5 Surprising Truths About Feeling Inferior
God and nitwits never feel inferior. Normal folk grapple with feeling inferior. Feeling like you’re not there yet is reality, not inferiority. Feeling like you’ve arrived is delusion.
The dog who barks the loudest is feeling inferior.
Not inferior:
#1. Mistake-making.
You prove yourself worthy – not inferior – when you own up to screwing up. Feeling disappointed for screwing up is opportunity when you own it.
#2. Not being smartest.
It’s wise, not weak, to surround yourself with smart people. Inferiority fights to be right when it’s wrong. Leaders who feel worthy have courage to learn,
#3. Weakness.
Awareness of faults, frailties, and weaknesses doesn’t make you inferior; it makes you self-aware. Wallowing in weaknesses makes you inferior. Facing weaknesses is courageous.
Believing in yourself isn’t arrogant when you acknowledge you have far to go.
#4. Serving.
Serving others isn’t needy, unless you do it with hidden motives.
Serving others is self-serving in a good way. You serve in part to earn opportunity, to demonstrate value, and because it feels good.
#5. Comparison.
Comparing yourself to others is part of life. You are inferior to everyone in some way. Only jerk-holes are superior to everyone. You’re not as smart as Einstein and you don’t care, unless you want to outshine him. Then you feel envy.
You feel envy when feeling inferior.
The opposite of feeling inferior:
The opposite of inferiority is worthy, not superiority. Others help us feel worthy, but the most important person to believe is you.
You don’t have to be the smartest, strongest, or most successful, but feeling worthy helps you learn, grow, and contribute.
“Self-doubt contributes to people choosing misery over joy and emptiness over fulfillment and imprisonment over freedom.” B.J. Davis
What signs of feeling inferior do you see in others? In you?
When did you begin feeling worthy?
Learn more:
The One Behavior that Most Advances Your Leadership
What Is an Inferiority Complex?
Opposite of Inferiority is worthy, not superiority… was an eye opener for me. Thank you
Glad to be useful, cv….
I used to work for someone who said if you were the smartest person in the room, it was time to find another room.
That’s one of those statements that is easy to say and hard to do. Leaders ask, if I’m not the smartest person in the room how will people respect me.
Only poor leaders ask that question. And the answer is to send them to read this blog, especially today’s.
A feeling of worthiness – that’s something to believe in. John Eades, an author [Building the Best] that you have recognized, cites this quote from Abraham Lincoln in his book that helps me when the feeling of inferiority starts to creep in: “Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.”
Thanks for bringing a personal focus to our humanness!