I used to feel like “I knew nothing” - until this one shift changed everything
For the longest time, there’s been this voice in the back of my head telling me, “I don’t know anything.”
Whenever I met new people or caught up with friends, I would default to holding back, thinking, “I’m not the expert here…” It felt safer to stay quiet, better to listen than to speak. But more often than not, people would say to me: “You’ve really hit the jackpot. You know AI, tech, healthcare - some of the biggest trends right now.”
Every time I heard that, I felt… confused and bizarre. And honestly, very uncomfortable. How could they see me that way when I constantly felt like I know nothing?
It wasn’t until a few recent conversations with life coaches that I finally uncovered what was really going on deep in my mind.
The reason I kept feeling like “I know nothing” was because I had been measuring myself against the wrong benchmark all along.
In my mind, “knowing a topic” meant being world-class - like top 1% level expert. So unless I was operating at that level, I automatically told myself I didn’t really “know” anything. Even if, objectively, I was already in the top 10% in terms of understanding, it still didn’t feel like enough.
That bar was impossibly high.
And here’s the ironic and funny part: deep down, I also know that even those top 1% experts only know about that one or two specific topics, and are horribly bad at other areas.
But I kept comparing each of my single skills to the best-of-the-best in every domain, convincing myself that unless I’m exceptional at everything, I’m not good enough.
No wonder I felt like I knew nothing. No wonder I lacked confidence. No wonder I kept feeling not good enough.
Once I saw this pattern clearly, I started working on shifting how I think about it. I began to question those deeply rooted beliefs, to reframe what “knowing something” actually meant. I adjusted my internal reference points - on purpose. And with that simple shift, a whole new perspective opened up.
Suddenly, I could see my skills and experiences in a different light. My confidence grew - not because I magically “became” better overnight, but because I finally gave myself permission to recognize what I already had.
The truth is, we all carry so much within us, built through the unique path we’ve walked in life. But if we’re always chasing, always comparing - we end up in this endless rat race of never feeling good enough. Especially for us perfectionists, the bar just keeps moving higher and higher every time we hit the target. And the cycle continues. We burn our souls chasing a moving target, and feel deeply inadequate all the time - not realizing that we were already whole and we had so much within us already!
But now I know: the way out isn’t to do more, learn more, or be more. It’s to shift the lens.
That old lens I was using? It was tinted in the wrong colors.
This realization changed a lot for me. And honestly - it took me only a day to sit down, reflect, and do a review of where my beliefs were coming from (of course, co-explored with AI).
You can stop the rat race today. You can hit reset - just by shifting the way you see yourself. You don’t need to do more. You are already complete. You are already good enough. ❤️
Take care,
Mei Ling