I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed the past week or so. I’ve been trying to modify this blog…to make it coordinate better with the rest of my website. And after spending a day or so learning just enough about WordPress and PHP to do it, my friend Cyn has just told me she can’t see the header.
Obviously I haven’t learned “just” enough.
So this little squirrel is my role model at the moment. He’s got a nice warm coat and isn’t letting the snow get him down. He’s also in no hurry. So I’ll be patient, too. And my warm coat is the confidence that I’ll get it all sorted out in the fullness of time. There’s no great rush…just enjoy the process as well as the results.
Photo from FunnyZoo.
Hey, Jean, that’s all well and good if you do have confidence. But what do you do if you don’t?
Ah, yes. How do you develop confidence? That was a big one for me. I personally bought a lot of self-hypnosis tapes and kept using the ones that worked. I also kept focusing on developing the skills I knew I needed. Both are necessary, I think.
I still remember a situation about 20 years ago when I was feeling very inadequate at work. There was so much I didn’t know, and there was no way I would ever learn it all. I told my boss it was clear I had to study a lot more. He said it wouldn’t do any good. What he meant was knowledge alone wouldn’t solve the problem, that he still felt he never knew enough. He was highly esteemed in his profession, but inside he felt like a fraud.
That’s a fairly common feeling among successful people, and the more I thought about it, the more ridiculous that attitude seemed. So I decided I would keep developing my technical skills, but my top priority was to enjoy the challenge of my job and to work on my self-esteem. It was a wise choice. I very seldom have the need to use any knowledge of accelerator physics any more. But having a basic feeling of self-worth/self-esteem helps in all aspects of our lives.