On the topic of self confidence.

I used to believe that self confidence meant to feel talented enough, that you could easily dismissed any negative feedback as “hate” because you know your worth. I thought that in order to gain self confidence, you needed to hone your craft until you felt like you deserved to be confident.

This led me to giving up on everything I ever started because I felt like there was an insurmountable mountain of grinding standing between me and feeling talented enough to actually enjoy what I was doing.

I was very wrong.

Self confidence is not to believe in your ability to do something, but rather to believe in your right to do it. Your right to learn, to fail, to be bad at it. To believe in your ability to receive criticism without falling apart.

Now, when I feel like I lack confidence in something, instead of grinding at it, I just sit down and close my eyes; I imagine what kind of negative things people could say about it and I imagine receive all comments with grace, even the hateful and undeserved ones (’cause haters’ gonna hate, u know?). I came to realize that it’s not my talent that makes me feel confident, it’s my ability to stay poised no matter what is thrown at me.