Unhappiness due to lack of self confidence

As you look around at your fellow human beings, you will find it hard to

ignore the fact that very few people are happy, fulfilled and leading

purposeful lives. Most of them seem unable to cope with their problems

and the circumstances of daily living. The majority, settling for the

average, have resigned themselves to “just getting by.”

Resignation to mediocrity has become a way of life. As a result, feelings

of inadequacy cause them, quite humanly, to blame society, people,

circumstances, and surrounding conditions for their failures and

disappointments. The idea that people and things control their lives is so

thoroughly ingrained in their thinking that they normally will not respond

to logical arguments that prove otherwise.

William James, the eminent philosopher and psychologist, once

observed that “The greatest discovery of our age has been that we, by

changing the inner aspects of our thinking, can change the outer

aspects of our lives.” Wrapped up in this brief statement is the dynamic

truth that we are not victims, but co-creators in the building of our lives

and the world around us. Or, as another sage puts it, “We aren’t what

we think we are, but what we think, we are!”