Remember what it was like to hear your cheerleader? We listened when we were young, and believed we were invincible and could do anything. Then at some point, we started to doubt what we were hearing and started buying into our imperfections. Maybe someone reminded us we weren’t smart enough or maybe we imagined it ourselves. In the video Run Like a Girl, we see six and seven-year-old girls being asked to demonstrate what a girl looks like when she runs, and they give it everything they’ve got. Fast forward to 13-year-old girls asked the same question, and we see them acting goofy. We start to forget our great value and begin to settle for less than we know we are capable of being and doing. It’s easier to argue for our limitations; we get to keep them.
We may have gotten used to listening to our critic (we think 600 to 800 words per minute and most of the time we’re reminding ourselves of what we can’t do); it’s easier. It’s a familiar voice. But we have the volume control, and as intelligent adults we have the ability to rethink what we say to ourselves.
Think about women like Nellie Bly—the journalist who got herself committed to an insane asylum in order to be taken seriously as a reporter, or Jessica Watson, a 16-year-old sailor who recently attempted a solo circumnavigation of the world by herself. What on earth did these women say to themselves? Extraordinary people are only ordinary ones—they just choose to ignore the critic; none of us have to listen.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find your own cheerleader today? What would he or she say to you? What voice do you have to silence? We already have everything we need to succeed, it’s all about remembering who we really are and creating a habit of expectation and appreciation for all we are and all that we can do and be.
