Every person might have faced several nuances in their lives when they felt intimidated by the other person, let alone their presence. The person intimidating you might be your domineering boss, bully colleague, dominating spouse or even your intelligent friend or sibling. This list can be long and so can be the fear which intimidation brings with itself. It is never a good feeling to be intimidated by any other person. It brings with itself a sense of low self-esteem, failure, rejection and an inferiority complex. However, the main thing is that more often than not this feeling of intimidation is a result of a distorted perspective and lack of confidence in oneself.
In some cases, the feeling of intimidation comes naturally when we see someone we feel has more qualities than what one possesses. In such cases, one gets intimidated by seeing someone who is smarter, more intelligent, is popular in class. But what one forgets is that it is not impossible to achieve the qualities that the other person has. Every human being on this planet has the capability to rise and achieve success. Nobody is superior to anyone. Moreover, it is possible to achieve anything with hard work, determination, and strong willpower. What one needs to do is change his outlook towards other people and consider their qualities as motivation to reach that level.
All individuals have two images of themselves, one is the current image, and the other one is the aspirational image. The current image symbolizes who we are as a person, what do we do academically, professionally or socially. It also reflects how happy one is with his life. On the contrary, the aspirational image refers to the place or the goal we want to achieve after a certain point in life. It combines all the things, desires that we wish and consider important for a successful life. Most of the times, the feeling of intimidation that we garner by meeting people noticeably smarter than us is a result of a gap between both these images. One starts comparing their achievements with one's own and then indulge in self-loathing and low self-esteem. One feels that they have lagged behind in the game of life and hence feel intimidated in other's presence. It is possible to overcome this feeling of intimidation by adopting some simple techniques. Here are some ways that can help you overcome that feeling of intimidation.
#1. Change Your Perspective
In order to overcome your feeling of intimidation from other people, it is extremely important to change your perspective towards them. Retrospect and then try to identify if the way you feel actually depends on some concrete facts or not. We always tend to get attracted towards other people's lives and then feel that we have lagged behind. Do not fall into this trap. In most cases, you do not even realize what the other person is going through, the amount of hard work that person has put in to reach the heights they stand on now. It is extremely important to think about every situation rationally, and this can help you a lot to overcome that feeling of intimidation. On the other hand, sometimes our feelings are based on completely baseless notions and a low sense of worth. Some people feel that they are not good enough to succeed in life. They put undue pressures on themselves believing that others are blessed with everything in their lives, and only they are the unfortunate which is never the case. Such people are more vulnerable to feelings of intimidation and insecurity from other. Thus, one should realize that one cannot do away with this feeling without changing one's perspective.
#2. Stop Avoidance Behavior
In order to avoid the feeling of intimidation, some people start avoiding situations in which they get intimidated. They stop confronting people they are intimidated from and lock themselves up. They avoid going to social gatherings and parties where they have to face a lot of people. They forget to realize that by doing such things, they are providing impetus to their negative beliefs and continue to trigger a blow to their self-esteem.
If one continues to do this, then it just reinforces the fear in oneself to further extreme levels, and it will keep on growing. One may feel that by doing such a thing, one is helping themselves but in reality adopting avoidance behavior can have serious negative consequences on one's mental well-being and that feeling of intimidation will continue to confront you sooner or later. Instead of this, it is always better to indulge in positive self-talk and try to prepare oneself to confront the other person you are intimidated from. This will not only help you build your confidence but gradually you will be able to overcome that fear of intimidation. It is always better to confront a situation then avoiding it. If you are intimidated by the presence of a person, it is always better to confront him or her, again and again, until the feeling vanishes away.
#3. Understand Your Own Worth
Every person is unique in itself with its own set of qualities and insecurities. Nobody is perfect in this world. In such a case, if you feel intimidated by someone's presence, it might be because you do not realize your self-worth or have always been ignorant in realizing its importance. Maintaining a good self-worth is extremely important. Not only does it help you in boosting your confidence but you are also able to present your thoughts and ideas in a better way among people as you consider them meaningful. If you consider your existence as an important thing and believe in yourself, then you can never feel intimated by the other people. You will be able to accept the fact that no matter how successful the other person is, you are also doing well in the game of life. If you realize that you are important, then the other people will also consider you as an important person and lend an ear to whatever you wish to say. Once you realize your self-worth and work on that self-esteem on a regular basis, you will be able to carry the confidence of a different level altogether which will be reflected in your personality.
#4. Do Not Overthink/ Compare
Most commonly that feeling of intimidation is there because you have always compared yourself and your life with others without realizing how bad this can be for your own self-esteem. It is a very natural feeling to compare yourself with other people. However, the problem arises when one starts feeling intimated by other people's presence. Every person has different goals in life and different set of priorities. It is never a good idea to invest your energy in comparing your life with their and then thinking about it. In fact, instead of getting intimated by other people's existence what one can best do is take it as a motivation. The habit of comparing yourself with other is not going to take you anywhere. This is the worst that you can do to yourself. The maximum it can do is leave your self-confidence in ruins which you definitely do not want. Overthinking has never taken a person anywhere. It justs waste your time unnecessarily and takes you nowhere. Therefore, it is extremely important for one to realize that one should stop comparing and overthink and then nobody will be able to intimidate you ever.
#5. Work On Yourself
The best way to achieve something you want is to work for it. Also, the most common reason of being threatened by other people is that maybe you have not worked enough on yourself. If this is the case then who are you waiting for? Get the ball rolling and start working on your shortcomings. However, it is also important to understand that no one on this earth does not have any negative traits. You just need to go easy on yourself and work on your qualities for your personal betterment. If you feel that your friend is more intelligent and smarter than you, why not go and read the books he is reading or the best is go and ask him what kind of stuff he is reading and from where does he gain that knowledge from. The best part about this process is if you will ask for tips from the person you are intimated from then your more than half of the fear will disappear there and then. The next step is just that you need to start working on yourself as soon as possible. It is always necessary to invest a significant portion of time for yourself. It will hone your skills further and help you be that confident person who is everyone's favorite. Therefore, stop worrying and start worrying as soon as possible.
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