Don't Berate...Celebrate!!!

Have you ever gotten angry with yourself, frustrated because you didn't do as much with your time and talents as you thought you "should" have? I know I have, and I'll bet you've done it too. But stop and think for a moment. When you feel that level of frustration kicking in, whose expectations are you trying to meet, yours or someone else's?  Chances are you were trying to live up to expectations placed on you by someone else. I'd go so far as to say that you were trying to BE someone else. How many times has someone told you that "in their opinion" you are capable of doing so much more with your talents? How many times have you berated yourself because you supposedly let someone down, someone who tried to get you to do something you had no business trying to do in the first place? And how many times have people gotten upset with you, even told you how disappointed there were in you, because you did something they didn't expect you to do, or worse, didn't want you to do?

Think about it: we all beat ourselves up unfairly from time to time because we think we "should" have done it sooner, "should" have learned it faster, "should" have done it better, no matter what "it" is...I'm sure you can come up with some "should's" of your own. We get in our own way, we slam the brakes on ourselves when we should be hitting the gas. And why do we do this anyway? Because we think we "should" be more like somebody else, that's why! We hear stories about other people's achievements, meant to encourage us ("...if I can do it, you can do it, too.."  sound familiar?) but in reality, they often backfire. Though shared with the best intentions, some people misunderstand. They think they have to succeed in exactly the same way that other people achieved success...if they don't then they're a failure... and that becomes an unintended burden as a result.

We are all born for the purpose of expressing our true selves, but we waste time trying to copy others. We fool ourselves into thinking we fall short, believing we aren't good enough to be seen or heard. Truth is, we really are better equipped for success than we could possibly imagine, we just haven't given ourselves a chance to let others see how unique, how precious, how valuable we really are:

"You are designed by God not to blend in, but to stand out..You are meant to be going somewhere, to be headed to a destination...Anyone who develops his gifts and talents will become a commodity...The Bible does not say that a man's education makes room for him, but that his gift does. Education is not the key to success, it doesn't guarantee anything; it is your gift that is the key to success...Hard work and diligence are essential to success, but they require an internal motivation. That internal motivation is Vision...Purpose is when you know and understand what you were born to accomplish. Vision is when you see it in your mind and begin to imagine it." - Dr. Myles Munroe 

Stop comparing yourself to people you were never meant to be. Stop trying to live up to expectations for yourself you never should have accepted.  Stop hating yourself for failing to meet impossibly high standards.
Be grateful (not hateful) for the progress you make each day, however little that progress may be...

Stop beating yourself up and pat yourself on the back more often. Celebrate the progress you make each day. Even if you go the wrong way from time to time, you still have a chance to make adjustments so long as you have breath in your lungs and a beat in your heart.

The only person you have to be better than is the one you were yesterday.  Even if you're down you don't have to stay there. It's not how far you fall, it's how high you bounce.

"When life knocks you down try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Let your reason get you back up." - Les Brown

That's all for now, gotta run... Until we meet again, remember:

Keep it simple... See ya!