There
is nothing more demeaning in life
Dear Readers,
One of the problems that has been a
limiting factor for many people to grow in life is their “Inferiority Complex”.
This is a word many of you might have heard and few of you would have
experienced or still experiencing. Inferiority complex is a psychological state
of mind, which can drastically drain one’s energy, make one feel incapacitated,
shrinks one’s potential and lower one’s self-esteem.
Today, I find a lot of students,
especially the rural students have a difficulty facing an interview, because of
their lack of English fluency. This leads to inferiority complex, as they tend
to compare themselves with the urban students, who speak English fluently. This makes it difficult for them to perform
well in an interview. Similarly, I have
met many intelligent people, who don’t dare to go and speak up on a stage,
because they think they are not physically beautiful. Being short or dark or fat are some of the
physical features, which makes people develop an inferiority complex. This in
turn reduces their chances of shining in life. I feel sorry for them or rather
I am able to empathize with them, because I myself have been a victim of such
inferiority complex, during my school days and I have gone through the pain and
struggle. This gives me a perspective.
During my school days I used to be
short, thin and puny. I was put up in a boarding school at the age of 10. I was
the weakest of the lot, in my class. Because, I was weak it was easy for every
tom, dick and harry to tease me, nag me or bully me for no reason at all, and I
was absolutely helpless, at that point of time. In spite of feeling immense
emotional pain, I was not able to assert my rights, owing to the fear, that I
will be hit by them. As I did not have the strength to fight back, I was just
boiling within myself, but could find no way to redress it. As I had a very
poor physique, I was not selected for any sports activities. I used to be the
last one in a 100 metre dash, chasing all the runners and used to be booed and
mocked, by all my school mates. I used
to be the last pick, when teams were formed for any game, be it football, hockey
or volleyball. All these incidents, have been more than embarrassing. Moreover, I wasn’t good at studies too. I was
an average student. It was a very bad period of my life. On the whole, my life was miserable. There are so many days, I have cried within
myself and have been angry with God for making me like that.
When I moved from my high school to
higher secondary, there was a sudden sprout of growth in my height and physic.
I couldn’t believe myself. May be, God felt sorry for me and decided to answer
my prayers. This change, gave me an instant boost of confidence, which I have
never experienced before. I felt good about myself. However, whatever has
happened to us over a period of time, affects not only our conscious mind but
also our sub conscious mind, which is more powerful. As my sub conscious mind
was conditioned by the negative inputs, it kept pulling me down. So, while
outgrowing physically was a nature’s blessing, overcoming my sub conscious
conditioning was a big challenge, I had on myself. However, as I was a highly
ambitious person, I was determined to overcome this complex. So, I was looking
at ways, by which I could overcome this.
It is then, I discovered that the best
way to come over my inferiority complex, is by turning my attention towards my
strengths and operating from that source of strength, rather than worrying over
my weakness. I started to look at the areas, I was good at or have had positive
experience in life. I tried to recall, such positive experiences and I was able
to come up with a few. I had won the fancy dress competition, at school a
number of times, and so I realized I was creative. I had represented my school
table tennis team for few external tournaments, so I realized I was good in
that game. I was the class topper in a subject called, Advanced English throughout
my higher secondary, so I realised, I was good in English. So these were the
only strengths, I had to begin with. The day I started to focus on my strength
and not bother about my weaknesses, I started to feel stronger. Like a snowball
effect, one strength helped me to gain the next strength and slowly I acquired
more and more strength, through learning and training, till I became quite
confident about myself.
There are few things in life, that is
God given and cannot be changed, whereas there are many things in life, that we
can improve upon by our effort. By working on the things, we can improve upon
by our effort, we can get over the limitations given to us by nature. So don’t,
let inferiority complex to overpower you, when you have the ability to overcome
your complexes.
Happy Reading,
D. Senthil Kannan
Article Dated Mar 2016