One thing I’ve noticed to help maintain the confident mindset is the simple act of rewarding yourself.
The only problem is… how often do you actually reward yourself? How often do you celebrate your progress and the things you do? Even the smallest achievements?
If you are anything like me, which you probably are as you’re part of Thrives on Neglect tribe, you chunk what you do into small, bite-sized pieces in order to not overwhelm yourself as you’re making your dreams and goals come true.
Well, as part of this process, it’s of paramount importance to reward yourself every step of the way. Yes, every step.
Not only when you’ve done something extraordinary. Or taken a big leap forward. Especially not only after your dream or goal has happened.
Every step of the journey is worth celebration. You’re worth celebrating on every step of the journey. Reward yourself accordingly.
Ok, so rewarding yourself after every step of the way needs some planning in advance. The rewards you use must definitely be the kind that don’t actually take you further from your ultimate dream or goal.
With every reward, ask yourself: is this good for me? Also in the long run?
Quality over quantity is a good motto here.
For example, if you use food to reward yourself, as I often do, I suggest you pay attention to what kind of food you reward yourself with. The same goes for exercising and sports, reading a book, watching Netflix, shopping and so on.
Pay attention on how your rewards make you feel afterwards, cause a Netflix marathon ain’t a reward just because you say it is. Why? Cause it makes you feel sluggish, irritated and tired (I speak with firm voice of experience, ha!). And that is not a reward. A Netflix marathon is often an escape mechanism that has kicked in.
A reward makes you feel happy and delighted. Inspired yet calm. Energized yet peaceful. A real reward is good for you.
Be with that thought for a while. Let it sink in. And then clarify what it means to you. How can you make sure you incorporate rewards and celebration as part of your daily life?
As I’ve said many times earlier, latest last week, when using the model of dividing your dreams and goals into minimum, medium and optimum preferably on daily and/or weekly basis, it’s time to reward yourself already when you’ve done the absolute minimum.
There’s no rule to only reward yourself once per every dream or goal. Although that seems to be the unfortunate misconception for many. We are allowed, if not required, to enjoy already the journey.
We have long enough stretched our ability to cope with the bad, it’s time to stretch our ability to cope with the good. After all, how good are you willing to let life get?
Just last week I was having a conversation with one of my dear colleagues, who was tearing out of gratitude and happiness as she had yet again received marvelous feedback from one of her client companies. She was many times saying that she’s not sure she’s able to cope with that much of goodness and was ready to shrug it off her shoulders right away and move on to other things.
This is what happens to us too often. We miss the opportunities to practice our ability to receive, not just to give. But instead of that being a sign of us being good people, that actually is a sign of selfish action.
If we’d only like to be the ones giving to others, not ready to receive any good ourselves, we then would deny the opportunity to give from those around us.
And we all know how happy we are when we’re giving, for example, birthday or Christmas gifts to others. How happy it makes us to see the receiver of the gift enjoying. Well, it goes the other way, too. They, too, are happy to give you gifts and see you enjoying. But what happens to that joy if you’re not willing, or able, to receive? It gets uncomfortable for everyone, right?
Let’s just do the work with ourselves in order to be able and willing to receive the good that life has to offer. It’s time to reward yourself.
Much love,
Paula
xx