Believe In Yourself (Part III)

Believe in Yourself

Seven Characteristics of Unstoppable People

Part 3 in a Seven-Part Series

Based on the book Unstoppable by Cynthia Kersey

Earl Nightingale said it in his multi-million-selling recording.  The Bible promotes it.  Every well-known and novice speaker and writer who seeks to enrich people’s lives promotes this concept.

What is the concept you ask?

“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

“You become what you think about. “

And there are dozens and hundreds of other ways to say this. 

I’ve heard this concept perhaps ten-thousand times in my lifetime, yet for many years I rushed by it without much deeper thinking and contemplation on the subject. 

You see, I “thought” I believed in “me” yet there were some deeper issues residing inside of my mind that I had to come to grips with in order to set myself free and really allow this concept to sink down deep inside of me.

But it all comes back down to the question of “Do You Believe in You?”

During my growing up years I lived under a stern discipline-minded father.  His word was the law and I dared not step outside the boundaries he established. 

Along the way I allowed my own image of myself to diminish and be ground down.  Oh, I put on a good face for the world, yet I practiced a hollow philosophy of true heart-felt belief in myself.

One fine day along came a phrase that I grabbed onto and it has changed my life. 

The phrase?

I APPROVE OF MYSELF!

For too many years I sought approval from family, co-workers, church members, and everyone else and never accepted me and my goodness and talent pool.  I always deferred to others and their will and way because I felt I had nothing much to contribute. 

The irony of this story is that in my professional life I had some pretty amazing measures of success along the way.  I performed well, people liked me, I could plan and organize events and productions with amazing skill apparently, yet there was this hollow and emptiness inside that I never addressed. 

When I read those four words – I APPROVE OF MYSELF – it was as if blinders fell from my eyes.  I saw with such clarity the damage I had been enduring at my own hand, or rather my inner voice, and from that day forward I have been walking upward and out of the mental hole I had created for myself. 

This is a bit painful for me to reveal in such detail, yet I feel it is such an important concept and I am certain others have struggled in the same way. 

Let me be quick to point out that I am not promoting a philosophy of haughtiness, self-sufficiency or trying to come across in a braggadocios way. 

I am simply relating something that happened deep inside of me and it was a freeing moment when I finally acknowledge that I approved of myself.

I always felt I was …

Too fat

Too bald

Too awkward

Too shy

Too noisy

Too impulsive

Too showy

Too obnoxious

I have a unique gait to my walking and often I’ve been made fun of for that.  Even though I would laugh it off with my friends, I internalized those jokes as something bad and not worthy of approval.

Do you see how these kinds of self—condemning thoughts can do a person in?

The day you begin to believe in your innate goodness is the day you take your first steps toward living a freer, more fulfilling and more sound life. 

Brian Tracy, speaker and writer is famous for saying “I like myself.  I really do like myself.”

That is good and wholesome. 

After all, you and I are unique individuals.  Never has this world seen an exact replica of us, nor will it ever see one after we are gone.  We are created with certain unique abilities and talents and our creator expects us to use all that is within us to design the best life of which we are capable. 

I don’t know if my mantra is the perfect one for you, but I do know that at some point in your life you must accept who you are, what you are and realize that you are all you need to be.  Sure, keep learning, keep reading, keep becoming better, but realize you are you.  You are made as you should be. 

It’s up to you to decide what you are going to do with you.

My advice? 

Believe in You. 

That is what unstoppable people do. 

Believe in you!

Only you can become the best you this world has ever seen.