It’s been a recurring theme in my life: Every time I’m offered an opportunity that stretches me beyond my comfort zone, an incessant mental chatter pulls the excitement out from under my feet:
“You’ll make a fool of yourself!” “They’ll realize you don’t know much at all!”
A running reel of images plays on my mental Jumbotron. It seems that the sole purpose of my power of imagination is to terrorize myself.
Perhaps you’ve heard that voice too. The one reminding you that you’re somehow not enough. Not smart enough, not intelligent enough, not witty enough, and certainly not worthy enough to do anything of much importance. It cautions you that as long as you continue playing small, you’ll come to no harm.
Why do so many of us struggle with this voice? Why has the magic of language also burdened us with a personal narrator that speaks to us mostly in negative terms? Is it blind to our potential, or is it wise in its assessment that despite sitting at the top of the food chain, we really don’t amount to much at all?   read more at Happify.com