483: A Word Of Encouragement With Minali Liyanage

Minali Liyanage is a Social Media Marketer. People describe me as a social butterfly, with her friendly nature and passion for connection. Never turning down an honest job, she has worked and volunteered in all kinds of roles. And if you’re lucky, you may even hear Minale geeking out about her scientific roots in Molecular Biology. Through life experiences and a natural knack for communication, she found her calling in Social Media Marketing, becoming an addict for the psychology of people’s behavior online. Throwing into the mix, my love for art and photography, she has had the pleasure of creating and innovating with some of the best creatives around the world, and am looking forward to meeting more like-minded individuals.

Minali used to travel back and forth between the UK and Sri Lanka which hurt her confidence since she never felt she was accepted at either cultures. It wasn’t until a word of encouragement from her father gave her the confidence to accept herself for who she is, love herself and be the confident person that she is today.

Bio

Minali Liyanage is a Social Media Marketer.

Cultural Background

Minali is of Sri Lankan descent.

Favorite Self Confidence Quote

No one is you, and that is your power.

Definition of Self Confidence

Self confidence is being able to understand your self-worth and potential to create and achieve anything you want.

Her Life Before the Discovery of Self Confidence

Before Minali understood my own self-worth and potential she moved about life in a very routinely way, being shy and polite despite the rebellious nature she had when she was very young. Going to school in Sri Lanka during the 90’s as a “British-Sri Lankan” meant that sadly she was never fully accepted by the other kids and locals around her.

So aside of the usual school bullying that happens, she even had the majority of teachers and adults around her treating her differently in both positive and negative lights. Despite all this, she was and still is quite a strong headed person so she would ignore all the negative bullying as best she could, and made her childhood and adolescence in Sri Lanka the best experience she could have had.

As much as she felt huge gratitude to have this dual cultural experience at such a young age she does know that it did have a significant influence on her self confidence, and definitely was the reason she became more shy and withdrawn in those years. When she was at home around people she could trust her true nature would come out, but those moments were restricted to only when she was around her family and the few true friends she does have.

The “AHA” Moment

She was in the UK during a school holiday from Sri Lanka sitting in the car in front of the local train station near our home in London. She was with her dad and they were waiting to pick up a relative that was travelling to come visit us for a few days. As they were sitting there waiting for their train to arrive her dad noticed one of her old childhood school friends walking out of the station with a group of other girls her age. They were chatting away deep in discussion and laughing as they were walking, probably on their way home from school. Her dad asked her why she wasn’t lowering the car window to say hello to her. Minali told him that she was too shy and that they would probably think she was weird now, not having seen her friend for so many years.

It was that moment that her dad gifted her with the AHA moment. She was 12 or 13 years old and had become very doubtful of herself, with a lower self esteem than she had ever had before. It was in that moment that her dad gave her the best advice he has ever given her. He said, “Well it doesn’t matter what she thinks of you. What matters is that you made the effort and said hello to her, because you wanted to. If she doesn’t say hello back say hello again to her even louder than before, and if she still doesn’t return the hello, say it again and this time say it even louder! That way you’ll know that at least you made the effort with an intention of kindness, and then it won’t matter what she says or doesn’t say. You tried.”

Then and there it clicked in Minali that she is worthy of a hello, she is worthy of being included in the fun, and she is worthy of peoples’ love. So she jumped out of the car and called her name, she turned around, as they all did and I said “Hey!”. She walked up to her, hugged her and said she hadn’t recognised Minali as they hadn’t seen each other in almost 5 years and gave Minali her number to hang out at her house sometime. That was her moment, and she felt so grateful to her Dad for gifting it to her all those years ago. Minali always remember this moment as it was the exact moment her life re-awakened again.

Her Life After the Discovery of Self Confidence

Minali felt comfortable and confident in her skin again, not caring of what people thought of her, her looks or her fashion styles. She carried forward this confident and carefree energy into the rest of her life going forward, feeling proud of her capabilities and projects she would get involved in or start herself.

She knew all she had to do was make up her mind that she was going to do something to the best of her ability. Minali knew she wanted to make her mark on the world through helping others and touching individuals lives.