One of the greatest barriers to accomplishments and to happiness is the feeling of inferiority.  How many of us fail to try new things because we're afraid we don't have the ability to succeed?  How many of us imagine, usually falsely, that others have a low opinion of us? How many of us suffer immensely from self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy?  The answer to all these questions is that far too many of us suffer from such feelings.

Some of these feelings come from criticism that we have experienced from others in the past.  Some people seem to think that the only way to build themselves up is to go around tearing others down.  If we have encountered many of these people, we may have allowed the often-unjust criticism to affect our judgment of ourselves and our abilities.  In the words of Thomas Fuller, M.D., "He that listens after what people say of him shall never have peace."          

Some of us have a tendency to sell ourselves short and, when we do this, we are just inviting others to concur.  According to William Hazlitt, "He who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others."  If we have a low opinion of ourselves, we invite others to share that opinion.  In the words of an old Russian proverb, "Make thyself a sheep, and the wolf is ready." We must always remember that every one of us is important, and that each of us has his or her own set of unique talents.  Therefore, we should not judge ourselves, or accept the judgment of others, on the basis of how we compare to some other person. We must strive to be ourselves and make the most of our individual abilities and talents.

In doing so, we must be careful not to go from one extreme to another.  Just as we do not want to feel inferior to others, we must guard against the tendency to sometimes feel superior to others. We must make the most of our abilities to accomplish whatever we can for both ourselves and our fellow human beings.  Most of us can accomplish so much more than we think we can if we can just maintain a positive attitude about ourselves, and life, in general.  But feelings of inferiority can get in the way and diminish our abilities.  As Eleanor Roosevelt said, we must always remember that no one can make us feel inferior without our consent.  We should never consent to feeling inferior because we are not inferior.  We are all important individuals with our own set of unique talents.

Copyright 2014 Allen Smith 

TB-91—Posted 06/23/2014

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