Underestimating yourself keeps you from seeing the strength and potential that everyone else already sees in you. In this heartfelt solo episode, April Shprintz shares an inspiring story about a young man who proved what’s possible when you stop comparing, start trusting your instincts, and finally recognize your own brilliance. Through honest reflection and encouragement, this conversation reminds you that your greatest power lies not in being perfect but in believing that what you’ve already done—and who you already are—is exceptional.
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You’re Overestimating THEM And Underestimating YOU
Overestimating Others, Underestimating Yourself
I am so glad you’re here. One of the themes that I see day in and day out with my clients, with my friends, with anyone I interact with is that people generally tend to really overestimate other people. How talented they are, how well they’re doing, what their life is like, and underestimate themselves. I think this is a natural phenomenon. We’ve talked about this before, where your inner voice is constantly telling you genius sort of things, but it’s in the same voice as you telling yourself that you’re running late or you overslept or “You should have gone to the gym today.”
The Story: Engineering and Professional Baseball
I see this more and more when interacting with people. I have a fantastic example from some time that I spent doing a big workshop in Texas. I was just absolutely bowled over by the example that this young man was. I was doing a workshop with a lot of people, and we were going through some different activities.
In this particular activity, people were remembering a time that they were an exception or they were exceptional, or they just went to bat for themselves, so to speak. I was walking around looking for volunteers, and he had written so much, I knew, I just had an intuition that the example that he had was so great. I asked him if he would share it, and he said, “Yeah, I don’t know if this is really an exceptional thing. I can share it, but I don’t know if it really meets the criteria.” I said, “Trust me, I know it does. Share it with me.” I hadn’t read it. I just had this feeling.
He starts to give his example of how he had been an athlete in high school, and he really wanted to go and do an engineering program at a school. Everyone said, “You like to play sports, and you’re an athlete, and engineering is really tough. I don’t know if you’re going to have time for both. You’re not going to be able to do both well. I don’t know if that’s the way you should go.” He got that feedback from a lot of people, but he decided to bet on himself to see himself as the exception and that he could do it.
If it was something he wanted to do, he could make it happen. He told this story much more humbly than I am. I’ll just go ahead and say that, but I’m so impressed with him. I’m not saying it humbly. I’m saying it the way it really was. He goes to college, and not only does he find the time to do both things, to play baseball and also do well in the engineering program, but he does so well.
We underestimate ourselves. We underestimate how exceptional we are all the time. Share on XHe graduates in three years. Listen, I don’t know what you know about an engineering program, but I know a lot of people who ended up being in a five-year program who were brilliant. This tells me how hard this young man worked. He said, “I graduated in three years, and I was also recruited by the St. Louis Cardinals.”
He just says it as an aunt. “I’m sorry. You went to college and did it faster than everybody else and still put enough time and effort into your sports that you made a professional baseball team, and you’re not sure that this is a case of being exceptional?” Guys, this is what I mean, right? We underestimate ourselves. We underestimate how exceptional we are all the time.
Celebrate Your Own Exceptionalism
This was the most adorable story. He was so wonderful. Actually, I had him stand up in front of the whole group of his peers in the city of Dallas and say, “This young man is exceptional. If he doesn’t know it, you should all know it. You want to know people like this. You want to surround yourself with people like this.” This is what I have to say to you. There is a story like that in your life. There is something that you have done, will do, or are doing that is exceptional. You are taking it for granted because you see the rest of the world as being much better than it is, and you don’t see yourself as amazing as you are.
If you do nothing else today, if you do nothing else this week, I want you to ask the people close to you who care about you about something exceptional that you’ve done. I’d just like them to tell you because I know it’s there, and you might be taking it for granted because you don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I want you to celebrate you and realize what a big deal it is because guess what?
Not only is there something that you have done, are doing, or will do that’s exceptional. It’s only the beginning. There’s going to be more because the moment you start seeing yourself as the exceptional person that you are, you can’t help but be exceptional in so many other ways. In case you’ve forgotten, in case I haven’t said it recently enough, I believe in you.
