I have always dreamed of living a life for something bigger than myself and this platform made this possible.

But what does it mean to be underestimated?

Being underestimated means that they don’t believe in you, they don’t believe in your dreams!

Despite the people who underestimate you, despite the people who judge and insult you, little did they know they give you “power”.
The power of courage and consistency.

I will be honest; some people underestimate me and it breaks my heart. It affects my self-esteem and my work ethic. They don’t see me existing. Those people who don’t know me always think I am dumb. It gives me the impression that I am not capable of doing something great. But deep in my heart I know I can. I really can!😟

As I age, I trained myself on how to respond to the things that matter to me and to those that do not. To the things that will inspire and makes me motivated, because if others can, why can’t I?

Here are some of the realizations I want to share with you guys! A simple yet effective way to handle underestimation.

This will be the number #1 rule:

Do not underestimate yourself!

You don’t have to be anything else but to be yourself! And at the end of the day, the one person whom you can rely upon is “You”.
Always look back at your strength, capabilities, and success, and every time you look back on all these things it will make you feel powerful and confident.

Photo by: Marcos Paulo Padro

This will be your area of intentionally improving and recreating yourself. If you’re not going to be intentional there’s no way you could get out of the darkness.

Listen to those Naysayers

They are where your superpower comes from and treat them as your free career coaches. When someone underestimates you, they are giving you the opportunity. Because they are not expecting too much from you and they don’t know what things you are capable of.

Photo by Paul Garaizar

So many people told me that I can't make it. Maybe I should try something else. But you know, I felt anger, but it took me to be the best version of myself and use it to my advantage.

Strike yourself with Confidence

This is what makes you, YOU!
You can’t be the person you truly are without confidence. Having confidence means you must have a goal. This goal must be your tracker and your motivation to keep going and to have your self-esteem back in place. Trust me!

One of my mentors told me that being underestimated can be a good thing. The element of surprise makes people pay attention. There’s no high expectation, and they can’t see you as a threat.

Then I remembered the movie that struck me, personally. If you already watched the movie " Prey 2022", I just want to share the short line of Naru (the main character of the story), saying

“You think that I’m not a hunter like you. That I am not a threat, and that is what makes me dangerous. You can’t see that I’m killing you. – Naru Prey 2022”

This line struck me the most. They do not see her as a team player but rather as a nobody. I felt the bravery and the heart of a resilient woman.

Naru is a young lady in their faraway village and their source of food is hunting. As a woman, you are in charge of washing the dishes, you are in charge of preparing food, and preparing medicine for the injured men. They were obliged to treat and give them appropriate medicine after a hunting job.

Naru believed she can do what other men can do, she believed she can hunt, and to make the long story short, she turned down the prey who cause half of his tribe to die. She knows she can, so she did!

Don’t be someone who ends up with regrets because you didn’t follow your dreams and because someone underestimates you. Don’t let others take that chance away from you!

All the pain they cause me makes them my source of motivation.
All the judgment and misbelief they have in me can be my greatest downfall or my most powerful weapon.

Being a resilient woman is a woman who knows how to endure pain, a woman who turned all her sacrifices into testimonies, a woman who has a dream of living her life bigger than herself, and that woman is me.

One of the best opportunities you can be given in life is to be underestimated.

This is Eli, and this is my entry for LOH #101
Inviting @jenthoughts one of the resilient women to join in Hive.