Are you too hard on yourself?  We hold onto our shortcomings and conveniently forget our successes and positive qualities. It’s not easy to expect others to respect, like, or love you if you don’t love yourself.
 
While we find it easy to love others, it’s much more challenging to appreciate ourselves. We often allow others to take advantage of us. We tolerate unhealthy relationships. We overeat. We waste our valuable time. We have goals that are far beneath our capabilities. We place the weight on others to give us the affirmation and approval that is at our fingertips. 

As you wrap up this year and prepare your mind for the year ahead, I encourage you to consider doing the following:
 

• Give yourself the love you deserve -Remember You Matter - Understand that you are relevant. You matter to the world. Your opinions matter. Your work matters. Your mere presence matters. You’ve already touched numerous lives in a positive way.​  

• You are Not Your Mistakes - Understand that your greatest mistakes don’t define you. Your mistakes may have influenced your life, but they’ve only changed who you are if you’ve permitted it. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you’ve made. Tomorrow is a new day.

 

• Forgive those how have wronged you. Forgiving doesn’t mean that you have to forget or give them another chance to wrong you. It just means that you’re not going to spend any more time or mental energy holding onto your anger. For your sake, be good to yourself and let it go.

  

Contrary to what many industry experts, courses, programs, workshops, and training sessions would have you believe, I firmly believe that everyone is born with the level of confidence they require to live out their life, their purpose, and their journey.

Let me ask you – Have you ever really noticed a child? When a baby is born he’s free and full of confidence. The baby is confident, when he/she cries for milk, it appears, when he poops, someone appears to clean it up. Have you noticed a toddler, how confident a child is about what he wants, and how he clearly communicates without prejudice or hesitation? Almost till the age of 6-10 years, there is an abundance of self-confidence and effectiveness in communication.

Post that age, we start gathering the baggage of life – every time someone says – “Are you sure?”, “Work hard so you don’t fail”, “You should not fail!”, “A lot depends upon you!”. We feel the fear of failing and slowly start to resist taking on big challenges so as not to face that fear. Over time (years) even though people outside may stop saying it, our mind remembers all the times we failed in something & slowly the self-doubt starts to add layers over and over. Now a confident, outspoken and fully self-expressed child slowly starts to doubt & second guess himself.

We are filled with experiences of failures, rejections and belief in our incompetency. And as there is a need for confidence in the market, and different industries, we are always looking to collect news, and education, we put up a facade of false self-confidence & project it to the world, hoping no one would find out.

However, inside there is a huge conflict between what we are really feeling and what we are pretending to be so that we may be accepted, acknowledged & appreciated. Over time this gap continues to eat us inside, like a termite, and increase the experience of something lacking.

Do you realize the power of your pen? That's right, that small little ink pen that you carry around in the bottom of your purse. Yes, the one you can never get your hands on when you need it most. I encourage you today to pull it out and keep it near so you can use it to capture the hopes and dreams you have hidden in your heart. Our pen is made for more than creating shopping lists and writing reminder sticky notes to place on your mirror. While using the pen for those things is important, it is equally important to realize there is more power in that pen than we truly realize.

Everything you have and will encounter as you go throughout your day was likely imagined first through a person's heart and mind, and then through a pen. The clothes you are wearing, the car you drive, and the application you use faithfully each morning to download a morning motivation or to kick off your morning work-out were likely first sketched out with a pen. All of this and more started with someone who had a vision in their heart and simply wrote it down before it ever came to be.

The word of God tells us to Write the Vision and Make it Plain, for a reason. It is because there is power in the pen. The simple step of writing down your hopes, dreams, and prayers is the first step to putting things into motion. Now, yes, we realize there is more to be done than simply writing it down, but taking that first step, jump starts it all.

Today, I encourage you to pick up your pen and write down the things that you have hidden in the recesses of your mind and heart. No matter how large or small, write it the way you see it. Don't overthink it, just dump it on the pages of your notebook or journal. Once you do that, sit with it, pray over it and revisit it often. You never ever know how God will grace you to make those dreams a reality.

QUESTION: Have you ever written something down and stumbled across what you wrote years later, only to be amazed that the very thing that was once an idea, has now become a reality? What was it?

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

When it comes to achieving your dreams and accomplishing your goals, it is very easy to put the work off until you have all the ducks lined up and are assured everything is going to work out, but does that ever really work?  You already know the answer...NO!!! 

The reality is no matter how hard we try we can never get everything worked out perfectly.  And the reality is while we are trying to do so, we are losing valuable precious time.  I challenge you today to rethink your strategy when it comes to achieving your personal goals or obtaining the things that are most important to you.  Make a decision today to do the work as if you know everything is going to work out.  

QUESTION:  What is one thing you can do today to move closer to your goals?

MONDAY MOTIVATION....

As you jumpstart your week, be aware there will be many things that may come your way to steal your time and distract your mind but remain laser-focused. There is work to do, dreams to fulfill, and a purpose to be pursued. Get in the zone!

Starve your distractions and feed your focus. It's going to be a GREAT week. ​

Are you often labeled "Team Too Much"?  Do those around you frown upon your zeal, passion and excitement?  Do you find yourself dimming down your light because others around you are uncomfortable?  Well, if you answered "yes" to any of those questions, I encourage you today to pause, take a deep breath in, and keep pushing forward.  There is no apology needed as you get up each day and press forward towards the things God has created YOU to do. 

You don't need those around you to fully understand what you are doing and where you are going.  If God gave you a dream, a vision or instructions, remember you and Him are a majority.  Adjust your crown my dear, look yourself in the mirror and remind yourself you have what it takes.  Now let's go!