This is a very important question… How do you feel about yourself?
The picture that we have of ourselves is often shaped by what the opinion of others has been about us. We have had opinions leveled about us from the minute we took our first breaths. Some of them have been good, some of them have been bad. Some of them have been bad but weren’t intended to be good.
Your no good…
Your lazy…
Your fat…
Your too skinny… (This one got me for many years. I’ll explain later in the post.)
Your a bad girl…
Your a bad boy…
Your no good for nothing…
You eat too much…
Do any of these sound familiar?
Until we take personal responsibility for how we feel about ourselves, we will continue to live by the limiting thoughts that others have labeled us with.
The best way to combat the negative image we have about ourselves is to become very conscious of the thoughts that are rolling around in our heads. Let me give you an example.
For most of my adult life, I have fluctuated from 180 to 240 pounds for about the last 25 years. I have gone on diets got down to the weight that I liked but not too long from there I would end up back to being heavy and out of shape again. People always found this very fascinating and I found it very frustrating.
Recently after both of my parents experienced some medical issues at the age of 65, I knew it was time for me to get back on the road to health again. After all I don’t want to have those experiences when I get older.
So I started out again and I found myself getting good results. One morning I was looking in the mirror and I was impressed by the results that I have accomplished to this point and this voice came into my head and said, “Be careful, you don’t want to get to skinny.”
I was fortunate enough to catch that little comment in my head. I started to think to myself, why would that thought even enter into my head.
And then I remembered back to when I was a kid and my grandmother and aunts used to tease me about being skinny. This used to aggravate the crap out of me.
This all happened when I was between 8 to 10 years old. And I didn’t let them down for most of my adult life.
I actually let their thoughts of me define me. I let an opinion of theirs turn into a habitual thought that has been in my head cautioning me not to “get too skinny”.
What is even more amazing about this is that, this thought came to me exactly at the weight that I would always lose steam and start to gain the weight back.
It was a yo-yo weight loss cycle that I had developed based on the opinions of others but if I had not been conscious of the thoughts that were going on in my head I would have been set to repeat the cycle.
I learned this technique of consciously listening to my subconscious thoughts in Lee Milteer’s Habit Busting System.
I know now that I will not be going back to that unhealthy weight after discovering that and other thoughts that I discovered using the techniques in Lee Milteer’s Habit Busting System.
I am grateful for that!
So how do you feel about yourself?
What thoughts or opinions of others have you let control any part of your life?
As Always, Here’s to Your LifetoSuccess,
John Clark