04 Mar Trusting Your Intuition, Not Societal Pressure, Toxic Criticism, or Self-Doubt

Overcoming societal pressure, self-doubt, and toxic criticism is an uphill battle. Very few ignore these and trust their guts, intuition, and the truth they have discovered.

One common approach such people adopt is turning a blind eye and deaf ears to societal pressure, self-doubt, and disempowering criticisms.

A wonderful parable that cements the power of this strategy, which you might have heard before, is “The Deaf Frog”.

The story goes like this: A group of frogs held a climbing contest to reach the top of a very tall tower. Crowds of frogs came with their popcorn to watch.

As the race started, many shouted:
1. “You’ll never make it!”
2. “It’s too high!”
3. “You will fall!”
4. And so on…

One by one, all the contesting frogs grew tired and dropped out of the race, except for one.

To the crowd’s amazement, that one frog kept climbing and ultimately reached the top!

Later, the other frogs asked the winner how it succeeded while everybody bowed out of the race. The frog was deaf. It hadn’t heard the shoutings and assumed everyone was cheering it on.

Have you felt pressure from your crowd? How did you respond? What helped you to keep climbing and reach your destination?

What kind of tower or mountain are you climbing right now, for which you are getting stiff opposition, self-doubt, and brutal criticism?