What do you admire about yourself?
/- Tracey Hancock, REALiving coach and mentor
We can give ourselves such a hard time. Quick to find fault and criticise, maybe not all the time but perhaps more often than not.
In your journal or on a piece of paper, write down 10 things you admire about yourself. Once you've done that come back and let's carry on this conversation.
So, how did you go? Did you find it easy to identify 10 things or was it quite challenging?
To have an even stronger relationship with yourself, it's important to be more confident and comfortable with who you are. I'd love to share with you a tip that will help you get to the heart of what you admire about yourself.
Who do you admire?
In your journal or on a piece of paper write down the names of the people you admire. You might know them well or perhaps you've never met them. They might be alive or perhaps they're here in spirit. They might be a family member, friend, colleague, someone in your community, or a movie star, business owner, sports person - literally, they could be anyone, the important thing is that they're someone you admire.
Go ahead and write down the people who come to mind. For each person you put on your list answer this question - what do you admire about them? Write down the qualities or characteristics that stand out for you. Be as specific as possible.
So, why have I asked you to do this?
Whatever it is that you admire about others you have within yourself.
In self-development, this is called the mirror of relationship. The qualities you admire in others, have to be within you now. The question is, are you letting them shine or are you pushing them aside?
You're hard-wired to notice negativity, threats and danger, a survival mechanism that many generations ago would have helped keep you alive. But in our modern world, it's gone haywire. Our brains are seeking out what's wrong at every turn, and it latches on to anything, including negative self-talk. And that helps explain why it's so easy for us to find fault and criticise ourselves.
The good news is it's possible to retrain your brain to focus on the positive, and it starts with how you view yourself. What do you admire about yourself? Bring that into your awareness and the more you focus on it, the more confident and comfortable you'll become about who you are.
Let me know what you admire about yourself. And if you struggled with this exercise, let me know that too.
Tracey Hancock is a coach and mentor passionately committed to helping people live well. Drawing on her own experience and the lessons she's learnt trying to be and do what she thought was expected of her, Tracey will guide you to reconnect with your dreams so you can live your real life.
If you know it's time for change, contact Tracey to learn more about the REALiving approach today.