Do you love yourself?
Or put another way.
When asked who the most important person in your life is, who would you say?
Your father?
Best friend?
Significant other?
Alright all those people can play large roles in your life. Both positive and negative. But they are not the most important person in your life. They don’t have the largest impact on your life. The person who has the largest impact on your life, the person who is most important in your life…
Is you.
You are the most important person in your life. Most people would never even consider themselves an option. We’ve been taught to serve others at the expense of ourselves and that to do this is to be noble. As if there is any nobility in being a slave.
Putting yourself first is the only way to insure that you end up where you want in life. To live the life of your dreams. This isn’t being selfish, it’s being smart. You can still choose to help others if you wish but it will be because you want to not because you are forced to.
Now that you know that you and you alone are the most important person in your life I’ll ask you another question. Do you treat yourself that way? If you could record your inner self-talk what would you hear?
“I’m such an idiot”
“There’s no point”
“It’ll never work”
Do any of these ring a bell?
Let me ask you something, would you talk this way to someone you cared about? If your brother or sister asked for advice or help is this what you would say to them? Most likely no, and if you wouldn’t treat others this way then why on earth would you treat yourself this way?
If you want to become the king you must treat yourself as a king. This doesn’t me to be an entitled tyrant. This means treat yourself well. Don’t tear yourself down but build yourself up.
You are your own greatest resource. And as your own greatest resource it would behoove you to take care of yourself. Whether this is through working out, eating right, or the most important of all loving yourself.
When we hear that someone loves himself usually negative associations are automatically dredged up in our minds. Asshole, jerk, pig, etc. You get the general idea. Yet when someone says they love another we applaud it. Now I’m not against loving others but I am against not loving oneself.
One’s life should be filled with love. The process of filling one’s life with love starts with loving yourself. This process starts by taking care of yourself like you would a brand new car or a newly bought home. These assets are nothing compared to the asset of yourself yet you treat them one hundred times better…a little crazy right?
Alright so the first thing you need to do is change you negative self-talk. You can do this in a number of ways. First and foremost make the most important commitment ever. Commit to yourself. To better yourself day in and day out. To read, experiment, fail, and love yourself while doing it all.
Get positive tracks in your mind. Your mind often plays the same loops over and over. These loops are often negative and inaccurate but also deeply ingrained. This is unfortunate. However these loops can be overwritten and replaced with positive accurate loops that will better your life.
While they may get a bad rap affirmations are an effective way to do this. Pick ten phrases that are positive and about yourself.
“I love myself”
“I am great”
“I am amazing”
Or whatever, make them personal to yourself. Target them to your personal needs. Look into a mirror and look yourself in the eye as you say them. Best to do this alone as most people get very self-conscious talking to themselves. Then again this could be a perfect time to practice not giving a damn what others think.
Run through the list three times every night and every morning. Do it for a month and see what happens. You’ll at the very least start the rewiring process.
If that’s not enough for you here is another option. Pick one hundred affirmations and write them down, hand written preferred. Use a recording device of some sort an iphone, tape recorder, or whatever works. Put on some music in the background. Meditation music is what I usually use. Then with the music playing in the background speak your affirmations into the recorder. You can run it through it once or twice or however many times you can stand it.
Boom, you have your own self-talk tape. Now listen to that self-talk tape once a day. You can do it while you’re going about your daily chores, before you go to sleep, or whenever. You’re an adult you can figure it out. Do this for a month and see if you find those affirmations running through your mind in day to day situations. My money’s on that they will be.
So remember you are the most important person in your life. You are the biggest asset you have. Because of this you should treat yourself well, take care of yourself, and above all else love yourself.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.
-Charles Sledge
