Blinders
It’s easy to get wrapped in the hustle and bustle of life
and it’s even easier to start comparing yourself to other people. Everyone has their moments when they start to
doubt themselves; when they start looking around the room comparing themselves
to this person or that person. Don’t be
ashamed because you’re not alone! I have
become much more aware of my thoughts and even realizing when I start to feel
self-conscious. It took me a while but I
have learned to change those negative thoughts.
You want to know how I did it?
Keep reading and you’ll find out J
1. Realizing & accepting you can’t be the best at
everything
This may sound harsh but I don’t mean it that way at
all. I personally have always been super
competitive whether it was family game night or a championship soccer game; I
was there to win. I always want to be
the best at everything but this is not a reasonable expectation for myself, or
anyone for that matter. Sure it would be
cool to be able to play soccer like Mia Hamm, ballet dance like Misty Copeland,
CrossFit like Brooke Ence, and bake like Betty Crocker but that isn’t realistic. Let’s think about this, if we really were
good at EVERYTHING then we wouldn’t be proud of our accomplishments or realize
our strengths. We would take things for
granted and that’s no fun.
2. Mastering your mind
This not an easy task but it’s a necessary one. If you’re like me then you have a very black
and white way of thinking. For example,
my dad got me into sports at a young age.
He taught me how to throw a baseball/football, how to kick a soccer
ball, and how to shoot baskets. Whenever
we would play baseball I would always want to be the pitcher and never the
hitter. Why? Because I wasn’t great at it. Instead of trying to become better or just
trying in general, I automatically labeled it as a weakness of mine. I would get so frustrated at myself I would
cry. I kept telling myself how terrible
I was, how badly I sucked. I let those
thoughts crash down on me over and over again.
I was downright mean to myself.
Looking back at this situation I let my thoughts and my mind get the
best of me. I let them control me. Instead of accepting that I wasn’t great at
hitting, taking a deep breath, and just having fun I refused to play and beat
myself up over it. Mastering those
thoughts and putting a positive spin on them is more than half the battle.
3. Put on your blinders
Everyone needs a pair of handy-dandy blinders. What are blinders you ask? They are invisible “googles” that help you
focus on yourself and only yourself. It’s
become a lot more difficult over the past 5 to 10 years to do this due to technology. Just logging on to social media you’re
bombarded with pictures of people ranging from your grandma to chiseled bodybuilders
or athletes. It’s hard to be nice to
yourself when society is telling you “you aren’t good enough.” What did I do to combat this? I deactivated my Facebook for 4 months this
past spring and stopped using my Instagram account. I stopped scrolling through pictures on the
internet and didn’t buy any bullshit, airbrushed magazines. I focused on me. I recently had to practice this tool during
one of my CrossFit classes a few weeks ago.
I was hyper-focused on being the best in the class that I didn’t enjoy
myself during the workout. I did this
for about two weeks before I snapped out of it.
I told myself, “Tori stop comparing how much weight people are moving,
stop worrying about beating the person next to you, and focus on YOU!” I picked the weight that I could do and
focused on beating the clock. I stopped
caring if I was the strongest person in the room and only concerned myself with
being stronger than I was yesterday.
It isn’t easy and I still have bad days but they are few and
far between. Some people call it selfish
being so concerned with myself but I look at it this way…I’m the only self I
have so why not be the happiest, healthiest, and most badass I can be! It’s called self-love for a reason. Stay strong & keep those blinders on!
xoxo me
