Do you know your insecurities? Have you ever asked yourself what you may be insecure about?
To be honest, I reckon most people don’t. That is until someone makes an off the cuff remark.
You know what I am talking about. Perhaps it’s regarding something you care deeply about (consciously or unconsciously) or maybe it’s a comment that sticks with you for the rest of the day, maybe week & leaves you asking; ‘I wonder what they meant by …’.
The truth is we all have insecurities. They are parts of ourselves that; we are a little uncertain about, we lack confidence in & fear public perception of.
A current personal example I can give is surrounding my business.
All my family members have steady, 9 – 5 professions, in more mainstream services. However, I started a small business (by myself), which lacks security, and is in diverse fields. I fear they think, ‘when’s he gonna get a real job’.
It can be confronting to admit these to yourself or reveal them to other people. Especially when you start trying to determine whether or not your insecurities are valid or invalid? Real or imaginary? What do I mean by this?
Let’s use my personal example from above.
When I rationalize that thought, all the evidence points to the contrary. My family are incredibly supportive of my endeavors, certainly morally, even in practice at times also (my parents let me set up a gym in there house).
So from that I know the thought is invalid, probably drummed up by my imagination – now I have to confront why I came to that thought.
Self reflection and discussion with others in my shoes suggest that these thoughts are more pervasive than I thought. That the uncertainty, and lack of confidence at times are a part of the creative process.
This realization allowed me to create a certain normality with these thoughts – one’s which I can now reframe and understand that it is a part of the process.
Whilst I have detailed above a personal example of how to turn insecurities into indifferences I also wanted to share another couple of examples which I have really enjoyed listening to.
- The first is from Johnny Shannon, a keynote speaker on the topic of Bullying (among other prevalent youth issues). Below Johnny discusses a real life discussion he had, which shifted how he looks at his insecurities:
- The second is from Max Gawn – Melbourne Football Club Captain. The takeaway from this is be honest with those around you with what you really are ‘INVESTED IN’. We’ve all got things people joke with us about which we are happy to brush off, but there are others which we are trying really hard at (and people may not know) which cut the deepest.
- And the final one, is just really warm hearted from Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. You can take this more from the perspective of the person making the comment that it is the imperfections (insecurities) which draw us to people.
