Self Acknowledgement: The most important tool you will ever learn!

Building your self-acknowledgement skillset is the quickest access to trust and ultimately being and feeling confident. Self-acknowledgement is the practice of speaking to yourself in a positive manner.

I know, it sounds simple, but if you pay attention to your self-talk you will find that

you are regularly a “mean girl” to yourself. The way most women talk to themselves is very mean. So mean that if you were to talk to your friends the way you talk to yourself, your friends probably would not be your friends. Ask yourself… Are you being a good friend to yourself? Or is there room for improvement? Studies show that the more compassionate you are with yourself, the easier it is to

learn new skill-sets. It is true.. being kind to yourself actually makes the results come faster. Now, here is the problem… and it is a bit complicated… as women, not only have we not been taught the skill-set of self-acknowledgement, most of us have been taught that it is not good to self-acknowledge. From a very young age it has been drilled into many of us that speaking and thinking well about yourself is not okay because it is not humble. And it is essential that you

are humble, right? It is made very clear to girls that it is bad for you to think or speak highly of yourself. Good girls should not be braggy or boastful. It is very un-lady like... and that is bad.

Very bad. As a result, not only are we less skilled at the art of self acknowledgment then men,

we are fighting against old beliefs that are directly opposed to our desire for trusting and feeling confident about ourselves. The challenge is real. Very real. So how do you get good at the skill-set of self-acknowledgement? The answer is found where the dysfunctional learning began; in our childhood. If a four-year-old child comes to you with a drawing that looks like purple scribbles and says, “Look at the horse I drew!” You won’t take the paper and say with disgust, “This is horrible. This looks nothing like

a horse. It is just a bunch of scribbly lines. Do better.” No, you don’t say that, because if you did you would be one hell of a jerk! And, we naturally understand that being mean to a child is discouraging to the child’s confidence. We also understand that when you encourage a child, it keeps their little neural pathways happy so that their brain builds the confidence to keep trying. An adult brain works the same as a child’s brain… If you want to trust yourself and feel confident, you need to keep your little neural pathways happy too! That means that you need to practice encouraging yourself, just as you would a child and their scribbly purple lines. This is not an exaggeration or a simplified version of how to create new results. These are the facts. The more that you practice being kind and encouraging to yourself… the quicker you will become confident. If you want to gain the ultimate reward of trusting and being confident within yourself you need to become skilled at self-acknowledgement. This is not a suggestion. This is a requirement. So, suck it up and start saying kind and generous things to yourself. (laugh and a smile)

Practice:

1) Take every opportunity… and I mean… Every. Single. Opportunity… or as many as

you can remember… to say encouraging words to yourself, as if you were a child who’s neural pathways need to be formed…. because your neural pathways around your skillset of self acknowledgement do need to be formed or at the minimum strengthened. 2) Don’t just concentrate on the large accomplishments. Every time you do the smallest. And I mean smallest.. scribbly-lines-meant-to-be-a horse-kind-of-small… you need to intentionally acknowledge and cheer yourself on. Will it feel weird? Yes. Will it feel unnatural? Yes. Will it feel strange? Yes. Will it feel like you are treating yourself like a baby or small child? Only if you are doing it right!!! 3) Don’t worry you won’t stay at this level of development forever. Like anything you are good at, if you practice enough it will become part of the natural way that you operate. But just like a child’s development you cannot skip this stage of practicing. All skill-sets take time, attention and intention. By giving yourself the grace and magic of seeing “scribbly-lines-as-a-horse,” so to speak, and practicing self-acknowledgement you will see your self trust and confidence grow. Before you know it you will master the skill-set of self-acknowledgement and when you draw a horse… or give an opinion… ask for the sale… or the raise… or whatever it is you want… you will, without a doubt feel more confident. 5) Now go out and practice and get high achiever good at saying nice things to yourself! Your confidence will be glad you did!!