Why a Life of Second-Guessing?

What if

the reason you’ve spent a lifetime unsure, driven by self-doubt, and habitually second-guessing yourself

is that someone(s) who held the most power for impact and effect during your formation

(by which I mean formative years, yes, but also beyond: the sum total)

spent more time questioning, criticizing, patronizing you

than they did guiding you with understanding and warmth

or believing in you and lifting you up,

helping you shape confidence and independence?

How possible is that?

And then, what if,

finally knowing this clarifying truth is what ignites the shift for you,

so that you might begin to recognize but also break the patterns,

so that you might begin to build your own confidence and understand your own independence

separate from and dependent upon no one at all?

What if, indeed.