Hi! Thanks for your question.
Just so you know, I’m with you no matter what you think of yourself.
Even if you consider yourself loathsome!
Most people won’t admit it, but we have all had times when we couldn’t stand our own guts.
Having a negative view of yourself doesn’t mean you are lost forever.
It just means you are sick of yourself at this point in time.
Maybe you have good reason.
If so, you will be looking to make some changes.
It will take time to make major improvements in your opinion of yourself, but it can certainly be done.
It’s the guys with a fabulous undeserved opinion of themselves who are really hard to fix 🙂
But a negative view—deserved or not—we can deal with that one.
I am going to show you a way to get started.
Let’s begin by taking a look at my negative view
I am mostly vulnerable to feeling I have failed to live up to my potential.
This is a downside of having highly ambitious goals 🙂
I’ve never felt I was loathsome, but there have certainly been times when I have felt pathetic and cowardly and seen myself as a failure.
I don’t feel that way now, but isn’t it interesting that “cowardly” is the word I would use to describe myself in those times when I was not succeeding?
From this, we can see exactly what failure means to me.
It means lacking in courage.
I feel most like a failure during times when I don’t see myself demonstrating what I would consider courage.
Now let’s take a look at my view of success
Would it surprise you to learn that courage has always been the one quality I most admire in a human being?
All my heroes are persons of great courage: The Founding Fathers, The Greatest Generation, Todd Beamer and all those
who fought back on Flight 93…
Courage is my measure of success.
I feel most like a success during times when I see myself demonstrating some aspect of what I would consider courage (even a small piece of it.)
The formula
Can you see that we have a formula here?
To have a higher opinion of myself, I must do something that shows I have the quality I most admire.
I’m going to repeat that formula:
To have a higher opinion of myself, I must do something that shows I have the quality I most admire.
Doing something that I consider takes courage will increase my self respect.
It will have a bigger impact on me than demonstrating any other quality.
So, what do I do to feel brave?
I get up real early three times a week and run nearly three miles at the break of dawn.
Makes me feel like a gutsy Olympian 🙂 Chariots of Fire!!!
Raises my opinion of myself and holds it high all week.
How you can do the same
No, you don’t have to run at the break of dawn!
All you have to do is apply my simple formula:
- Ask yourself: What quality do I most admire in a human being? (without which I consider myself a failure)
- Get creative and think up a way you can show that you have it! (at least a little piece of it ) 🙂
Your opinion of yourself will go up as soon as you see yourself in action embodying the quality you most admire.
QUESTION…
What did you learn about yourself from asking what you most admire?
Write and tell me!