I wrote about dealing with insecurities by making a case for selfishness a week ago. There are were a couple of sentences in that post that I thought I’d revisit.
“I am of the view that you don’t ever get rid of your demons. But, you do learn to keep them at bay. So, I don’t think you ever truly get rid of insecurities. You just learn to accept their presence, work with them, and consistently let your best self shine through.”
This was the single hardest concept that I have grappled with over the years. I initially operated with the assumption that you build self-confidence brick by brick and reach a point when you don’t ever see your insecurities again. It turns out that that is not true.
A parallel that came to mind was John Nash’s experience as depicted in the Oscar winning movie ‘A Beautiful Mind.’ In the end, Nash is shown to come to terms with his schizophrenia, but the characters from his delusions don’t go away. They’re still there. He’s just learnt to ignore them and carry on with his own life.
That’s a great way to think about insecurities. The best outcome of dealing with them and building our self-confidence isn’t that they disappear. We just learn to develop the self-awareness necessary to overcome them. Courage isn’t the absence of fear and insecurities, it is the realization that there are things more important than fear.
And, from personal experience, it is definitely the happier path…
A Learning a Day 