Welcome to another edition of Unshakable, Unbreakable, Unstoppable Stories with Bonnie Jean.
Have you ever wanted something but only had a brief amount of time to choose to chase that dream to try to get what you wanted? Except by the time you chose to go after it, it was too late?
I have.
Now I always have to wonder ‘what if?’ I’m never going to get another chance, and I’m never going to know for sure if I could have made it.
I’m talking about the chance I had in high school to play Division I softball in college.
I wanted to be good enough to compete at the top level of college competition. Looking back now, I know I could have been if I had just tried.
So why didn’t I?
The answer comes down to this: I didn’t have enough confidence in my softball skills to even attempt to play softball at a Division I college.
I knew I was a decent player, but I never let myself see how good I was. I was too busy pointing out my mistakes to anyone who would listen, secretly comparing myself to every other player on my team and trash talking to me about me.
Even when my coaches, teammates and parents would encourage me, I didn’t want to listen. I thought I needed to be negative and hard on myself to become a better player, so I didn’t want their praise or encouragement.
To be honest, I was downright grouchy and unbearable to be around if I played a bad game!
I realize how wrong I was now, but back then, I seriously believed the way to make myself better was to mentally beat myself up on a regular basis. And I believed the way to keep from being cocky and obnoxious was to focus on my mistakes, not praise my successes.
As a result of my negative mindset, I killed my own confidence. So as much as I wanted to play Division I college softball, I didn’t want to endure the embarrassment of not making a Division I team at the college of my choice.
I did want to play softball in college, though, so my goal was to find a small college that had a varsity softball program. That’s why I didn’t even consider attending a Division I school.
I chickened out on pushing myself to be my best because I had no confidence.
Part of me regrets that decision; the other part is glad I had the college experience I did. Still, I’ll always have to wonder if I could have made it at the next level.
Don’t lose your chance to be your best. If you want something, go for it no matter how scared you are.
Learn what it takes to be good, then practice DOING the skills you learn. The more action you take, the stronger your confidence will become.
To Your Dreams,
Bonnie Jean
P.S. Please don’t wait as long as I did to find your unshakable confidence! No matter how old you are, you can be an unshakable, unbreakable, unstoppable Dream Doer today! To help, I want to give you three FREE gifts, which includes the entire audio book of The Dream Doers and the Summer of Secrets. To claim your FREE gifts, visit TheDreamDoers.com now.
