i'm not good enough.

Self-doubt and perfectionism are two sides of the same coin and they gnaw at most people, if not all of us. It can often feel like we'll never outrun these doubts, no matter how much praise or encouragement we receive from others. And with or without realising, we become enslaved to these thoughts, following them down a path that leads away from the person we'd like ourselves to be and the way we'd like to live our life.

Adding these words in front of our thoughts reminds us that we can simply observe our thoughts; that we can be observers of our thoughts rather than slaves to them. And then, as Frankl says, it gives us a window of opportunity to not simply react to our thoughts, but to choose how we would like to respond, to choose the path we'd like to travel, and that choice makes all the difference (hat tip, Robert Frost).

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

- Viktor E. Frankl