Always be yourself. Express yourself. Have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
– Bruce Lee
Life is too short to wear masks.
Or at least it’s frustrating and you get very tired doing so.
To drop them tho, we first need to know what’s important us.
Then dare to stand for it.
One of the most courageous things you can do is identify yourself. Know who you are, what you believe in and where you want to go.
– Sheila Murray Bethel
To get in better touch with areas of ourselves we’re less aware of, we can use sentence-completing.
For this, take a sentence stem and write down 7-10 different endings.
Whatever comes to mind. As quickly as possible. Before your inner censor kicks in. Example:
If I was brave enough, I would…
It helps become aware of hard to grasp truths we can then work with.
So our convictions and how we act are in harmony.
No man is free until he learns to do his own thinking and gains the courage to act on his own personal initiative
– Napoleon Hill
Of course, even if we realize what matters to us, it still takes courage to act the part.
This is where we need self-confidence and self-respect. Both add up to our self-esteem.
Self-Esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves.
A feeling of personal competence and worth that reflects how we judge our ability to cope with challenges.
Hereby affects whether and how well we actually act.
So how can we trust and respect ourselves?
It helps to
- be aware of reality
- be honest with ourselves
- willing to see and correct mistakes
- accept our past
- take responsibility and appropriate risks, even in the face of fear
- do what we intend or promise ourselves to do and
- think independently
That last one’s to say: It’s not enough to recycle what others say or write.
We need to take everything in and form our own opinion.
Also of ourselves and what we’re able to.
Then shine our true colours and do what’s needed.
