Simple Practical Ways to Overcome Inferiority Complex
- 2. Page | 1 CONTENTS Introduction - - - - - - - 2 Overview of Inferiority Complex - - - - 4 Believe in Yourself! Have Faith in Your Abilities! - 5 Personal Emotional Analysis - - - - 8 Utilization of the Power of Affirmation & Visualizing 9 The Power of Prayer - - - - - - 12 Thought Discipline - - - - - - 20 10 Simple Practicable Rules - - - - - 26 Personal Scriptural Affirmations - - - - 29 Afterword - - - - - - - - 31 Acknowledgements - - - - - - 32 About the Author - - - - - - 33
- 3. Page | 2 INTRODUCTION Too many people are going about life struggling, perhaps even whining with a sense of dull resentment at what they consider the “bad breaks” life has given them. The feeling of inferiority has become a major defeat for many through lack of confidence and self-doubt. This feeling of inadequacy has erected power barriers in some people’s personality that they find it difficult to find and release their God given powers. The aim of this teaching is very direct and simple. It makes no pretense to literary excellence. This is simply a practical direct action personal enhancement plan. The sole objective is to: help you achieve a happy, satisfying, confident life. help you gain a shift in your outlook on life. help you become a person of greater usefulness.
- 4. Page | 3 By mastering this teaching you will enjoy a new and delightful sense of well-being. I’m in no doubt this will help you dominate the feeling of inferiority complex which ordinarily might defeat you by refusing to become mentally submissive to them. Let’s get started. Ruth
- 5. Page | 4 INFERIORITY COMPLEX This can be defined as a deep and profound doubt for oneself. Everywhere you encounter people who are inwardly afraid, who shrink from life, who suffer from a deep sense of inadequacy and insecurity, who doubt their own powers. Deep within themselves, they mistrust their ability to meet responsibilities or to grasp opportunities. Always they are beset by the vague and sinister fear that something is not going to be quite right. They do not believe that they have it in them to be what they want to be or who God created them to be, and so they try to make themselves content with something less than that of which they are capable. Many go crawling through life on their hands and knees, defeated and afraid. A sense of inferiority and inadequacy interferes with the attainment of your hopes, but self-confidence leads to self-realization and achievement. The importance of believing in yourself can’t be over emphasized.
- 6. Page | 5 BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! HAVE FAITH IN YOUR ABILITIES! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful and happy. Let me share a man’s story with you: “May I speak with you about a matter of desperate importance to me?”, he said. “I’m new in town to handle the most important business deal of my life”. “If I succeed, it means the world to me. If I fail, I’m in trouble”. “I have a terrible disbelief in myself “, he said dispiritedly. “I have zero confidence. I just don’t believe I can put it over. I am very discouraged and depressed.” For real he lamented, “ I’m just about sunk, here I am, forty five years old. Why is it that all my life I have been tormented by inferiority feelings?“
- 7. Page | 6 Does that sound like you irrespective of the age? OR Perhaps yours is different? There’s a simple, direct, practical technique to tackle it. Before I go further, let me say this: You must understand and accept that nobody is born a failure. Nobody is born useless. Whatever is playing out in your life to an extent, is caused by series of unpleasant events in the past that formed the foundation of your reality today.
- 8. Page | 7 You need to reset your mind to accept God’s original design for you. HE created you in His image and likeness, breathed life into you. Can anything God created be a failure? The book of Genesis 1:31; the Bible recorded that God looked at His creation and saw that they were very good. So begin to see yourself in that light. You are very good. You are not useless. You are not a failure. You carry greatness within you. Nothing can defeat you. You are a life giving spirit. You carry the life of God in you. Keep renewing your mind with such words.
- 9. Page | 8 PERSONAL EMOTIONAL ANALYSIS. It is important to discover why you have these feelings of no power or inadequacy. This requires analysis and may take time. We must approach the maladies of our emotional life as a physician probes to find out something wrong with his patient. You may talk to a coach for scientific counseling. But in between before you find a coach you can trust, you can do this Personal Emotional Analysis (PEA) yourself. Withdraw into yourself and begin to probe your past which includes your childhood. The purpose of this analysis is to first find to the root the series of events that led to the disbelief in yourself. For instance it could be as a result of an ill treatment from childhood or a failure pattern etc. You need to get to the root of yours. Achieving this, is a step to dealing with the core of the inferiority feelings.
- 10. Page | 9 UTILIZATION OF THE POWER OF AFFIRMATION AND VISUALIZING By this I mean repetition of certain words to yourself and creating a mental picture of it. Saying them over several times in and out of bed. Visualizing it. Do this with an attitude of faith and you will gain sufficient strength and ability to deal with this problem. For instance: You are scheduled for an interview, you are prepared for it, but yet you have this disbelief that you wouldn’t get through the interview. Or You are a salesperson going over to meet a customer but your mind is feeding you with negative thoughts that you won’t make sales. Or Perhaps, you are just afraid or worried about everything. You always go around with a feeling that something negative is going to happen. Your life is saturated with inferiority and lack of confidence.
- 11. Page | 10 This state of mind will always reflect itself in anything you do; be it marriage, relationship, business, schooling, work etc. But not to worry, this technique will knock those insecurity feelings out of your mind, leaving you with a feeling of confidence not only in yourself but in life generally. Feeding your mind with the right words of affirmation boosts your faith and confidence while starving your insecurities. For this technique to work better, you need to search out the Bible for affirmations that suit you. Personalize them. Why the Bible? Because Romans 10:17 said: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Your faith builds up by hearing what God is saying to you through His Word, affirming them to yourself and committing them to memory. (At the end of this teaching I will give few words from the Bible you can use).
- 12. Page | 11 One of the most powerful concept, one which is a sure cure for lack of confidence is the thought that God is actually with you and helping you. One of the scripture references amongst others that attest to this concept is: Isaiah 41:10 - Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes I will help you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. No other idea is so powerful in developing self- confidence as this simple belief when practiced. This brings to your consciousness that God Almighty is with you. He will stand by you. He will help you and see you through. To practice it, simply affirm: “God is with me; God is helping me; God is leading me.” Spend several minutes each day visualizing God’s presence. Then practice believing that affirmation. Go about your day with the belief that what you have affirmed and visualized is true. Affirm it! Visualize it! Believe it! It will Actualize itself.
- 13. Page | 12 THE POWER OF PRAYER Have you tried talking to God about your inferiority attitude? He created you. HE has the power to help you overcome this problem. Every problem can be solved right if you pray. Prayer is the greatest power available to an individual in solving personal problems. Prayer adds to personal efficiency. Prayer has the power to keep your reactions correct and sound. You need not lose your basic energy or become weak, merely as a result of ageing. It is not necessary to allow your spirit to grow stale or dull. Prayer can freshen you up every evening and send you out renewed each morning. You can receive guidance in prayers, if prayer is allowed to permeate your subconscious. Prayer driven deeply into your subconscious can remake you. It releases and keeps power flowing freely. Prayer helps to tap forces and to utilize strength not otherwise available.
- 14. Page | 13 A woman was asked how she so completely mastered her troubles, she answered that ordinary problems could be met by ordinary prayers but that “when a big trouble comes along, you have to pray deep prayers.” If you have been praying in a certain manner, even if it has brought you blessings, which doubtless has, perhaps you can pray even more profitably by varying the pattern with fresh prayer formulas. It is important to realize that you are dealing with the most tremendous power in the world when you pray. The secret of prayer is to find the process that will most effectively open your mind humbly to God. Prayer power is the manifestation of strength. There are strategies for the release of spiritual strength through the mechanism of prayer.
- 15. Page | 14 I recommend these three prayer formulas to you: Personalise Visualise Actualise Personalise By this I simply mean a daily system of creative prayer. When a situation arise, talk it over with God. Be very simple and direct. Don’t see God as some far-reaching deity. See Him as HE is; The Omnipresent. HE is everywhere. You can talk to HIM on the street, in the office, on the train, etc. HE is always nearby as a close fellow. With this, you obey the Biblical command to “pray without ceasing”. Go about everyday discussing with God. You don’t have to often take a particular posture to engage this prayer formula. When faced with an issue, you can simply say to God: “What do I do about this, Lord?” Or “Give me a fresh insight on this, Lord.”
- 16. Page | 15 Visualise This affirms the Biblical teachings on “meditation”. By meditation, I mean the discipline of pondering. I invariably hear from folks who think of meditation as some sort of spooky mysticism. I beg to disagree, meditation is one of the spiritual arsenals we should engage. When you are meditating, it allows you to develop a mental picture of your meditation. When either failure or success is visualised it strongly tend to actualise in terms equivalent to the mental picture. To assure something good happening, first pray about it and test it according to God’s Will, then print a picture of it on your mind using your “mind eyes”. Continue to submit the picture to God’s Will —that is put it in God’s hands — follow HIS guidance. Work hard and smartly, thus doing your part to achieve success in the matter. Practice believing and continue to hold the visualised picture firmly in your thoughts. Do this and you will be amazed at the strange ways in which the visualised pictures comes to pass.
- 17. Page | 16 That which you have “personlised in simple prayer” and “visualised ” now “actualises” according to the pattern of your basic obtainable hope when modified, by invoking God’s power upon it and giving yourself to its realization. I have come across someone who said to me, “I don’t think I have what it takes to push through the daily life struggles”. And you reading this book, may be saying almost the same thing. Hear this: The scriptures in Luke 17:21 tells us that, “we have the Kingdom of God within us”. This is to inform you that God your Creator, has laid up within your mind and personality all the potential power and ability you need for constructive living. What remains is for you to tap and develop these powers.
- 18. Page | 17 By reading and mentally sucking in the Bible and practicing the prayer formulas makes gaining of dynamic faith achievable. Jesus speaking in Matt 9:29 said - According to your faith be it unto you. To get anywhere with prayer, learn to develop your faith. Drive your prayers deep into your doubt, fear, and inferiorities. The ability to possess faith, utilize faith and gain the release of power it provides, are skills and like any skill, must be studied and practiced to gain perfection. Following are ten rules for getting effective results from prayer: 1. Set aside a few minutes every day. Do not say anything. Simply think about God. This will make your mind spiritually welcoming. 2. Then pray out, using simple words. Tell God anything that is on your mind. Simply talk to God in your own way. He understands it.
- 19. Page | 18 3. Pray as you go about the business of the day, on the street, in the bus or at your desk. Engage minute prayers by closing your eyes to shut out the distractions and focusing briefly on God’s presence. The more you do this every day the nearer you will feel God’s presence. 4. Do not always ask when you pray, instead spend most of your prayers giving thanks that God’s blessings are yours. 5. Pray with the belief that sincere prayers can reach out and envelope your loved ones with God’s love and protection. 6. Never exercise doubt in prayer. Only positive thoughts get results. 7. Always express willingness to accept God’s Will. Ask for what you want, but be willing to take what God gives you.
- 20. Page | 19 8. Practice the attitude of putting everything in God’s hands. Ask for the ability to do your best and to leave the outcomes confidently to God. 9. Pray for people you do not like or who mistreated you. Resentment is blockade number one of prayer power. 10.Make a list of people for whom to pray. The more you pray for other people, especially those not connected with you, the more prayer results will come back to you.
- 21. Page | 20 THOUGHT DISCIPLINE At this point, however, I wish to indicate that to build up feelings of self-confidence, the practice of “thought discipline” is also very effective. Feeling of confidence depends upon the type of thoughts that habitually occupy your mind. Think defeat and you are bond to feel defeated. Practice thinking confident thoughts, make it a dominating habit, and you will develop a strong sense of capacity such that, you will be able to overcome any difficulty that arises. The feeling of confidence actually induces great strength. It is said that “you conquer what you believe you can.” Do the thing you fear and the death of fear becomes certain. Practice confidence and faith and your fears and insecurities will have no power over you.
- 22. Page | 21 “Never take counsel of your fears.” The secret is to fill your mind with thoughts of faith, confidence, and security. This will expel all thoughts of doubt, all lack of confidence. To that one man, who has been haunted by insecurities and fears, I suggest you do a Bible search, write out every statement relative to courage and confidence. Commit them to memory; memorize them. Not only will you regain confidence in yourself, you will radiate courage and become a man of compelling force by just applying this simple technique of “thought discipline”.
- 23. Page | 22 “Attitudes are more important than facts.” This is worth repeating until its truth grips you. Any fact facing us, however difficult, even seemingly helpless, is not so important as our attitude towards that fact. However you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. On the other hand, a confident and optimistic thought pattern can modify or overcome that fact altogether. The blows of life, the accumulation of difficulties, the multiplication of problems, tend to sap energy and leave you spent and discouraged. In such a condition, the true status of your power is obscured and a person yields to a discouragement that is not justified by the facts. So if you feel that you are defeated and have lost confidence in your ability to win, sit down, take a piece of paper and make a list, not of the factors that are against you, but of those that are for you. Included in the list should be:
- 24. Page | 23 Family, if they are always there for you. Friends who hold you in high esteem. Your integrity, if it’s still intact. Your physical health, if you are alright. Your environment, if it has many opportunities to explore. And of course your religious Faith. It is vital to re-appraise your personality assets reasonably, this will convince you that you are less defeated than you think you are. If you think constantly of the forces that seem to be against you, we will build them up into a power, far beyond that which is justified. But if on the contrary, you mentally visualize and affirm and reaffirm your personality assets including the aforementioned and keep your thoughts on them, emphasizing them to the fullest extent, you will rise out of any difficulty regardless of what it may be. Your inner strength also will reassess themselves and with the help of God, lift you from defeat to victory.
- 25. Page | 24 In the busy activities of daily existence, “thought discipline” is required if you are to re-educate your mind and make it a power producing plant. It is possible even in the midst of your daily work to drive confident thoughts into consciousness. In conclusion, it is important to say that to build up feelings of self-confidence, the practice of “suggesting confidence ideas” to your mind is very effective. If your mind is obsessed by thoughts of insecurity and inadequacy, it is of course, due to the fact that such ideas have dominated your thinking over a long period of time. Another and more positive pattern of ideas must be given the mind and that is accomplished by repetitive suggestion of confidence ideas.
- 26. Page | 25 For instance: All your life you seem never to take up any business deal successfully. Upon this repetitive failure, your mind has grown to label you a failure. Now this false idea of you, has to be replaced. You need to consciously start suggesting confidence ideas to your mind. Using personal affirmations can be adopted. Like Philippians 4:13 - “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me”. Keep suggesting the new confidence ideas to your mind. We build up the feeling of insecurity or security by how we think. If in our thoughts we constantly fix our attention on fearful expectations of dire events that may happen, the result will be a constant feeling of insecurity, and what is even more serious is the tendency to create, by the power of thought, the very condition we fear.
- 27. Page | 26 10 SIMPLE PRACTICABLE RULES To sum up all I have said; here are 10 simple, practicable rules for overcoming inferiority attitudes and learning to practice faith: 1. Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind, a mental picture of yourself succeeding in any desired area. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never doubt its reality. No matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment, always picture “success”. 2. Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal ability comes to mind, deliberately voice a positive thought to cancel it. 3. Avoid building up obstacles in your imagination. Depreciate every obstacle. Difficulties must be studied and carefully dealt with to get rid of them. They must not be inflated by fear thoughts. 4. Do not be awed by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can. Remember also that most people, despite
- 28. Page | 27 their confident appearance and demeanor, are often as scared as you are and as doubtful of themselves. 5. Ten times a day, repeat these powerful words from Romans 8:31 - “If God be for me, who can be against me?” (Repeat them now slowly to yourself). 6. Get a competent counselor to help you understand why you do what you do. Learn the origin of your inferiority and self-doubt feelings which often begin from childhood. Self- knowledge leads to cure. 7. Ten times a day, practice the following affirmation, repeating it out loud if possible. “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. “ - Phil 4:13. 8. Make a true estimate of your ability. Believe in your own God given powers.
- 29. Page | 28 9. Put yourself into God’s hands. Declare it: “I am in God’s hand!” Then believe you are now receiving all the powers you need. Feel it flowing into you. 10.Remind yourself that God is with you and nothing can defeat you.
- 30. Page | 29 PERSONAL SCRIPTURAL AFFIRMATIONS Here are some scriptures you can use as your personal affirmations in any area of your life. Please add more to this list by going through the Bible yourself. Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things. Romans 8:31 - Nothing can be against me. Matthew 1:23 - God is with me. Genesis 1: 28 - I am fruitful. I live a life of dominion. Psalm 139:14 - I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 1 John 4:4 - Greater is HE that is in me. John 3:16 - I am deeply loved by God. Haggai 2:9 - My future is great. Job 8:7 - My tomorrow is great. 1 John 5:4 - I am an overcomer. 2 Samuel 22:37 - The Lord is my helper, I cannot be moved. 1 Corinthians 1:30 - I have the wisdom of God at work in me. Christ, my wisdom. Colossians 2:10 - I am complete in Christ. Genesis 2:7 - I have the life of God in me.
- 31. Page | 30 Deuteronomy 28:13 - I am the first and not the last. I am above only and not beneath. Psalm 31:24 - I am strengthened with courage. Psalm 23:1 - I lack nothing. Psalm 34:10 - I lack nothing good. Luke 17:21 - The Kingdom of God is within me. Psalm 59:17 - God is my defense.
- 32. Page | 31 AFTERWORD Wow! Reading this, means you have read through from the beginning of this book. Now the question is: What have you read? You’ve simply read a series of practical techniques for a successful living. You have read a formula of belief and practice which should help you overcome inferiority feelings. I wrote this book out of sincere desire to help you. It will be a delight to know that the book has helped you. I pray for you. Live confidently and successfully.
- 33. Page | 32 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To the Holy Spirit, my special partner in purpose. Thank you for prompting this writing. I never would have made anything out of my life without You. To the people out there who are struggling with this feeling of Inferiority, you motivated me to put together this piece of writing. Thank you for allowing this book the honor of existence. And to my close friends who in one way or another supported me spiritually and otherwise. Thank you for being part of this milestone.
- 34. Page | 33 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nzube Ruth Okoye is a young lady, passionate about fulfilling the call of God on her life. She runs a Facebook and WhatsApp mentoring platform where she helps people to achieve a good level of success and confidence in their walk with God, relationships, marriages, and life in general. To connect with Nzube; follow her on Facebook: Okoye Ruth Nzube or #PepTalkWithEnz Whatsap: #PepTalkWithEnz Mentorship_Community https://chat.whatsapp.com/KISA21KgxCd27SMJL6aa5 C © 2019 Nzube Ruth Okoye