You Are Already Enough You are MORE Than Enough Love yourself

Do you ever find yourself asking, am I good enough? And you know that you're doing everything right, at least that's the way it seems, but those lingering doubts still seem to creep in. If you've ever felt that way, let me tell you something, you are not alone. Today on the podcast, we're peeling back the layers of, of that feeling to uncover a truth that I hope will stick with you for the rest of your life, that you are already more than enough just as you are. Welcome to Be You, the podcast that helps you break free from expectations, embrace your true self, and live confidently as the real you. Yo, what's up, my peeps? Happy Podcast Thursday. I'm so happy that you're here and that we're diving into this topic of Feeling like we're just not enough. And I think, I know a lot of us grapple with this. We struggle with it daily, but maybe it's something that we don't talk about enough. Feeling like we are just not enough in our everyday life, in our jobs, in our relationship. And trust me, I've been there and there are times when I still go back there. Growing up, I always felt like I was going through life, navigating life with some different rule book than everybody else had. And for some reason, as, you know, as a gay kid in the world that, that didn't fully understand me, I didn't really understand it. I questioned in so many parts of my life where I fit in. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever questioned where you fit in life? Like the world was, was on one channel and you were on a different channel. Like the world was playing one game and, and you were still rolling the dice and reading the rules. For some of us, it might have been growing up like in a minority ethnic group like myself, dealing with cultural expectations while, you know, balancing your dreams. Like you're expected to do one thing and how dare you have this dream of doing something else that no one else has ever done, you know? And sometimes it's about playing it safe. Or maybe you're someone who's navigating life with some type of disability in a society that doesn't always accommodate the things that need accommodating. I remember in high school, everybody was dating everybody. Everybody was making plans for the future, including myself. But on the inside, I was always trying to figure out how to be me, like really me. And I remember there were so many times, you know, I played all the sports in high school. I was a theater kid and then a theater major in college, but I remember feeling like such a fake most of the time because I was trying so hard to be like the friends I hung out with, the friends that I felt like had more than I had, that maybe they had it more together than I did. And growing up during these times, I questioned everything. Like, I questioned my value. I questioned why I had certain dreams. I questioned my beliefs, what I believed. I questioned my behavior, how I should act. I was always trying to figure out how to be better, but it was better like my, my version of better then was how can I be better, which was more like so-and-so, not necessarily in the way that I view better today in 2025. Better as in improving who I am, improving how I show up, improving my impact on the world, improving the results that I help my clients get. As I'm recording this episode, I know that It's not just me who's feeling like that. It's not just me who's gone through a bulk of, of her life feeling like she's not good enough, feeling like she has to be like other people. I know many of us has felt this way, you know, am I right? Whether it's, maybe you're neurodivergent, maybe you have a different body type, maybe you're someone who grew up in a hyper, very religious environment when you don't share those same beliefs. Because the world loves fitting us all into a mold, fitting us into templates. Each of us faces some version of a story that if we didn't check the certain boxes, somehow we weren't good enough. If we didn't look like this, act like this, behave like this, be like this, we were not good enough. And you see, what consumed me was a story of who I thought I needed to be to get whatever I wanted. Because we live in a world, again, that loves templates, about what success looks like, what love is supposed to look like, what a family unit is supposed to look like. But here's the deal, in my entire life, I never found a template, a mold for me, even though I looked and searched long and hard for said template, but I never found it. You know why? Because it doesn't exist. And I'm sure you'd agree with me at this moment that at some point in your life, again, you have felt this way. Like you didn't fit that mold that your family expected of you. You didn't fit the mold of the family that you wanted to have the success, the career, the money you wanted to make. You did not fit that mold or template. And even people, when I think about it, that I know I admire deeply have felt this way. Like I read Michelle Obama's book Becoming, and even as First Lady, she felt like she was underqualified to be First Lady. Oprah Winfrey, someone else I admire and respect and look up to, has been honest about her struggles of self-worth, of feeling not enough, especially early on in her career before she quote made it. Rihanna, the artist, the musical artist, she has shared in her journey of fully accepting herself, discussing, you know, in different interviews how she struggled with self-doubt before she learned to embrace her unique identity and talents. And then Tina Fey, who I think is so incredibly funny. In her memoir, Bossypants, she discusses openly her struggles with self-esteem and again, how she felt like she was underqualified for the roles that she took on. So my peeps, if these incredible people can feel like they're not enough, what chance do we have, right? We are incredible too, but these people are in the public eye and they have reached a certain level of success. And they still feel like they're not enough. The thing is, feeling this way isn't proof that we're lacking or missing anything. I believe that it really is just a sign of being human. The thing that took me a long time to figure out was just being here, just being me without having to prove myself, without having to do all these actions, without having to say the right thing, dress the right way, walk the right way. Just being here, just being me. Is enough. And growing up, you see, I used to think that being different was some sort of defect. Like, seriously, I would think, why can't I be more like my friend Nicole? Why can't I be more like my friend Michelle? They've got it together. They've got all these perks in life and they come from the perfect family and they're driving the perfect car. And what's the matter with me? But as it turns out, we all are unique and that's what makes My story, my own. Your story, your own. And for every person listening to this episode right now, the richness that you bring to the world, your humor, your quirks, your perspective is something that no other one person on the earth can replicate. But that constant doubt, it seeps into everything. That doubt in myself that I was good enough, it made me shy away from opportunities because I thought to myself, one of the stories, what if they find out that I'm not the best? What if they find out I'm not the right fit? What if they find out I'm gay? What if they find out I hate wearing high heel shoes and girly clothes? My peeps, the emotional toll and the worrying about all of this nonsensical stuff is absolutely exhausting. I even had a client that I worked with who found herself as an adult doing more and more and more to reach that precipice of feeling like she's enough. And this stemmed from when she was a kid, when she was a young kid, and one day she decided to do all the laundry for her family. She cleaned up the entire house while her mom and her siblings weren't there. And when they all came home, no one noticed. Because no one noticed, we were able to peel back the layers of what was this cycle that she was still running through like a hamster on a wheel. Because you see, we carry this shit into our adult lives until we actually break the cycle. So in a nutshell, my peeps, you are absolutely already enough right now with your imperfections, your scars, your stories, your experiences, your laughter, your tears. You are enough. I spent years trying to be what I thought others needed me to be. Forgetting the magic of just being myself. But what I learned was the more that I lean into my authenticity, the more I was able to find that the world needs me to be exactly who I am. The world needs you to be exactly who you are, because this journey isn't about reaching some imaginary finish line of perfection. It's about holding on to the truth and knowing without a doubt You are more than enough just as you are. So my peeps, if you got nothing else from this episode, know this: you don't have to change who you are at your core to fit in, to do something, to please someone, to get approval, like I talked about on the last episode. You don't have to keep doing and doing and doing to be enough because we were all born Enough. My peeps, thank you so much for listening to this episode. And if this episode resonated with you in any way, I would love for you to share it with someone who could benefit from hearing this message. And if you're on this journey of rediscovering your authenticity, your self-worth, know that you're not alone. And if you'd like some help rediscovering your authentic core, getting back to who you know you are and who you were created to be, I want you to click the link in the show notes and let's talk. All right, my peeps, we'll talk next week.