Let's talk about some ideas today about how to like yourself as you are right now.
As a professional psychologist, it puzzles me sometimes that we have such a hard time doing
this. Let's come up with some practical strategies that will allow you to feel differently by the
end of this video. Perhaps the most powerful thing you can do to start liking yourself more
is to forget about yourself and focus on other people. When our focus shifts to other people,
we have a very different psychological experience. And this is a powerful way to change the energy
inside of your own heart and mind. So, think of someone that you could serve.
In fact, you're probably thinking of someone right now. Would you just reach out to that person.
Sometime today, it could be in a text message or through social media. You pick your medium.
Reach out to them with the purpose of enhancing their own self-concept, self-esteem. Something
that's positive that builds them up. Reach out to them. Positive self-esteem has a little paradox in
it and that is that we need to think less about ourselves and more about others. So, it's not
thinking less of ourselves. It's really thinking of ourselves less. Hey, after you've reached
out to that person that you're thinking of, would you share your experience? Come back to the video
and in the comments share what your experience was like as you reached out to someone else
and the impact that it had. This next idea catches some people off guard because they don't realize
that low self-esteem is a problem with destructive pride. And the tip is cultivate humility. Humility
is the opposite of pride. That's how we're going to start liking ourselves a little more.
Here's what I mean by that: Notice that you have an opinion about yourself, don't you? Yeah, you
do. And that's part of what's troubling you right now. Guess what? I have an opinion about you.
Did you know that? You might think, "Oh, Dr. Paul doesn't even know me."
Well, I still have an opinion about you because you're here at Live On Purpose TV. You clicked on
this video. That gives me an opinion about you. Now, does my opinion match yours? Probably not,
right? Who's right? Me or you? And may I add, I am a professional psychologist with almost 3 decades
of clinical experience. But still, your opinion of you is the one that you're going to cling to
and you're going to hold on to. You're going to take mine and you're going to say, "Oh, Dr. Paul,
he's so nice and I'm glad he says those nice things about me." And then you'll toss my opinion
right out the window and hang on to your own. Well, that's pretty prideful, don't you think?
Notice that you do that. That your own opinion is more important than anybody else's. What if
you were to cultivate some humility here and be open to the possibility that maybe
those lofty opinions of you that other people have are even more accurate than your low opinion of
yourself. Let's be open to that. Practice some humility. You have value you have worth. You are
a likable person. I like you. Anything of value or worth needs to receive proper care. Self-care
can be kind of difficult to do sometimes. But as you do it, you start to value yourself more.
I want you to take good care of yourself and I'm talking specifically right now about physical and
mental hygiene. Take care of your body, take care of your mind. Good mental and physical hygiene
includes paying attention to what it is you're putting into your mind. Listen to positive
content. Watch positive videos. Get some books and podcasts on board that
help you to have more practice thinking in a positive way. And remain physically active.
You take care of yourself through proper sleep and diet and exercise. These activities alone
will help you to like yourself better as you take better care of yourself. Marla Cilley,
also known as the Fly Lady was on my podcast Live On Purpose Radio a couple of years ago. And she
shared with me a powerful idea that is so simple and it starts with this --"Shine your sink."
Now, the Fly Lady is an expert in organization and getting less clutter in your life.
It's overwhelming sometimes to take on the huge piles that clutter up our life. And I mean that
both physically and figuratively. Her point is shine your sink. Start with something simple.
And I literally would suggest this to you. Go into your kitchen. If there's dishes in the sink, take
them out. You can wash them or put them in the dishwasher if you want to. But just get them out
of the sink and take a few moments to shine your sink. Actually do this after you watch the video.
Shine your sink. See how you feel in doing that very simple step. Here's another one.
Make your bed. Make your bed. When you get up in the morning, get out of bed
and make your bed. It only takes a few minutes. Probably less than that. And it changes how you
feel. Changing your environment around you helps you to feel better about yourself in your life the
way it is right now without changing anything, these simple things can make a huge difference.
You're going to love this next tip. It's wholesome recreational activity. We've got to be having fun.
And I said those 3 words on purpose because all 3 of them are important. Wholesome recreational
activity. I've worked with a lot of people who are kind of perfectionistic, okay? They have to get
everything done and they have to do it just right and they're not having any fun. And they're all
on board for wholesome activities. You know, like that's some kind of a pious choice or something.
But they leave out that second word recreational. It has to be fun. You deserve to have some fun.
And the first word is important. I've been to Vegas. I know. There's a lot of recreational
activities. Not particularly wholesome. And if you engage in something that's not
wholesome or healthy for you, it's not going to help you to like yourself more. In fact,
you might hate yourself in the morning. So, wholesome recreational activities.
Let's get something going in the next 24 hours where you get to have some fun. Pick something
that you enjoy. Engage in that activity. Let's see what kind of an impact that has. I hope you
like yourself a little more after watching this video. And we've got some other resources for you.
Some powerful resources that you may not have even known about at Live On Purpose Central.
go.liveonpurposecentral.com. Come and check it out. We can help you with this.