Encourage yourself daily. Who else will? It takes a lot of practice to believe in yourself, especially if you never have. Find positive or inspirational quotes and tape them to places in your home that you walk pass or look at daily. Places such as a night stand, a bathroom mirror, refrigerator, your Bible, journal or daily devotional books or anywhere that you interact with daily inside your home that gives you positive affirmations. Read and recite those affirmations, quotes or positive words out loud so that you can HEAR them and BELIEVE them. Look in a mirror and boldly say it to yourself.
If you've never been told you're beautiful, that ends now. Say it to yourself. I remember as a child and early teen years, my peers as well as adults, often told me how fine, cute, gorgeous.....you get the point, I was. I never believed it. I looked in the mirror and questioned their observations on my facial features. I said, "I'm not cute, what do these people see." I slowly began telling myself how beautiful I was even if I didn't see it. Once I said it, I began to believe it and I began walking and talking in it. When I stepped in a room my inner beauty has always spoken louder than my outer beauty. I was confident at times, conceited, but overall, I never questioned what others saw in me again.
I meet women and teens all the time who not only have been physically abused, but also have been verbally abused by their partners or a family member, all of their lives. No one has ever said anything positive to them. These women and teens in return, treat people in their life, in that same negative manner. What kind of difference would the world be, if we worked harder on breaking those negative, generational cycles? I see alot of this going on between mothers and daughters. I admit, I didn't have the best relationship with my mom, mainly on my lack of engagement with her, but throughout recent years, I've gotten better at respecting her. It starts with respect. If you respect yourself, then it is so much easier to respect others, even in tough times. I may not agree with some things people say to me, but I've learned how to respect people regardless.
Never debate or interact with someone who doesn't respect nor value you as a person. No matter what you say, that person won't be convinced to accept you or your ideas. At some point in our lives, we all want to feel accepted by our loved ones. The key to the bottom line here is, to have healthy relationships in your personal life as well as in your career. Surround yourself with positive people. You'll be suprised at the impact you will contribute to society, once you position yourself around positive people.
Somedays, you will be your biggest and sometimes ONLY cheerleader. Everything you do won't get you an award, an audience, standing ovation and any other rewards that you may be looking for, for the services you provided. I'll press a button and inform you ahead of time that, if recognition is your motive for helping others, you're in the wrong business.
This sounds easier said than done. I know some of you out there may be thinking this very thought. Don't battle with your mind, lets find alternatives to unhealthy or negative thoughts. I'm not asking you to become arrogant or cocky, I'm asking you to dig deeper inside yourself, discover yourself, acknowledge yourself, therefore, when someone else does it or says it, it won't be as a foreign language to you or possibly fall prey to someone who doesn't deserve you or your time. I'll speak more on this in the next chapter.
Believing in yourself also requires you to have faith. Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing (www.dictionary.com). Why not have faith (confidence) in yourself? Who can do that job better than you? ..... NO ONE! Even during times that I don't see what lies ahead, I still rely on my faith. My faith has carried me far in this sometimes, cruel society. It has definitely gotten me through those tough nights trying to accomplish my goals and build my brand: A New Me Foundation, Inc. With believing in yourself, you have to have faith and next, patience.
Patience is not an easy task. Although various dictionary resources say that the word patience is a noun, I wholeheartedly believe it is a verb. Patience requires you to have and take action. Action in the sense that you have to do something, in order to exhibit patience.
Bottom line: The city of Rome wasn't built in one day, so give yourself a break and believe in yourself and be patient with yourself.
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