Inadequate-Guest Post by LeRon Barton-Giveaway #StraightDope
Posted By Dee on March 14, 2013
What Makes You Stronger welcomes LeRon L. Barton who is on tour with At the Water Cooler Virtual Book Tours promoting his first title, Straight Dope: A 360 Degree Look Into American Drug Culture. Please enjoy this guest post by LeRon in which he shares his response to his and one of my favorite quotes. I thought it quite appropriate for this site because when we deal with illness, whether it is ours or that of a loved one, there comes a moment when we undoubtedly feel inadequate.
Inadequate
by LeRon L. Barton
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate but….
We are truly amazing. I think many people do not believe how great they are. When I was dating my ex (but totally awesome) girlfriend, she would always say that I was afraid of success, and I would be totally bewildered by that. Think about it, who would be afraid of achieving their goals, their dreams, totally triumphant over everything that they wanted. But then as I thought about and thought about (there was a lot of thought into this Ha!), I realized she was right (this was a common thing in our relationship). I did have a fear of success. What if I did achieve my goals? My life would totally change. Fear! Oh the fear. Think about it: Everything you have worked for you would have gotten, and that scares the crap out of some people. Some of it is because we don’t think we could ever accomplish our goals and the other would be because we do not deem ourselves worthy.
When I was younger, I never thought I was worthy. Why? Well there were a couple of things: I was teased because of the way I looked. I had a big head, I mean I couldn’t fit certain hats (I still have that problem darn it!), I was of a darker complexion, I talked very proper because my Mom made us read CONSTANTLY (thanks Mom), and because I was a little on the clumsy side (yep). So naturally teasing makes you feel a little insecure. When I started out writing, I would always say to myself, “Is this good enough?” “Am I as good as so and so…” And that train of thought would kill me. One day I was talking to my Mother about something and had said, “I don’t know if this is going to be good enough…” She interrupted me with the quickness (very fast she is) and said, “LeRon, there is no room in your mind for self doubt.” I would like to say that after that moment I stopped thinking like that, but I didn’t. It took awhile, but then I realized that I am great at what I do and there is no need to doubt myself. Why? It is a total waste of time. And from there came the realization that I am worthy of greatness.
