Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is simply believing you’re worthy of the trip.

Truth be told, you can’t berate yourself into a better version of yourself. And even though I know this, I sometimes still fall victim to my own negative thinking. Sometimes I’m downright rude to myself. I make a mistake, or fall short of my own expectations, and instead of treating it as a learning opportunity, I beat myself up about it.

I’m sure you can relate. We’ve all been there. We all have bad days and moments of self-doubt.

Sometimes the pressure coming from peers, family, work, and society in general is enough to make us feel completely broken inside. If we don’t have the “right” job, relationship, lifestyle, and so forth, by a certain age or time frame, we assume we’re just “not good enough.”

If you need a little extra inspiration, here are some things I’ve come up with – 5 good reminders when you’re feeling “not good enough”:

Nobody is doing better than you because nobody can do better than you. – YOU are walking your own path. Sometimes the reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes circumstances with everyone else’s public highlight reel. Forget what everyone else is doing and achieving. Your life is about breaking your own limits and outgrowing yourself to live YOUR best life.

Where you are right now is a necessary step. – Sometimes we avoid experiencing exactly where we are because we have developed a belief, based on our ideals, that it is not where we should be or want to be. But the truth is, where you are right now is exactly where you need to be to get to where you want to go tomorrow.

Everything is coming together… maybe not immediately, but gradually. – When times are tough, remind yourself that no pain comes without a purpose. Move on from what hurt you, but never forget what it taught you. Pain is part of growing. Remember that there are two kinds of pain: pain that hurts and pain that changes you. When you roll with life, instead of resisting it, both kinds help you grow.

It is your resistance to “what is” that causes your suffering. – Remember, happiness is allowing yourself to be perfectly OK with “what is,” rather than wishing for and worrying about “what is not.” “What is” is what’s supposed to be, or it would not be. The rest is just you, arguing with life. Think about that for a minute. This means your suffering only ever occurs when you resist how things are. You cannot control everything that happens to you; you can only control the way you respond to what happens. In your response is your power.

Every day brings a choice: to practice stress or to practice peace. – Choose to be miserable and you’ll find plenty of reasons to be miserable. Choose to be peaceful and you’ll find plenty of reasons to be at peace. Think about it. Are you skilled at making yourself miserable? With those same skills you can make yourself motivated, effective and fulfilled. Do so.

The most prolific days of your life won’t likely be easy. It’s not in the serenity of your comfort zone or the inactivity of a lazy day that drives greatness. Great demands drive the growth of great virtues. Contending with great challenges forms the foundation of greatness.

Think about a day from your past that ended with a sense of satisfaction. It’s not a day when you lounged around with nothing to do; it’s a day you had more to do than seemed possible, and you did it. When your mind is challenged by duties that engage your purpose, then those great virtues, which would otherwise lay dormant, come to life and help you grow into your greatest self.

Treat yourself the way you want others to treat you. Stop discrediting yourself for everything you aren’t, and start giving yourself credit for everything that you are. We have to learn to be our own best friends, because sometimes we fall too easily into the trap of being our own worst enemies. Insecurity is what’s ugly, not you. Accept yourself! Be you, just the way you are, in the beautiful way only you know how.

The biggest obstacles in your life are the barriers your mind creates. Worrying will never change the outcome. When you can no longer think of a reason to continue, you must think of a reason to start over. And do not let where you start, define where you will end up; only your actions and willpower determine that.

Sometimes to get where you want to go, you have to do what you are afraid to do. You must be brave and push forward. Miracles occur when you give as much attention and energy to your dreams as you do to your fears.

You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible. Believe in YOU. If you’re passionate about something, pursue it, regardless of what others say. That’s how dreams come true. And once you’ve dreamed of it, you’re honestly halfway there anyway. So go ahead and follow through. Let your dreams be bigger than your fears and your actions speak louder than your words.

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, you just have to take the first step. Taking this first step is always the hardest. But then each subsequent step gets easier and easier. And with each step you get closer and closer to what you seek. Until eventually, what had once been invisible, starts to become visible, and what had once felt unattainable, becomes a reality.

Don’t confuse poor decision-making with your destiny. Own your mistakes. It’s OK; we all make them. Learn from life experiences so they can empower you! What we call our destiny is really just our character, and that character can be enriched. The knowledge that you are responsible for your actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging either, because it means you are free to change your destiny. Yes, the past has shaped your feelings and perspectives, but all this can be altered if you have the courage to reexamine how it formed you. You can always alter your chemistry provided you have the courage to dissect your elements.

Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you. Take everything as a lesson learned. You are the books you read, the films you watch, the people you meet, the dreams you have, and the conversations you engage in. You are a combination of what you take from these. You are the sound of thunder, the breath of fresh air, the brightest light and the darkest corner. You embody every experience you have had in your life. You are every single day, even the bad ones. So drown yourself in a sea of knowledge. Let the experiences run through your veins, and let the lessons grow your mind.

Before befriending others, you have to be your own friend. Before correcting others, you have to correct yourself. Before making others happy, you have to make yourself happy. It’s not called selfishness, it’s called personal development. Once you balance yourself, only then can you balance the world around you.