Friday Focus : Don’t let one anyone tell you that you’re not good enough 🌟💓

So on this post, I’m gonna share something quite personal and it’s little longer than others, so thank you for reading it though 🙏🏻

In Italian universities, exams are done differently to here. They’re a public oral interrogation - as in you are stood there, in front of a panel of Professors 👨🏻‍🏫 (and anyone else who wants to be there) throwing questions and scenarios at you.

To be prepared for this, you have to study the whole book, all the lesson notes...and just hope that you don’t get intimidated or nervous by this format. They were so strict in fact, that some Professors wouldn’t let you advance to the next question if you got the first one wrong. The pressure was HUGE!!

All through the schooling system that is how they are tested, so although not pleasant, most are used to it. Italian was a second language to me, I was still learning, so I found these situations very difficult and I completely froze. I was so embarrassed, and the more embarrassed I felt, the more I froze.

The Professor said to me, quite directly “Marina, don’t even bother continuing. Medicine isn’t for you, you should change career now because you’ll never be a doctor.”

A little while later, another Professor told me how sorry he felt for me, as I wasn’t 💯 Italian, so didn’t have the genetic make up that could compare to the intelligence of any of my fellow students.

Obviously I didn’t listen to either of them. I am a Doctor now 👩🏻‍⚕️ I do have my degree 📜 and I do help people each and every day and I do have dozens of dozens of clients in my history that STILL write to me THANKING me for how I’ve helped them and changed their lives for the better 💓

The reason I share this with you is because it’s so important to not let anyone change your beliefs about yourself or alter what you know you’re capable of.

1 failure, even 2, 3, 10 failures don’t determine whether you’re going to succeed in what you feel drawn and connected to. It’s whether we get up after those knock backs, and learn from the experience. Whether we can find the resilience and grit within ourselves, resound with our own truth, that will be the make or break of you.

It was Henry Ford who said “If you think you can or you can’t: you’re right!”

For today’s Friday focus - what would you love to do, even though you may not be the best at it? Do you want to garden? Sing? Cook?

This weekend, take one step forward in pursuing your passion. Get a book, watch a YouTube tutorial, listen to a podcast and make that first move. Thank you for reading.

M xo