In a recent water-cooler conversation at work, a colleague said something that has stuck with me for days now. I was worried about advocating for myself and felt that I was not qualified for an opportunity that had presented itself to me. She responded to my fears and anxieties by saying “Give yourself permission to try. If the universe stops you, so be it.”
“Give yourself permission to try.” I thought about this for days on end, realizing that all my life, I had never really given myself permission to try anything that I felt I wasn’t ready for. I lived life in padded comfort zone. And don’t get me wrong, comfort is important. Psychological safety is important. But we are incapable of growth if we are always comfortable, and that hit me like a ton of bricks.
This past week, I’ve been giving myself permission to try. Permission to try something I knew I probably couldn’t do at the gym, permission to speak my mind at work, permission to care about myself and my well-being more than I had been. And you know what? It was one of the most satisfying weeks in my life. I didn’t succeed in everything. Hell, it would have been absurd if I had. But I gave myself permission to try, and when the universe stopped me, I wasn’t upset.
Why? Because I knew I would have continued to doubt myself if I had never tried. We learn from failure, and we’re told that over and over and over. But in the moments when we fail, we forget that growth is gradual. We forget that goals are achieved over time. We forget what we’re capable of, and we’re capable of so much more than our failures.
So tomorrow when you doubt yourself, when you say you’re not good enough, when your mind instantly says no, remember to give yourself permission to try. If the universe stops you, so be it.
Life of a Disgruntled Twenty-Something 