you are one serious hot shot, you better believe it!

If you can't take yourself seriously, nobody else will be able to. Seriously!

Yes, I know how ridiculously silly I am in my own head. I have all these random ideas and crazy entrepreneurial ventures and ambitions I hope to one day pursue. Then the negative voice creeps up behind my shoulder and whispers in my ear, "do you think you can actually pull that off?" And then the voice gets louder, "you don't even have a strong skill set! who are you kidding?" It's a hard voice to shake off. But there comes a point where if you don't take yourself seriously and ward off that negative voice, it becomes detrimental to your self-worth and possibly seep over to your career life. It hinders you from moving forward because you are trapped in a cycle of self-doubt and insecurity about your abilities.

Sometimes, I have a hard time believing that I am 22, graduated from college and working at a real job. It's one of those realities that I struggle to come to terms with because I simply feel unprepared to be "an adult in the real world". The transition from student to adult is a hard mentality to adapt. (not that you're not an adult in college...but an adult in the sense that you're no longer in school and can take more responsibility.) It brings up a lot of insecurities because for the first time, it really is up to you. You are creating your future in the present. And you have to take responsibility for how you spend your time. By next month, it would have been a year since I've graduated from college. One year. Already?!! I feel like I've done so much and nothing at all. After one year of cycling in and out of the "twentysomething depression", I've learned that the best way to deal with it is to take action. The "twentysomething depression" is the state of confusion about what you want to do with your life and this confusion causes you to question everything. I mean everything. And then you question your questions. It also includes a period of self-reflection and some people even exhibit anti-social behaviors due to the fact that they may not be doing anything with their lives. And that's hard to admit.

Talking to friends, doing activities, working a part-time job, meeting new people and journaling have all been very helpful in my transitional year. The hardest element of being in this "twentysomething depression" is the cycle of negative thoughts and not being able to take yourself seriously (in other words, conceptualizing your potential).

As cheesy as this may sound, you really have to work at keeping a positive mentality. For me, repeating phrases in my head are helpful in feeling empowered.

"Believe in yourself, Christina."
"Christina, if you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place."

and yes, if I'm feeling particularly feisty, I even say:

"you are one serious hot shot--you better believe it!"

It's pretty much like a pep talk to yourself. Saying your name to yourself is a pretty powerful mental tool because it sets a serious tone and it feels like somebody else is keeping you in check, when it's actually just your own voice.

So, I'm learning each and every day to not let negativity discourage me from achieving my goals.

Just take it one day at a time and a couple months from now, observe the thought pattern and you'll find that your resilience towards the negativity has tremendously improved.