Here’s how to love yourself more – and embrace the joy of not competing with others.
Note: This is guest essay by Denise Barry
When my daughter was in high school she was on the crew team. One happy day the four-person boat she led came in first, and she and the other girls won a medal.
Sam was very proud of herself. She had trained night and day, six days a week, to prepare for that race.
The next day she left the medal on her dresser and went to school. When she returned home that night she mentioned that a couple of the girls had worn their medals to school.
“Why didn’t you?” I asked.
“Because I didn’t want the girls on the team who didn’t win to feel bad,” Sam answered.
What a lucky girl, I thought, to not want to separate herself from others. She did not need to compete, compare or stand out.
Self-talk is an important part of our lives. When we feel loved and supported, it has a positive effect on how we feel about ourselves. However, sometimes we are so involved with how we look and what we earn that we often neglect areas of our personality which cause us fear or insecurity. For example, the issue you might be facing right now is that you may often find that you have low self-esteem and in turn, that makes you feel unattractive.
If you want to feel wanted and supported, then start by loving yourself. Start your own mission to love yourself first by filling a desire for love into your daily life. This will present you with that higher sense of fulfillment and confidence in your life. By filling these areas of weakness with healthy self-talk, you’ll be able to face your fears head-on and feel good about who you are.
Plus, we are taught it at home, in school, at work and in play.
And we’re taught that it’s okay, even necessary, to be the “winner”.
There are tons of categories in life to compete in, if you’re so inclined.
There’s prettiest, smartest, nicest, sassiest, best dressed, best cook, best athlete, happiest marriage, highest paid celebrity, etc.
But we’re taught that if we have a passion for something, we need to be better at it than everyone else. Instead of connecting with (and supporting) those doing the same things we are, we compete with them.
We alienate ourselves by comparing ourselves to each other.
If someone excels where we haven’t yet, we declare ourselves a “loser.”
By traditional standards, you cannot have a winner without a loser.
But I don’t buy into that. Neither does my daughter.
My daughter and I know that winning is a personal thing. It’s the result of your efforts.
Being a winner means you’re someone who works hard and jumps through all the hoops.
If you want to feel like a winner, you don’t have to beat everyone else – or anyone, for that matter.
You simply need to set a realistic goal for yourself – then go out there and try to achieve it. In the end, you’ve won, whether or not you were given a title.
Did you get that?
What does it feel like to be a winner? It feels proud, strong, courageous, peaceful.
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
You can have this winner mindset by writing your goals down so that you’re always reminded of the goals you wish to achieve for yourself. This can help you have a clearer vision of where you’re headed and the dreams you wish to achieve in your life.
These goals should always be realistic and achievable. Once you’ve made a list of your life goals, this gives you positive motivation every single day, no matter how difficult your days go.
Along with writing down your goals, another tip to help you love yourself more is to write down positive affirmations. These positive affirmations can help overturn whatever negative thoughts you may have about yourself. Once you begin to repeat affirmations to yourself, then they begin to seep into your subconscious and the truth of who you really are beginning to reveal itself.
This writing down of your positive affirmations can begin also with fully understanding your personality, such as what your zodiac says about you. You can learn more about this from https://tinyrituals.co/blogs/tiny-rituals/aries-birthstone-zodiac-gemstone-guide. Using these guides can help you meditate on parts of your personality and goals in your life, allowing you to craft the perfect affirmations.
But this good news gets better.
Well, these feelings of being a winner have nothing to do with anyone else.
You can love yourself more simply by deciding it’s important to appreciate ourselves.
On our best day we can’t beg, buy, borrow or steal “Winner Feelings” from anyone.
We can’t even earn them, because we already own them.
They come from within, and everyone has a set of “Winner Feelings.” Everyone, without exception.
Re-define what it means to be a “winner.”
Of course, that would mean dropping the word “loser.”
But hey, I’m willing to do that.
Are you?
This essay is written by Denise Barry
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