Self-gratitude is one of the most important things we can practice to build our self-esteem and empower ourselves.
Self-gratitude is about being grateful for your life, yourself, and your accomplishments. It gives us an opportunity to be our biggest champions. I’ve personally been working on including self-gratitude into my daily life.
It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and miss the small wins that often get us through the day. Taking a moment to acknowledge my accomplishments helps to keep me motivated and encouraged that I am on the right path.
For a large chunk of my life, I constantly looked to others for praise and acknowledgment. When I wouldn’t get the validation I was looking for from others, especially in the workplace, it impacted how I felt about myself. I spent more trying to adapt to those environments so that I would be “accepted” or recognized for what I was accomplishing.
After some time spent in therapy and time spent learning more about myself, I have become my biggest cheerleader. It took some time to get to this place, but I knew that I wanted to feel better about myself and at a certain point knew that all started with me.
One of the first times I realized I needed to acknowledge my wins was during a talk with one of my close friends, Ray. I was running down a list of things I wanted to accomplish at the time and kind of beating myself up for not being further along than I was in my career. He reminded me that I had just recently gotten my own apartment and was living on my own. He told me I needed to give myself credit for doing the hard work to get my first apartment. In my mind this was just “the thing you do next,” and I hadn’t really celebrated this achievement.
I had checked it off my list and was moving on to the next goal. I let his words sink in and really spent some time praising myself for all the goals I had accomplished. It was a bit awkward for me at first. Giving myself props for doing things that I “needed to do” was foreign to me and took some adjusting. Over time, I slowly became my biggest champion and it’s made such a difference in my life.
The way that I move is different because I’m focused on making myself proud. I take pride in my accomplishments and that helps to keep me motivated. I challenge you to look in the mirror and thank yourself for all the hard work you have been doing.
As long as you see it, recognize it, and acknowledge it, it won’t and shouldn’t go unnoticed.
