No better than best

Today I presented a workshop at the city business library in central London, entitled how to become a tycoon woman. The feedback I got was really positive and empowering. One very nice woman even told me that she often attends workshops and finds herself thinking “gosh that delivery was terrible! I don't ever want to be like that” BUT today she thought “that's just how I want to be when I deliver my workshops.” She's aspiring to be me! Wow how fantastic. The strange thing is that I was thinking: I talk to fast; the information was insufficient and maybe my audience did not get what they paid for – well came for, because it was free.

Isn't it bizarre that the most critical eyes of all are our very own? No eyes see as many faults or pick as many holes or ignore as many successes as the pair of eyes stuck to the front of our own heads. Why is that? I think it is because we are fed a constant diet of other people's expectations. We feast on them hungrily and then we are surprised when we find that we don't measure up to them. Why would we? – They were never our dreams or our desires and we didn't construct the measuring stick. The only standard you ever have to meet is the one of I tried my hardest/I did my best because your best will always be good enough – because it is your best.

Clearly your best will change depending on the circumstances. On Darth Vader days, your best is going to be a lot different from what it is on the days when you are in complete flow with the universe. However, if you always do your best then that's all that is required. Knowing that you have no standard to meet other than your internal intention of doing your best allows you to take off the baggage of not-good-enough which saps our confidence and stops us achieving or even striving for our dreams.

Whenever you feel like you are not-good-enough ask yourself "did I do my best in this moment?" And if the answer is yes; say to the voice in your head “Be quiet! This is my best and my best is what is required”. If on the other hand the answer is no because you didn't try your hardest – forgive yourself and either go back and do your best if that's possible or set your intention to do so next time.

True success is built on confidence and confidence comes from being yourself rather than someone else's notion of you.

What do you do to turn down the voices in your head? Please share your strategies and comments I look forward to reading them.