Cultivating Confidence and Self-Esteem: Create a Brag Book!
Posted on Sat, Dec 05, 2009 @ 10:21 PM
On November 17th, I had the great pleasure of speaking at a Future Women Leaders event on how to cultivate confidence and self-esteem. One of the concepts we spoke about was: taking stock of personal strengths and assets. To put this idea into daily practice, I suggested creating a brag book. It seemed this was an exercise that just about everyone in the room was going to follow through on. In case you did not get to attend and are wondering what a brag book is - please read on!
The point of keeping a brag book is to build your self-esteem by reminding yourself of all the things that are great about you. It's about shifting your awareness and focus from all of the supposed negative ideas about yourself. This journal serves as a quick pick-me-up anytime you are getting down and hard on yourself. It is your evidence of how excellent you are - use it as your defense any time you are being attacked by the inner critic (your small, fearful self).
The root concept of this brag book is to create self-appreciation and gratitude. Having an attitude of gratitude, we are told over and over is a basic principle towards creating happiness. When you look at all of your daily accomplishments and successes, you begin to have happiness in yourself. When you focus on how great you are, you are greatful. As you feel gratitude for your body, which does the work, you begin to take better care of it through diet and exercise. As you begin to feel gratitude for a happy mind and spirit, you choose to feed on only positive thoughts, words and actions. All of this gratitude makes you feel love, and in time this inner, self-love tunes you in with how the Universe, your divine creator, feels about you. See, when you do not love and appreciate yourself, you are out of alignment with the divine and your true, kick-ass self. Love and gratitude for yourself realign you to your higher self.
Nothing breeds more success than success. Nothing creates more self-pride than achievement. When we are proud of ourselves, we believe in ourselves and love ourselves. As we begin to have faith in ourselves, and our abilities, we begin to see all things as possible, one step at a time.
Click here to find out how to create a brag book.
About the speaker/author of this posting:
Farzana is a life coach who helps people realign with their highest potential to achieve a life of peace and happiness. For more information please visit her site at www.farzomatic.com
Relevant links:
FWL Event: Cultivating Confidence and Self-Esteem in the Workplace
farzomatic: mind/body/spirit/life coaching