Day #2 – Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

What’s your immediate response to hearing/reading this:

You are doing better than you think you are.

This is how Rhonda Britten opens this chapter. By asking us to take a good look at that statement and notice what stuff comes up. What feelings? What thoughts?

Then some possible responses and we’re meant to check off the ones that came up for us. Here are some from the list that I related to:

• I am?
• If I’m doing better than I think I am, why don’t I feel better?

Then some from my own list:

• Ya, but…
• There’s still so much more to do.
• That’s great, but…
• Okay, I can go there, but…

Hmmm. Interesting to see that I get a lot of buts in there. Hard to take a compliment just as it is. Hard to accept nice stuff without wanting to dismiss it in some way. Yeah…but….

Our response to how we receive that praise of: You’re doing better than you think you are…tells us what FILTERS we tend to see stuff through. With my “yeah but” kind of response, I see that I’m seeing things through a “never good enough” filter. Ouch.

She links my response up to one that she listed as a possibility: “Don’t tell me that. I won’t stay motivated.” Yep, I can find that one. I tend to use my lack of progress to kick myself in the ass to do things sometimes.

So my filtering system is: “I haven’t done enough.” And “Don’t tell me that. I won’t stay motivated.” Both of which = Yeah But.

All about Acknowledgments

- They give us credit for the hard work that we’re doing.

- It will not give you a big head.

- Will give you confidence to change your life.

- Negative feelings will subside when you start acknowledging yourself on a daily basis.

Today I acknowledge myself for: doing Day 2 of this program at the time I put in my calendar even though I got off to a rocky start with my morning schedule.

Things we can acknowledge ourselves for:

• Risks we’re taking. (Even if it’s making a phone call that we have been putting off.)
• Willingness to do things
• Taking time for ourselves
• Saying something to someone else that we’ve been putting off.

Activity: 25 Acknowledgments From The Last Year

1. Today I acknowledge myself for: Completing my first 5k.
2. Today I acknowledge myself for: Making a big announcement to my mastermind group at my last biz event.
3. Today I acknowledge myself for: Making friends with my new neighbors.
4. Today I acknowledge myself for: Hosting a snack & game-night party with my girlfriends.
5. Today I acknowledge myself for: Releasing 23 pounds in a healthy, sane, feel-good way.
6. Today I acknowledge myself for: Running 3.2 miles down by the beach without even realizing it.
7. Today I acknowledge myself for: Living a raw food lifestyle that feels good to my body.
8. Today I acknowledge myself for: Making an “out there” video of me in my bikini to show how I really am.
9. Today I acknowledge myself for: Saying no to running an errand just because someone needed my help.
10. Today I acknowledge myself for: Focusing on my breathing during one of my yoga classes.
11. Today I acknowledge myself for: Rearranging the home office so that we have more space.
12. Today I acknowledge myself for: Returning to the same hair stylist.
13. Today I acknowledge myself for: Driving the speed limit and wearing my seat belt.
14. Today I acknowledge myself for: Staying calm when I got pulled over for not having a front license plate.
15. Today I acknowledge myself for: For getting on Twitter and participating in the socializing there.
16. Today I acknowledge myself for: For starting this blog and showing up as myself.
17. Today I acknowledge myself for: Starting this 30 Day Program and pulling the book of my shelf again.
18. Today I acknowledge myself for: Making room in my life for having a cell phone again.
19. Today I acknowledge myself for: Buying myself a new long-sleeved t-shirt with a hood.
20. Today I acknowledge myself for: Making this list of acknowledgments!
21. Today I acknowledge myself for: Laying in the grass naked in my front yard.
22. Today I acknowledge myself for: Keeping the plants in my home alive with water and sunlight.
23. Today I acknowledge myself for: Selecting minimal makeup that looks good on me when I want to dress up a bit.
24. Today I acknowledge myself for: Understanding my Sweet Bee’s love language more and giving it to him.
25. Today I acknowledge myself for: Staying in touch with my grandparents through handwritten letters.

Now she says do 25 more!!

1. Today I acknowledge myself for: Trusting my Sweet Bee’s vision and big picture thinking.
2. Today I acknowledge myself for: Setting up interviews for a personal assistant to help me around the house.
3. Today I acknowledge myself for: Not wearing too many accessories at one time.
4. Today I acknowledge myself for: Loving dangling earrings.
5. Today I acknowledge myself for: Seriously considering trying some highlights in my hair.
6. Today I acknowledge myself for: Looking into starting our own Toastmaster’s Group
7. Today I acknowledge myself for: Having nice nails this week and taking care of my cuticles.
8. Today I acknowledge myself for: Wanting to really know the physical stuff about my body and how it works. Anatomy baby!
9. Today I acknowledge myself for: Taking my medicine regularly when it’s been prescribed.
10. Today I acknowledge myself for: Swallowing a pill camera.
11. Today I acknowledge myself for: Making sure there is bird seed in our bird feeder outside.
12. Today I acknowledge myself for: Sharing my laptop with our neighbors when they need it.
13. Today I acknowledge myself for: Telling my mom I didn’t want her to come out when I was sick.
14. Today I acknowledge myself for: Working out with Steph in her living room when I thought I was going to panic.
15. Today I acknowledge myself for: Jumping in the ocean the other day even when it was freezing.
16. Today I acknowledge myself for: Paying attention to what the child in me needs.
17. Today I acknowledge myself for: Being open to learning new ways of relating to myself and taking care of myself.
18. Today I acknowledge myself for: Finding the file folder I thought was missing.
19. Today I acknowledge myself for: Creating a bedtime for myself.
20. Today I acknowledge myself for: How far I’ve come with my health issues over the last 8 years.
21. Today I acknowledge myself for: Straightening my hair sometimes.
22. Today I acknowledge myself for: Using reusable bags when I go shopping.
23. Today I acknowledge myself for: Asking for help finding things when I don’t know where they are.
24. Today I acknowledge myself for: Taking care of my car lease paperwork.
25. Today I acknowledge myself for: Persevering through the challenges I’ve had in my business over the last several years.

Wow. Some of those got kinda hard to find. But I see that I could probably even do another 25 more. Really look for ones that were stretches and risks too. Not just ones that I notice that I did. Like using reusable bags when I shop. Not so hard, but wait…

This is me doing that thing again where I say: Yeah, but.

So screw that.

I acknowledge myself for using reusable bags.

Perfect. It’s a good thing. I am worthy of acknowledgment for that. I can receive it from myself. Thank you, Mona.

Today, Acknowledge Yourself

In what are of my life do I have a hard time acknowledging yourself? Maybe it’s more like where “Don’t” I have a hard time acknowledging myself? I find it easy to do it around food that I make. I find it easy to do around my writing. Easy to do around creative artsy projects. Not so much with business, my emotional well being, my professional life, my social life, my financial life…

What area would you like to acknowledge yourself more? Well, there’s lots of room for doing this. I’d like to focus on doing it around my professional life…and my emotional wellness. Like taking care of myself.

What could happen if you gave yourself more credit? I’d probably feel a whole lot better about myself. I’d be paying attention to what IS being done instead of what isn’t being done.

Am I willing to give myself more credit? Yes. I am. I think I’d enjoy giving myself more credit. I think there’s a part of me that needs to hear it and really receive it.

So the assignment is to write 5 daily acknowledgments for the rest of this 30 day program. The smaller and more specific the better. She suggests focusing on where and when it’s easy to acknowledge the stuff, and when/where I’m being stingy with it.

Learning to focus on what you are doing, versus what you want to do, will help you stay true to yourself moment by moment.  – Rhonda Britten

5 Daily Acknolwedgments:

1. Today I acknowledge myself for: Sticking with this blog post. It was long and kind of tedious and redundant seeming. My mind wanted to run from it plenty of times and I stayed with it.
2. Today, I acknowledge myself for: Making a detailed, doable list of the things that are on my mind today. It’s striped yellow paper pad and something about it feels really good.
3. Today, I acknowledge myself for: Doing a 3-min. hypnosis audio about a project that I have been avoiding for a long time. It helped me open up to the project better and I was pleasantly surprised.
4. Today, I acknowledge myself for: Trusting a big purchase that we’re making as an investment that will lead to future streams of income.
5. Today, I acknowledge myself for: Going to Victoria’s Secret last night and trying on 5 bras.

Okay. I imagine as the 28 other days go by in this program, that this acknowledging stuff is going to start feeling GOOD! It already feels pretty good to have focused on all these great things I’ve done.

Is there anything you’d like to give yourself acknowledge myself for today?