You have the control and the biggest impact on yourself. You’re the main one who is in charge of your actions, behavior, and your internal progress. People can guide and impact you, but it is ultimately up to you to decide. A good way to make internal progress is to ask yourself daily “How can I make myself proud today.”
First, by asking yourself this question, you’re showing yourself it is okay to prompt these questions to figure out what you need. You also permit yourself to listen to the person you need to be listening to. The next step is doing the task, and then making yourself feel proud. Whether it is a personal, financial, or career endeavor, you get to decide what it is in your power and control today to give you those feelings of accomplishment at the end of the day. This also means being in tune with your needs and desires; not necessarily what you want to do but you know what you need to do to make progress for yourself, for your future.
It can be daunting to think of your goals, especially if those goals seem bigger than yourself. Taking any measure of steps towards them is progress and is an accomplishment. ‘What can I do today that will make me feel proud?” You can ask yourself aloud or in your head. Don’t be confused or allow the fear of judgment to creep in because you already know. If you haven’t met your needs or if you feel like there has been a pattern where others haven’t met your needs, you may face some difficulty when answering this. But sit with yourself for a minute if the answers don’t come right away, then ask again. It will come up. Have patience. Have faith and trust in yourself. I have trust in you to come up with what you truly need today.
Understanding Yourself
For me today as I write this, I know that to lay my head on my pillow tonight and to have a content heart is to clean my space, go to hot yoga, and write. It could be something you avoid, and by doing the things you prove to yourself you’re able to accomplish it; that you’ve always been able to accomplish it.
I know myself well enough to know that I will have no issues and less resistance to cleaning my space and going to hot yoga. This is something that happens almost every day, but those things used to feel hard. The more I did them, the more I proved to myself they were not as daunting or impossible. Keep working on them and you’ll surprise yourself how far you can go. Then you will start to see your goals slowly evolve.
Connecting the Importance to the Action
Understand the importance of following through because when you choose to, you choose to show up for yourself. This elevated the feeling of worthiness. I’ve made it a pattern long enough to know that I follow through with it because I know these acts are ways to honor myself. I clean the space around me because I understand the importance of cleanliness and I know doing so makes my mental health better and it’s going to be easier to accomplish other things in my life knowing that I am in a clean environment. By going to hot yoga I am honoring myself by moving my body, nourishing it with needed movement. Writing would make me feel the proudest because it is the biggest task on the list. It is the biggest task because it is the bravest thing I can do as it requires me to face my fears. To write is to express. To express myself is to feel vulnerable. To write and to even take it a step further is to show it: publish it, make it public: be vulnerable, and allow people to read my thoughts; to understand me. I write almost every day, but I must break the habit of keeping it to myself because I know that making progress within myself, will require me to allow others to read, despite fear of judgment.
Making progress on your goals is a way of looking after yourself. By keeping the promises to yourself, you’re establishing more faith in yourself and as a result, the confidence within yourself becomes stronger. It connects you to feelings of worthiness and inspires you even deeper. If you feel like no one else is uplifting you, uplift yourself. Find your ways of inspiration. Create yourself into someone you’re proud of. A stepping stone into this is asking yourself that question.