Don't Count Yourself Out

Have you ever talked yourself out of something before anyone else had the chance to say yes? Maybe it was a job you never applied for because you did not check every box. Maybe it was a conversation you never started, a dream you shelved, or a relationship you assumed was out of reach. Most of us have done it. We hold up a record in our minds, count every reason we are not enough, and close the books before the story has even begun.

What I have realized is that the voice that counts us out the loudest is usually our own. The world rarely gets the first vote. We hand ourselves the rejection in advance, thinking we are protecting ourselves from disappointment, when really we are protecting ourselves from possibility.

My recent conversation with Marcel Mneimne brought that lesson right back to the surface. In a story he shares, someone believed in him before he believed in himself and that nudge changed the direction of his life. It made me think...Who has been that voice for you and who are you being that voice for right now? Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do for a coworker, a child, a friend, or a spouse is to say out loud what they cannot yet see in themselves.

Counting ourselves out shows up in quieter ways, too. It looks like suffering in silence because we don't want to be a bother. At work, we try to handle the workload from those who could share the weight. At home, we keep them from the people who love us most and then we wonder why we feel so alone. Silence can feel like strength, but it also keeps the help we need so far away.

It can also show up when things end like a job, a partnership, or a friendship and we begin to feel that's all we had. In this episode, Marcel spoke about this and said that losing a title is not the same as losing your vision. What you carry inside, your gifts, your lessons, your heart, goes with us into every new chapter. It's a season. It's a weening.  Sometimes we have to release the weight to reach our new heights.

So, where have you already counted yourself out? Where do you need to count yourself back in?  What will you apply this week?

Tune in to the full episode of the KimUnity Soulutions Podcast and listen to the experiences of Marcel Mneimne on Spotify, Apple Podcasts Youtube.

Truly, 

Kim the SME