You’re prepared and dressed properly. Resume in hand, portfolio in the other when you walk into the interview office to greet a potential employer. Hand outstretched, you hope your handshake is strong enough to make a good impression before you sit in front of them and explain your life goals. Your professional goals, your ideas, and how you’ll fit in their company so spectacularly that they can’t not hire you.
Your nerves tell you that this is a bad idea. This is a long shot. You’ll never manage to get the job because you don’t have the required experience. You’re not what they want. That’s what the butterflies in your stomach tell you, yet you raise your head a little higher. You walk a little taller, and you do what you went there to do.
It’s so easy to lose sight of your goals. It’s easy to pretend like they aren’t things you wanted in the first place. Having expectations is more frightening than having none… what if you’re disappointed? It’s easier to pretend like you didn’t want those things in the first place.
Doubt seeps into all of us. Like the tale of a little boy plugging a hole in a Dutch dike with his mere finger, sometimes that’s all we have to keep doubt from trickling in. Eventually your finger will start to hurt and you’ll either pull it out or begin to see the water dripping in. Slowly at first, but if you let it continue the dike will break and you’ll be flooded. Can you wait just a moment longer? Help will come.
Here’s your pep talk to remind you that your goals are attainable. Your goals are worth the fight. Don’t deny yourself the satisfaction of attaining something you’ve worked hard for. Don’t deny that you want to achieve something. If you came to get a better score on your dressage test, make sure your movements are done with care. If you came to give your horse some experience at a new showgrounds, don’t let him intimidate you when he’s pacing in his stall anxiously. Give him experience. If you want to win, remember what you came for.
Don’t let doubt pacify you. Doubt will encourage you to turn around when you reach the end of your journey towards your goals. It’ll act like a moat you can’t swim across to a castle. It’ll be the dragon you have to slay. Everyone says to be the hero of your own story so slay the dragon. Find another way across the moat. Someone else can be the damsel in distress or the princess in the tower.
Find your reasons and let them carry you towards your goals. Accept that there might be obstacles in the way, Doubt will follow you and might try and fight you. It might rise up and blow fire at you. Just remember that the hero can slay the dragon. Ask yourself: what did I come here for? When you have your answer, pick up your sword and fight to the finish.