When is the last time you had an opinion but didnât share it with anyone because you didnât think anyone would care? When is the last time you got really excited about an idea you had but then never pursued it because you decided it wasnât good enough? When is the last time you started to make something but gave up before you finished because you didnât think anyone would like it?
Youâll read a lot of articles that tell you to âjust do it,ââââdonât worry what others will think, keep going, keep persevering, donât give up!
But if you donât take yourself seriously youâll never be able to take any of that advice. Because youâll always be able to convince yourself that what youâre doing isnât important enough.
I didnât take myself seriously for a long time. I still struggle with taking myself seriously. I couldnât even put a finger on what it was I was doing to myself until about a year ago. But finally I realized thereâs this thing some people haveâââthis ability to get excited about something theyâre doing and go for it with some sort of crazy abandon. This ability to remain focused and stand firm and get on top of a mountain and shout out what they want for all to hear (so to speak).
And I knew I had the ability to climb up a mountain and do the same thing, but I would always talk myself out of it. And I finally realized it was because I just didnât take myself seriously.
I even struggled writing this articleâŚ
Why am I writing this? This is stupid. This is repetitive. Hasnât someone else said this before but better? Do I even know what Iâm trying to say? No one is going to read this. I should go work on something else. This is a waste of time.
Those were my thoughts almost every time I tried to create something new. I didnât take my own opinions, my ideas or even what I wanted for my life seriously.
So what happens when you donât take yourself seriously?
You spend a lot of time dreaming but not actually doing. You come up with ideas but you stop yourself before you even try.
Or you do try something but you give up quickly because you decide itâs not good enough, no one will like it, and it was a stupid idea anyway.
But the worst part happens ten years later when you look back on that thing you almost started and you realize there was something there. It wasnât half as bad as what you thought at the time and you might have really accomplished something if youâd only stuck with it.
What happens when you donât take yourself seriously?
You end up living a life you arenât all that proud of. You keep waiting to do that thing that youâre passionate about, you keep waiting to do that thing thatâs going to make you feel successful. You fill up your time with a bunch of things you think you have to do, but nothing you really want to do. You work hard and you do a good job but you also feel trapped inside yourself, putting on a show that someone else is directing.
And the worst part happens ten years later when youâve lost touch with who you really are, and you can no longer tell the difference between whatyou want and what other people want from you.
What happens when you donât take yourself seriously?
Youâll eventually see someone else who had the same idea you had, but she shared it with the world, she did something with it.
âBut it was the exact same idea!â you say. Yes, it wasâââbut that person took it seriously. That person took themselves seriously. That person said, âthis is interesting to me, so it could be interesting to someone else,â and they did something with it.
What happens when you donât take yourself seriously?
You resent people who do. You look at people who promote themselves and their ideas and you think theyâre egotistical or ridiculous. Or you look at people who you admire and you lament the fact that you could never ever accomplish what they have.
What happens when you donât take yourself seriously?
You sabotage yourself. You rush through a half-hearted execution and donât give yourself the time you need to learn something new, or do it the right way. And when it doesnât turn out the way you wanted you decide it was a total waste of time. But you might have had a totally different outcome if youâd first accepted the fact that it might take time but that the time would be worth it because you believed in it.
What happens when you donât take yourself seriously?
You get depressed. You get angry at yourself. You get disappointed in yourself. You wonder why you havenât done anything. You feel like you never will. You feel like itâs too late. But itâs not.
Every piece of every tiny little thing youâve ever thought is filled with possibilities. You donât know what. And thatâs scary. You might not yet know how. And thatâs hard. But when you take yourself seriously, you give yourself enough credit to know that you can figure it out. When you know in your heart that you and your ideas are important, you will give every idea you have a fighting chance.
That might mean speaking up at work. Or it might mean just finishing that one thing youâve been thinking about forever. Or it might mean tweeting about it, making a video or blog post about it, or getting on a stage and sharing it with an audience.
When you take yourself seriously you will make others take you seriously. You will put your ideas out there. You wonât hide them. You wonât delete them. You will keep trying.
