minor accomplishments

Just a few days ago I found myself blaming my other self for not being able to speak comfortably in front of a group of people when I had been in front of people for so long. The more I blamed myself, the more anxious I felt, and the more nervous I got. It took a good friend of mine to remind me that I had always been able to perform under pressure and nothing bad has ever happened. Rather than taking those accomplishments into consideration, I found myself making excuses on how that situation was easier and this situation is different. After my speech today I finally realized that this situation is not different and need to give myself more credit than I usually do. After a sigh of relief, a whole of bunch of weight was lifted off my shoulders and I realized that I was one step closer to getting over my fear of public speaking. Suddenly I came to see how all the stress I put myself under the last few days was unneccesary and gave myself more credit for the things I had been able to accomplish for now. 

A lot of people nowadays, myself included, tend to focus on major goals and often define failure based on not reaching those goals. We blame ourselves for not being able to do certain things in an unrealistic amount of time or under conditions we cannot control. Of course this is natural because we were always taught to "look at the bigger picture" and that you are not successful until you "make it big." And that's fine because we all want to be successful and make it big one day. But sometimes we may forget that we can't just take one big leap to reach our final destination. Success is a path that requires many strenous steps and each and every step is as important as the one before it. In order to make our dreams more realistic, we need to start making little goals and working towards achieving those goals in efforts to reach our final destination. Remember that every minor accomplishment is a credible accomplishment no matter how "minor" it seems. Value every effort that you put into achieving your current status and work even harder to get where you want to be.

My final goal is to become a health care educator. Although I have not mastered the art of public speaking, I will continue to practice and value every chance I get and not blame myself if I stumble and fall along the way. I will learn how to value every minor accomplishment that steers me along the right path to becoming an educator and this starts by me learning how to love myself...