the belief of others

Self belief is something that I have always thought is important. Self belief gives us confidence and generally makes us feel better about ourselves and what we can do. But, something what is almost equally important is the belief of the others around us. It's good to believe in yourself, but if no one else believes in you, you begin to doubt yourself, and thus start to lose self belief.

Obviously you can't force people to believe in you, as that's their decision, but you can find people who do. Your family may not believe in you, but your friends might believe in you and help you out every step of the way. The best thing to do is to listen to those who actually do believe in you, and pay less attention to those who doubt you.

What I often find works well, is doing exactly what you want while believing in yourself all the way, and allow others to watch your success and slowly but surely begin to realise that you are more capable of doing things than they ever imagined. Belief from others is similar to respect in the way it is earned. It is not automatic, but you have to prove yourself worthy of it first.


At first, I don't think anyone truly believed that I would be able to stop self harming because in the past I have failed to stop myself, even after trying really hard. I didn't believe in myself to begin with, but now, over five hundred days later, I have proved myself wrong, and shown everyone else that I am so much more capable of recovery than anyone ever imagined. Because of this, I now have people who genuinely believe I can do anything, get through anything, achieve anything, and I think my hard work against tough urges and proving myself to everyone is what has allowed people to believe in me.

I have proved myself, and now they know exactly what I can do... they truly believe in me.