Dealing with Expectations and Being Too Hard on Oneself

When you feel bad about yourself, it is good to talk to a friend about it. 

I had a lot of self-doubt while I was training to be a freediving instructor at Freedive Utila. And I spoke to my friend, Caspar, who is a freediving instructor, about it. He helped me to see that many of the concerns I had were not issues and he asked me if I was being too hard on myself. 

Besides self-doubt about being an instructor, I also felt like I had failed in my life. When I think of my friends who have a stable job back home and are making progress in their careers, and I turned in and look at myself, still traveling the world, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I felt like a failed adult. I spoke to my friend, Robert, about it. He told me that my personality was such that I was very curious about many things and childlike in my adventures. Caspar also made me realise that like him, I had many interests, and it was unlikely that we would be able to stick to just one job for long. Considering these facts, perhaps I was being too hard on myself by comparing myself to my friends who have a more single-minded focus in their lives.

I had many such conversations with my friends while I was in Utila Island that made me realise that I needed to examine the expectations I had on myself. It seemed like I was constantly beating myself up over many things. Was I expecting too much from myself? Were my expectations unreasonable or unrealistic?

These experiences inspired this blog post: Dealing with Expectations and Being Too Hard on Myself.