Take time to appreciate yourself with a beautiful practice called, “10 Days, 10 Ways“.
Think of 10 things at which you excel. You write them down. Then you spend a few minutes visualizing yourself literally doing those activities each day for the next 10 days.
Initially, it may take a few moments to come up with all 10 or to get a clear picture and example of each one, but once you have an image to represent each of the 10 areas, you can quickly go through the visualization.
So many of us focus on our inadequacies. The best secret I’ve learned is that our happiness is directly linked to our ability to believe we are worthy of happiness. And this belief grows the more we can focus on what we’re proud of and appreciate ourselves. This is also the best way to be successful, get promoted and do well at work.
This practice starts to train your mind to focus on the areas in which you excel and suddenly, you’ll feel better about yourself and start to draw more of those opportunities into your life. It’s pretty powerful stuff.
It’s only for 10 days…why not do it?!
If this is appealing to you, commit to doing it, and do it. Each time you make a commitment and follow through, you will notice your self-esteem will rise. When we make a commitment and don’t follow through, and don’t acknowledge our transgression, it erodes our self-esteem. So this is also a beautiful chance for you to boost self-esteem by deciding to start this daily practice. It takes less than 2 minutes each day (you can spend longer if you’d like) and it’s only for 10 days…why not do it?!
I’m doing this practice right now, on Day 3 myself, and I’m sharing my list below.
I’m sharing my personal list because of an experience I recently had leading a workshop with very successful women (“shout out to my FLI group!”) including doctors, real estate investors, senior executives from Facebook and other companies. I was teaching them the principals of manifestation and after I had asked them to write a narrative describing their ideal career as if they already had it, one of them said ,“I feel like I’m bragging, I’m self-conscious about sharing this”.
That was a big reminder for me. I know we all feel this way sometimes because we’ve been told most of our life not to outshine those around us or toot our own horn, but if someone doesn’t take the lead,we will all continue to live in fear and to dim our lights. I want everyone, especially women, to feel empowered to let our lights shine. To be powerful. To be original. To be silly. To be proud of ourselves.And to have the courage to be vulnerable and authentic.
Why did I wrote this list?
It feels scary for me to share my own list of things at which I excel, and that is part of the reason why I’m doing it. I wrote this list before I even knew I would share this concept in a newsletter.. .and as Ire-typed my list below from my journal, I noticed how I started to doubt my own abilities and that little critical voice crept in with “well, sometimes you excel at being vulnerable but certainly not all the time. People will think that one is not true”.
As I imagined other people reading my list and judging me, I suddenly started to shrink inside and second guess myself. And, I am committed to living courageously and letting my light shine. I want that for myself and I want to inspire others. So I notice that critical voice and I say “thank you, but I am committed to living courageously and I’m proud of myself.” 
I hope my list inspires you to write and meditate on your own version of this so you, too, can experience the wonderful feelings of self-love and appreciation that this list can generate. Remember, you’re doing this just for you.
Here’s my list of “10 Things at Which I Excel”
1. Being “on”, charismatic and funny while giving a talk or leading a group workshop.
2. Connecting with people in one-on-one settings, going deep.
3. Having fun while dancing!
4. Enjoying being active in nature.
5. Taking moments to be present with Eva.
6. Being positive.
7. Being vulnerable and authentic.
8. Analyzing myself and learning lessons from my life experiences.
9. Supporting my clients by listening to my intuition and pulling together different modalities in a truly unique way; lasering in on the key issue.
10. Going deep quickly, getting stuff done, being effective.
Trust me, when you do the “10 Days, 10 Ways” practice, it will give you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside each time you do it. This is guaranteed to be a mood booster, to make you feel happy AND it will also support you in being more effective at whatever you put your mind to. It’s a win/win.
You’ll be better at your job and you’ll feel more fulfilled. It’s that simple. Just try it.
