There's an old saying: "If you eat a live frog when you first wake up in the morning, nothing worse can happen to you for the rest of the day..."
What does this saying mean? Let's take a closer look:
The frog, represents the most difficult and disheartening task in our daily routine, that thing we least want to do. This is probably the task that we're most likely to put off all day...
In reality, if we get this thing out of the way now, we will feel a burst of energy - we'll find ourselves motivated for the rest of the day! However, if we continue to put it off, delay it again and again, it will sit on our heads all day, drain our energies and make us miserable.
Perhaps, without even knowing it, procrastination just hurts us in life. It doesn't allow us a chance to rest/relax.
So what should we do from now on? Precisely the thing we want to put off, first. Because in all actuality, if we get this out of the way, we'll become free and happy to do whatever else we want to do, with a clear/quiet conscious. Instead of saying: "Oh! I don't have the energy to do it right now - I just don't want to..." We may want to say: "If I get this task out of the way, I'll be free and happy!"
Come on then, what are we waiting for? Let's get it done now! Take small steps instead of just complaining. Remember, every little step brings you closer to your ultimate goals.
I think it's worth mentioning that, sometimes we don't do something because we are afraid we won't do it correctly, or we we feel that we're not good enough for the task. Sometimes we fear that even if we do succeed, we don't deserve the success. To over come these feelings we need to develop self assurance, self love, and faith. Be truly yourself and let The Light shine from the inside out. You can change your negative emotions immediately, by thinking of something joyful, or singing a song, or remembering a happy experience.
Experience the wonder of you, the beauty of you. Experience your essence. Experience the miracle that is life. Let that feeling grow, bathe in it. Let it be - let you be. BE. Neglect of your own well-being, all those years spent wondering... Stop listening to promises and act to carve out a new life. If you can find something positive to learn in any situation, you'll be able to control your state of well-being.
Each day is a new canvas to paint on. Make sure your picture is full of life and happiness, and at the end of the day you don't look at it and wish you'd painted something different. A happy person takes time to see the bigger picture and appreciates what isn’t wrong. Each moment in a day, has its own value: Morning brings hope, afternoon brings faith, evening brings love and night brings rest Find them all today!
When we live with emunah - faith in Creator, ourselves and the world around us - we achieve cheirut (freedom). We live a life of hope and purpose.
Pay Attention To Life And Life Will Pay Attention To You!
So how do you stay calm, composed and maintain self esteem in a tough environment? Here are some tips you may to consider as a starter guide to self improvement.
Imagine yourself as a Dart Board. Everything and everyone else around you may become Dart Pins, at one point or another. These dart pins will destroy your self esteem and pull you down in ways you won’t even remember. Don’t let them destroy you, or get the best of you. So which dart pins should you avoid?
Dart Pin #1 : Negative Work Environment
Beware of “dog eat dog” theory where everyone else is fighting just to get ahead. This is where non-appreciative people usually thrive. No one will appreciate your contributions even if you miss lunch and dinner, and stay up late. Most of the time you get to work too much without getting help from people concerned. Stay out of this, it will ruin your self esteem. Competition is at stake anywhere. Be healthy enough to compete, but in a healthy competition that is.
Dart Pin #2: Other People’s Behavior
Bulldozers, brown nosers, gossipmongers, whiners, backstabbers, snipers, people walking wounded, controllers, naggers, complainers, exploders, patronizers, sluffers… all these kinds of people will pose bad vibes for your self esteem, as well as to your self improvement scheme.
Dart Pin #3: Changing Environment
You can’t be a green bug on a brown field. Changes challenge our paradigms. It tests our flexibility, adaptability and alters the way we think. Changes will make life difficult for awhile, it may cause stress but it will help us find ways to improve our selves. Change will be there forever, we must be susceptible to it.
Dart Pin #4: Past Experience
It’s okay to cry and say “ouch!” when we experience pain. But don’t let pain transform itself into fear. It might grab you by the tail and swing you around. Treat each failure and mistake as a lesson.
Dart Pin #5: Negative World View
Look at what you’re looking at. Don’t wrap yourself up with all the negativities of the world. In building self esteem, we must learn how to make the best out of worst situations.
Dart Pin #6: Determination Theory
The way you are and your behavioral traits is said to be a mixed end product of your inherited traits (genetics), your upbringing (psychic), and your environmental surroundings such as your spouse, the company, the economy or your circle of friends. You have your own identity. If your father is a failure, it doesn’t mean you have to be a failure too. Learn from other people’s experience, so you’ll never have to encounter the same mistakes.
Sometimes, you may want to wonder if some people are born leaders or positive thinkers. NO. Being positive, and staying positive is a choice. Building self esteem and drawing lines for self improvement is a choice, not a rule or a talent. God wouldn’t come down from heaven and tell you – “George, you may now have the permission to build self esteem and improve your self.”
In life, its hard to stay tough specially when things and people around you keep pulling you down. When we get to the battle field, we should choose the right luggage to bring and armors to use, and pick those that are bullet proof. Life’s options give us arrays of more options. Along the battle, we will get hit and bruised. And wearing a bullet proof armor ideally means ‘self change’. The kind of change which comes from within. Voluntarily. Armor or Self Change changes 3 things: our attitude, our behavior and our way of thinking.
Building self esteem will eventually lead to self improvement if we start to become responsible for who we are, what we have and what we do. Its like a flame that should gradually spread like a brush fire from inside and out. When we develop self esteem, we take control of our mission, values and discipline. Self esteem brings about self improvement, true assessment, and determination. So how do you start putting up the building blocks of self esteem? Be positive. Be contented and happy. Be appreciative. Never miss an opportunity to compliment. A positive way of living will help you build self esteem, your starter guide to self improvement.
