BETTER THAN YOU THINK.

“You’re doing better than you think you are.” As a Family Support Specialist, I get to have some one-on-one conversations with parents of our Head Start Preschool kids, and I have said this to a few of our parents. And every time I say it, I mean it.

We all have a lot on our plate, a lot going on at work, in our personal lives, with family, and no one ever knows what is really going on behind closed doors. What makes these experiences harder to handle is that we get so down on ourselves, telling ourselves that what we’re doing is not enough, or that we aren’t enough. And that can be a dangerous thought to entertain. But we don’t have to let these thoughts get the better of us.

We all need the occasional reminder that we are okay, that what we’re doing is working, no matter how slowly. It helps to look back at our past experiences, those hard things that we have made it through and overcome. We all have them. Those times in our lives when, at the end, we were a different version of ourselves: stronger, wiser, more capable than we were before. Because of these experiences you have evidence of your own ability to do hard things and be okay.

Life is hard, but you have already proven to yourself that you can do hard things, and even when you don’t realize it in the moment, you’re making it through, and you’re doing better than you think you are.

A practical application to give a try: Remember a difficult situation that you had to overcome. How did you do it? Write down what you learned about yourself and your ability to overcome difficult situations now and in the future.