Have you ever sold yourself short?
One of the fears I had growing up was failure. As a teenager I was hesitant to set myself ambitious goals because I believed I could never reach them. Instead, I settled for goals that I knew were safe.
The people that surround us don’t always help, though they may have perfectly good intentions. For example, my parents were less than encouraging when I didn’t do well on a test (I think this was just a product of the culture they grew up in). When people say negative things about us enough times, we can start believing them, even though they’re untrue.