Creative Success, LLC

Isn’t it time to get over the ways that you put yourself down, still? We know intellectually that perfection is unattainable, but we need to “get that” on a soul level to heal.

You need to own and celebrate your talents and your gifts, fix the things you can and want to change, and as the Serenity Prayer teaches us, release the rest. Feeling shame about anything zaps your creative spirit and ease of living. So what are you holding onto about yourself that has you wanting to hide? In my book, The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women, scientist Mary Hayden says that doing the best you can is all you can do. Are you doing your best now? If not, I suspect there are some toxic myths stuck in your mind. Here are a few big ones:

• You can never fail at anything, and if you do, cover it up.
• If anyone criticizes you, you have to feel deflated.
• It is not okay to not know what your next step is because you need to be in control and have it together at all times.

Wow–what a straight jacket these myths are to our ability to be ourselves in the world and be content with who we are in the moment plus take the positive risks to become more of who we want to become. If we are not allowed to fail, how can we possibly grow so that we can learn how to do our best?

I just spent a year in a professional training program where we all got criticized (lovingly, I must add, which is the only way we can hear it), we all tried new things, and some of them flopped, and we got scared as we had to step up to our next best level. My Spolight Sisters and I stared down our fears, remedied our liabilities, and now stand strong and proud of our leap forward. We did what it took to get better and our self-esteem rose.

If you let go of these myths and your own dysfunctional lies you were or tell yourself, what is your next step forward to being your very best self?

Stop putting yourself down for who you are not. Gee, somedays I wish I was much taller, a real extrovert, in love with financial services (ethical ones), could sing like Barbara Streisand, and had inherited 200 million dollars when I was 18 so I could be a big time philanthropist. What a waste of energy as none of these fantasies will ever be true. What are your fantasies and how do they block you from focusing on healing yourself and making the life you have as great as possible.