Thanks, Mike. Good points. I have Anthony Robbins' _Awaken the Giant Within_, and I'll take a look at the section that you mentioned.
I changed my understanding after reading your post. Here's what I now have:
- I'm convinced that I'm a good person, worthy of success, and that I like myself. (I'm happy with these convictions.)
- I'm convinced that I may be criticised at any time by people for things that I try to do. (This is from many childhood experiences. I hold myself back from trying things that would make me happy, because I want to avoid any potential criticisms. Nevermind the fact that I am an instructor for about ten weeks each year; the last class applauded me and the most argumentative student said I was the best instructor he's ever had.)
- I feel like a failure for not accomplishing (not even trying) things that I would like to accomplish.
It's like I bounce back-and-forth between feeling proud of myself and feeling like a failure. Ugh.
Any further clarifications and/or recommendations to nip this in the bud are greatly appreciated.
Recent successes with changing beliefs:
- the result of believing that I'm right inspired me to remember names. It was pretty cool when a lady told me her name and I *felt* her name stick in my brain. I used to intentionally not remember names, because of my fear of being wrong. I didn't want to accidentally call someone by the wrong name, so I didn't call them by any name at all. Remembering names is so easy that it's silly!
