A month ago I was hired for a job in retail. The pay was alright, the hours were decent, but it was pretty much an over Christmas thing, which was fine for me, I was at a point where I was desperate enough to take anything. I picked up the job quickly, and four days after I started I get a call from my boss. She tells me that the night manager quit and wants to know if I want the job. I do.
My only real issue is that except for our GM and the assistant manager, all of the staff are about as new as I am. I find it hard to be in charge of people who I have no seniority over. I know more about the management end, the till functions, and I came in knowing more about sales and customer relations then most people would ever want to. I'm qualified. Logically, I know that.
My issue is that little voice that tells me I'm not. It says she offered me the job because they couldn't find anyone else, that I have no business tasking other people, and that I need to work harder and be better no matter what I do. This is the same voice that wants to sabotage any of my healthy eating habits by saying things like "why does it matter, you're never going to be the way you want?" or "just quit -- it's easier anyway." This same voice says I will never get published so why bother to write a novel; I'm a hack. Or that I don't deserve what I want, or I don't need it, or I'll never get it anyway.
From a logical stand point I can sit here and type that it's silly. Everything that voice tells me is bullshit. I'm great. But, for some reason when it comes right down to it, I just can't wrap my head around that I am actually good enough. I have confidence issues; most people wouldn't know it to meet me or spend time with me. I don't put myself down (aloud, at least), and I always
seem to go for what I want when I want it, and speak my mind. But just because people can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.
I don't feel I deserve anything, and that needs to stop.
I need to start getting a handle on my life. I need to let a lot of things go and change my thinking. Believe it or not, at one point when I was younger I had a healthy lifestyle. I need to recapture that and start taking care of my body -- really wanting it for reasons that are right for me. I need to set real goals, write them down and make plans to get there, not just live a life of abstract ideas. Most of all, I need to change how I see myself, and learn to really care about who I am.
I have always defined myself by the people in my life or the man in my bed, and I can't do that. It does me no good. I can't spend my time waiting for the approval or love of other people -- I need to get that from myself.
My relationship is ending in strange circumstances, I need to accept that. It's not on bad terms, it's really what's best for both of us, and we both know that. I have to look at it as what it is, an opportunity to start to really live my life as a whole, independent person; make my own money, have my own place and interests in the city I choose, and start to make life what I want it to be. I need to work my ass off to get what I want, and feel the accomplishment of achievement.
I know it's going to be hard, I don't want it to be easy -- I want it to be earned.