To Be or Not To Be

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

~A Wise Man Said~

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
 

I was attending a conference recently where Professor Dame Sue Black narrated an anecdote. She shared that her PhD supervisor, who at that time was supervising one other student besides herself, told her that she was not as clever as the other student but she made up for it with hard work. She said that these words had a big impact on her confidence and it took her a while to regain it.
Many a times people don’t seem to have the same high opinion of us as we have of ourselves or they don’t seem to see our worth the way we would like them to. At these times it’s easy to convince ourselves that maybe they’re right because they would know or should know better; maybe we think too highly of ourselves or of the product of our labours and it’s probably not good enough. At these times it is very difficult not to be dejected or not to give up or not to lose the motivation to immerse ourselves in our work. Obviously the solution can’t be to be so arrogant and up in the clouds that no feedback reaches us and we refuse to learn or grow. But, how do we balance humility and openness to points of view with strong inner confidence? How do we receive negative or lukewarm feedback and still continue believing in the power of our ideas? I’m not sure… but clearly the ability to do so is what differentiates success from failure. That is the lesson I took away from the anecdote.

posted by Sylvia D'souza at 4:03 am 0 comments
HOME