Give yourself a chance
I can't stand it when my friends put themselves down. Yes, not everybody is good in everything, and sometimes I too feel I won't be able to do this or figure that out, but stop saying you're hopeless, coz you're NOT!
Over the past year or two, I've realised that a person's attitude to life makes a lot of difference. When bumps appear in the road and we feel intimidated, do we go, "I can't", or "I'll try"? Is life an adventure and a challenge to you, or a series of brick walls and closed doors?
If, for example, you think you have a hopeless sense of direction, and because of that only shuttle back & forth between your office & your home, never daring to venture farther afield... I think that's so sad, coz you limit your own opportunities & experiences. I, on the other hand, have always thought I've got a lousy sense of direction, but I'm game to "experiment" with finding my way around. Like my best friend Janelle once said, "The best way to find out how to go somewhere is to get lost!"
Of course, the first few months after I started driving around Kuala Lumpur / Petaling Jaya were... interesting, to say the least. My office was my focal point, so if I wanted to go to a certain place, I'd always drive back to my office, then set out from there. This resulted in lots of going round in circles, and my friends continually teased me about using the long route to get everywhere.
But eventually I got better, of course, and now am much more confident driving around the city. Because I KNOW that directions are not my strong suit, I make it a point to call people up for directions, look up maps, take note of landmarks. I have yet to "lose" my car in a shopping mall carpark. Which is saying something, you know. Especially since I hang out in various shopping malls quite a bit! *grin*
I suddenly realised a few months ago that I should stop saying, "I've got a hopeless sense of direction" because it's not true. Maybe it never was true, maybe it was just that I was always careless and failed to take note of where I was going. If I'm not driving, and I accompany a friend to a shopping mall, I never bother to take note of where s/he has parked. I assume that the driver will do all that, you see, and so when the time comes to return to the car & drive home, I never know exactly where the car is located!
You see what I mean? I was wrong about myself. You have to give yourself a chance before you can know what you can do. And even if it's something you really can't do (like something technical, that requires a skilled, trained person to handle), that's not something to beat yourself up about. After all, before becoming that skilled, trained person, s/he was once as clueless as you ;)
Don't limit yourself, don't box yourself up and say, "I can't do this." I know so many people who, if given a pen and asked to draw a house, would baulk and say, "I can't draw," and refuse to even try. But if a child can squiggle some lines and come up with a structure that resembles a building, why can't we? Everyone can draw; some are just better at it than others.
Maybe we're ashamed of what we see as our own inadequacies, and we think that if we don't try, we won't expose ourselves and nobody will realise how deficient we are. I've discovered, though, that we're hardest on ourselves; as a writer sometimes I think what I write is crap, but others seem amazed by it. So don't put yourself down and don't limit yourself. You can do more than you think you can.