Creating Success from the Inside Out: Acknowledge Your Successes

Just the other day when I was browsing my Kindle, I decided to wipe the virtual dust from Jack Canfield's Success Principles and started reading it again.  It's the kind of book you can read over and over or just pick up and read a chapter whenever you have time or inclination.  Each chapter stands alone as a success principle in and of itself.

The chapter I read that really resonated with me has to do with acknowledging your past and present successes, both large and small.  If you're anything like me, you let your inner critic get the best of you sometimes (more often than I would like to admit here!). When the voice inside your head that criticizes you for not getting all those items you made added to Etsy that day or for locking your keys in your car, or for eating that cookie that you didn't need (and then eating 3 more), it can be damaging to your psyche.  After all, we attract to us what we most think about.

Canfield offers several suggestions for kicking the habit of negative thinking about yourself and your actions.  One strategy he recommends that intrigued me is what he calls the "Mirror Exercise".  To do this, you stand in front of a mirror every night for 3 minutes, look yourself in the eye, and appreciate your achievements that day.  By achievements, he's not talking about things like making 10 sales on Etsy or running a marathon, although those would count too!  Rather, he means all of the little things that you do each and every day that make a positive difference in your life and the lives of those you love, work with, and interact with in general.  You could appreciate the fact that you ate a healthy breakfast, that you got your butt to the gym, or even that you told your kids how much you love them.  Whatever you can think of, say it.  Then when you are done, tell yourself, "I love you".

It sounds very corny, I know...  But I am so dying to try this.  Canfield reported that after 40 days of doing this exercise faithfully, he had eradicated all that negative self talk he had previously experienced.  I am going to try this and I hope you try it too!