Lesson 7: Honouring your Best Self
How do I do it?
"The circumstances that surround a man's life are not really important. It is how the man responds to the circumstances that is important. His response is the ultimate determining factor between success and failure!" Booker T. Washington
1.Decide to honour your best self - it is your choice
2.Discover who your best self is - what is the best you have to offer
3.Develop the plan to honour that self
I want to spend some time developing the third point. It is where the rubber hits the road, if you will. People in your life may not welcome a new and improved version of you. They may be very comfortable with the current version. They know what to expect. They know their role. They know yours. It won't be any easier for them, than it might be for you. Hold the course.
What do you need to be your best? Many people spend most of their lives, either consciously or subconsciously, trying to meet those needs. Many people may not even be able to identify or articulate what those needs are. You will. Start by identifying those physical needs you have that must be met in order for you to feel fully alive. How many hours of sleep do you require per night? Are you an early riser or a late sleeper? Do you wake on your own or with the loud assistance of an alarm clock? Do you eat a full breakfast, or a light snack? Track every little detail about your physical life as practice for the next step which is your personal life needs. Here are some examples of what you might need to have/feel to know you are at your best: to be accepted, to achieve professional success, to be cherished, to live in luxury, to be listened to, to do the right thing, peace, to be celebrated, to feel safe, etc.
Take a few minutes now to identify ten things you need to be your best self. Then set priorities around those, ranking your needs from 10-1. I want to encourage you then, to identify how you will get the top five needs met within the next ten days. Develop the plan. If you need help with this, send me an e-mail, but work on it first, and submit what you are able to create on your own.
The next task is to create a list of ten things you can do every single day to honour your best self. It may be lingering over a cup of coffee, it may be brushing your teeth, it may be praying; it can be anything - as long as it honours you. Make those things a habit.
You may want to examine new territories worthy of your exploration. You may want to consider learning new things. You may want to look at your lifestyle and ways to improve it. You may want to examine what your life is based on and does it still serve you. At this point in your healing you may also want to re-examine the energy sources you are depending on. Are they clean sources, providing you with pure energy or have you become an adrenaline junkie and live from one emotional crisis to the next out of habit? It may be the time to stretch your boundaries, examine your frameworks and explore new options. You may like what lies on the other side of discovery.
