Tuesday's Tip

Celebrate your Successes

I find that most people can easily name a few  many things that are wrong with their body, their relationships, their career, their life... But, ask them to list something good about themselves and they clam up. As a society, we don't congratulate ourselves often enough on what we are doing RIGHT. Consider your last workout. When you were done, did you say out loud, "Wow, that was rough but I did it! I am awesome!" If you didn't, perhaps you should.

Determining your progression over a longer period of time is much easier when you take stock of your efforts as well as your accomplishments. For example, let's take my friend. She had been running for about 6 months. She hadn't lost all the weight she had been hoping to lose in that time period and was feeling down about it. So, the two of us sat down and put together a list of accomplishments. In the past few months, she had gone from a 35 minute 5K to a little under 32 minutes - that is one minute per mile - HUGE! She used to get  winded at one mile and is now running 5-6 miles with ease. She has been more easily able to handle stress.  Her confidence level has risen and as a result, she has gotten a job promotion. She, in my opinion, is a different person. And after seeing the list, she believes that too.

So, here's your homework (What?! It's back to school season, isn't it?)... Sit down and make a list of the things YOU have accomplished over the course of the past year, month, week, day, hour, whatever. Then, reflect on those and be proud of the person you are right now. If your list is short or you see room for improvement, make another list but this time of positive changes you'd like to make. And, please take the time to congratulate yourself on the great things you do - You are worth it.