There is a voice that lives inside my head-a sly, reedy little voice whose sole purpose is to undermine my confidence. She loves nothing more than dredging up old fears and insecurities and heaping fuel onto them. She has sabotaged my plans on a number of occasions over the years, whittling away my self-esteem and making me doubt myself. It’s what she does best.
Most of us will have one of these voices. They manifest in different ways, and some of us are better at ignoring them than others. Mine doesn’t bother me too much on a day-to-day basis, but every so often she comes slinking out, usually when I’m feeling low or anxious. Even though I know that the majority of what she says is rubbish, there are still times when she gets the better of me. She has caused me to lose out on jobs, talked me out of pursuing certain opportunities, and been a general pain in the backside for much of my existence.
I first because conscious of this voice as an adolescent, when I developed an inferiority complex towards my karate partner. It didn’t matter that we had started at the same time and gone through all our gradings together. The snide little voice in my head told me that Amy was better. She was taller than me with a willowy dancer’s physique. Karate just looked better on her. No one had ever told me that, but then they didn’t need to. I told myself. This belief in my…
