The hardest hurdle

02 May 2017

I wonder what self-esteem does to us all. Can lack of self-esteem lead mean a lack of success in life…? If people are told from young age that they are good with numbers will it mean that they become better at math? Can a good or bad grade change a person’s mindset and potentially their life?

If we assume that a person with more good grades has more self value. Then we could also assume that same person will treat themselves better because they already feel valuable. Shouldn’t we also assume that negative and positive traits of stereotypes have the same effect? Or will it have the opposite effect of helping people try harder to prove the stereotypes wrong? Some of the strongest people in the world have overcome great obstacles, but I wonder how many fall off the wagon before it even begins rolling. Where is motivation when nobody believes in you?

The underdog match of constantly trying to prove your worth to a close friend/family member happens all the times in movies. A child works all its life to impress a parent. When finally the child grows up and meets its big break, then everything falls into place. The problem with this story is that we all know the odds of an underdog. They are stacked against them for a reason. No one believes in them getting out of the scenario they’re in.

Afterwards the ones we look to for how to succeed are the ones with the success stories. How did you do it? How can I also succeed? The problem with these questions is that anyone can make the right choice after seeing the result. What’s worse is that they might choose to share their success when they don’t really know why they passed the test. Usually that means trying to boil success down to a few factors, while the answer is really everything that happened to them on their way there.

Maybe, in the end, success itself is really an arbitrary thing. If you meet someone who is happy with themselves, is that person successful? Or is it just a person you really look up to? Anyway you see it, I feel like a person who values themselves enough to believe in themselves has one less hurdle to cross than the ones that do not. Maybe that’s not enough, but at least it’s a start. Because if no one has the slightest belief in you accomplishing something, I don’t think you’ll have the chance to do it in the first place.