Throughout my 20’s and into my early 30’s I struggled with self image, as young adults often do. I’d be picking myself apart despite having an abundance of love and support surrounding me; reassuring me that I’m a a pretty great human being.

Reflecting on that period highlighted that while I clearly had pretty poor self-esteem issues, a big contributor to that negative thought pattern was what I was saying about myself, both out loud to friends and family as a joke, and behind closed doors. And while on the surface level it always seemed light-hearted and fine, over time you start to take what negative things you’re saying about yourself very seriously.

This is something I realised over the past couple of years and started to make a conscious decision to reduce — calling myself out and using tools like affirmations and daily journaling. Constantly telling myself that I’m on the right track, and “you can do this!”, really started to improve my mindset.

Through life experience I’ve come to the helpful realisation that, above all else, mindset matters. And often “fake it until you make it” has pushed me through periods of uncertainty. More often than not I’ve found that if I tell myself I can do something, I usually can. Even if at the start I have no idea how.

I still have times where I do slip back into this habit in some form, like self-doubt, but through being able to recognise that this was something that impacted me negatively in the past, it’s given me the tools to call it out and correct it in real time in the present.

Find me on Twitter or Instagram (@heyfuturejesse).