never settled, you always knew

YOU CAN DO BETTER!! Because you are better than you’ve ever been