21 Jan Is This the Gift You Want Most?

I know you, your day is crazy hectic, you’ve built a successful life that most people would be very pleased with and you’re easily labelled as a ‘good’ person. But somewhere in all of that, if you really admit it, there’s something that doesn’t sit right about it. A sense of feeling…..unentitled?

And I’m not talking about the idea that you haven’t put the hours in and worked hard for what you have. This is the feeling that you didn’t and don’t fully commit to some things. You’re not ‘all in’ when you believe you should be. And you feel a little bit guilty about this.

There are things you want to do and commit to but you’ve been putting them off. You tell yourself you’ll get to it but the problem is, for that to happen, you need to step up to the plate. And underneath, you don’t really believe you can do that, do you?

 The most important thing you can ever do, is to show up for yourself.

Not showing up for yourself creates a sense of cowardice. It’s hard to admit, but it’s there. The sad result of this is that you’re missing out on your own life because you’re not being true to the person you want to be and achieving the things that are most important to you.

You’re chickening out of doing the really hard stuff.

It feels pretty awful, and what’s it going to be like when you reflect on your life and see that you haven’t followed through on your own deepest desires and wishes?

If you supported yourself all the way and always had your own back, what could you achieve? If you found the blocks holding you back and trusted in yourself to follow through on your plans what would life look like?

The first step to showing up for yourself is be honest and look at the areas where you hold yourself back. What are you NOT doing?

The second is to understand that there is a reason you have been doing this. It may have been a good reason at one time – such as doing everything perfectly so you were accepted and praised at home, but now it’s no longer serving you. Instead, it’s limiting you.

The third step is to step into the fear of what it means to show up for yourself. People might not like what they see, or you might discover that you’re an ordinary human being after all, faults and all.

Of course, it’s not as easy as one, two, three. It takes work to get to this place of showing up for yourself, but it’s worth it. Consider how good it will feel to be truly showing up, to take charge, rather than always wishing you could.

And imagine who you will become in the process. The best thing is, at the end of the day, it won’t really matter if you achieve whatever goal you might have or not. It’s the process you go through that will change you because you gave it your all and showed up for yourself. This is the best gift you can ever give to yourself.

As Brené Brown says, “I’m going to live in the arena. I’m going to be brave with my life. I’m going to show up.”

Give yourself this gift and learn how to show up for yourself.