When I look at the faces gracing the covers of fashion and sport magazines, or think about the minds that create medicine, technology or literature, it’s hard to agree that regular folk like me are equal to them. I mean, just look at the four photos streaming across the top of this page. That's no genius model up there!
Stop comparing. It never helps.
We are all so busy comparing ourselves to whomever we think is better than we are. But we all have something wonderful about us.
You might be smarter than her and she might be faster than me and I might be funnier than him and he might be more creative than you. But we all have something, and if we’d give ourselves a break from comparing ourselves to other people and spend some time living in our own skin, I think we’d all be better off.
And it’s not just models or geniuses that we compare ourselves, too. We get insecure in our every day lives. At parties (she has better shoes than me!). At meetings (he’s more confident than me!). At presentations (she has better research than me!). We always seem to come up short.
Tips and tricks.
I have a few tricks that may help you be the relaxo-maxo person you strive to be. Want to know what they are? I am willing to share my secrets with you! You too can be amazing! For just $69.99 I will send you my e-book.
Just kidding.
Like many other people, I get nervous in large groups. That old adage of picturing everyone in their underwear doesn’t work for me. Here’s a short list of what does (especially in regards to public speaking):
We are all insecure. We all compare, unfairly, ourselves to what we perceive to be greater than we are. But we all poop. We all have morning hair. It's the great equalizer.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aishwarya_Rai_Bachchan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rosner
Image credit:
Bad-ass morning hair photos are mine, baby!
Non-barfy photos belong to www.frankiepanky.com (Beerlesque 3).
Stop comparing. It never helps.
We are all so busy comparing ourselves to whomever we think is better than we are. But we all have something wonderful about us.
You might be smarter than her and she might be faster than me and I might be funnier than him and he might be more creative than you. But we all have something, and if we’d give ourselves a break from comparing ourselves to other people and spend some time living in our own skin, I think we’d all be better off.
And it’s not just models or geniuses that we compare ourselves, too. We get insecure in our every day lives. At parties (she has better shoes than me!). At meetings (he’s more confident than me!). At presentations (she has better research than me!). We always seem to come up short.
Tips and tricks.
I have a few tricks that may help you be the relaxo-maxo person you strive to be. Want to know what they are? I am willing to share my secrets with you! You too can be amazing! For just $69.99 I will send you my e-book.
Just kidding.
Like many other people, I get nervous in large groups. That old adage of picturing everyone in their underwear doesn’t work for me. Here’s a short list of what does (especially in regards to public speaking):
- I remind myself that everyone poops. Gross, right? Sorry. But everyone hits the bathroom for their daily constitutional. And if they don’t, they wish they did. And, for me, remembering this suddenly means we’re all equal again.
- I remind myself that no one else knows I’m nervous or insecure. They likely think I am an expert in whatever it is I am speaking about. I assume this only because that is what I assume about whomever speaks at the sessions I attend.
- I remember what really matters. Big things like curing cancer, abolishing racism and sexism, getting people on the other side of the poverty line, and then suddenly being nervous about public speaking or meeting new people seems pretty insignificant.
- I hold perfect posture and trick myself into believing that I am tricking my audience into believing I might have been a dancer at some point. I’m not sure why this works, but it does.
- I look around the room and try to imagine what kind of morning hair my audience might have. Morning hair is funny and you just can’t be nervous when imagining the guy in front of you with one side of his hair racing towards the gods and the other side pretending to be a Fu Manchu 'stache.
We are all insecure. We all compare, unfairly, ourselves to what we perceive to be greater than we are. But we all poop. We all have morning hair. It's the great equalizer.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aishwarya_Rai_Bachchan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rosner
Image credit:
Bad-ass morning hair photos are mine, baby!
Non-barfy photos belong to www.frankiepanky.com (Beerlesque 3).
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