Why you don’t feel ‘enough’ to pursue your calling

Believing you’re not good enough festers within

Certain blocks stand in the way of pursuing our calling.

Every vocation has them.

Some blocks are based on skills and know-how. These blocks are obvious. However there are other, not so obvious blocks. Blocks that I’ve termed Becoming Barriers.

Definition: Psychological challenges that we need to be overcome to pursue our path.

One of these Becoming Barriers is called, ‘Enough’.

You are enough

The Becoming Barrier of ‘enough’ is the idea that somewhere along the way, we stopped feeling worthy. Seeing others as better and feeling like an imposter. Maybe it started with a mother who wished we were different. Maybe a teacher or coach was brutally critical. This belief took root in us. Shaping our decisions and disconnecting us from the truth that we are good enough, simply by existing. Just as the trees, the sky, and the forest floor don’t question their place, neither should we.

Without this realisation, believing you’re not good enough festers within and causes us to be paralysed on our path. Thinking every next move is not good enough.

Atlas of the Munsell Color System (1915)

You aren’t yet enough

But there’s a nuance.

We are enough as human beings but we may not yet be enough in our craft. Mastery takes time. Decades. Skills must be learnt and experience needs to be acquired.

Understanding these two truths is crucial. That you are both enough because you are human but you have not yet reached your highest level of craftsmanship. Because not yet being there allows for growth which is also necessary for a beautiful human existence. Without understanding this we are always waiting to feel ‘ready’ rather than taking action in the world.

Without this realisation, we can wait and hope to one day be good enough. Without actively seeking to improve at our craft.

Everyone was a beginner once

When we doubt our own ability and never take action, we forget that everyone starts as a beginner. Before the big social media followings comes the first video. The scrunched up paintings in the bin prior to the masterpieces. The wobbly legs and uneven cuts before the handcrafted chair.

What makes someone “good enough” isn’t skipping this stage or finding ways to surpass it, rather it’s going through it with a desire to improve.

The Creation of Adam, Fresco by Michelangelo | Sistine Chapel ceiling c. 1508–1512.

Anchor to something greater

When we hesitate to pursue our calling, it’s often because we’ve lost our anchor to humanity — we’ve been severed from our soul and our understanding of our mortality. It’s easy to forget that life is fading away. But when we truly embrace our mortality, fully and whole-heartedly, the fear of mistakes dissolves. There is no ‘getting it wrong’. Rather, it’s simply a part of our unfolding human life’s story.

The gift in the struggle

There is gold within every Becoming Barrier. When we overcome the challenge of seeing ourselves as not ‘enough’ we are gifted with improvement, an awareness of our higher aims and the realisation that no matter what happens, good or bad, we are enough.

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