Consciously focus on and celebrate your successes
The Poker Chip theory of self-esteem and success: your level of self-esteem works the same way as if you have a lot of poker chips. The more you have of both, the more risks that you are willing to take and the more positive experience you are more likely to have.
To convince yourself that you are a successful person who can continue to achieve great things, an exercise you can do is make a list of 100 successes that you have had in your life. The goal is simply get to a hundred, you can do it. Once this has been written up, you can read this 'victory log' to yourself and build up your self confidence.
Another valuable technique that will help build your self-esteem and motivate you to greater future success is the practice of surrounding yourself with awards, pictures and other objects that remind you of you and your successes.
This will have a powerful affect on your subconscious mind. It will subtly program you to see yourself as a winner - someone who has consistent successes in life! It will also convey that message to others.
The Mirror Exercise
'You are a living magnet. What you attract into your life is in harmony with your dominant thoughts' (Brian Tracy)
The Mirror Exercise, gives your inner child - which resides in your subconscious mind - the positive strokes it needs to pursue further achievement. It helps change any negative beliefs you have toward praise and accomplishment, and puts you in an achieving frame of mind.
Just before going to bed, stand in front of a mirror and appreciate yourself for all that you have accomplished during the day. Start with a few seconds of looking directly into the eyes of the person in the mirror - your mirror image looking back at you. Then address yourself by name and begin appreciating yourself out loud for the following:
- Achievements: business, financial, educational, personal, spiritual, physical or emotional.
- Disciplines that you kept: diet, exercise, reading, meditation, prayer.
- Any temptations that you did not give into: watching TV, staying up too late, drinking too much booze.
Maintain eye contact with yourself throughout the exercise. Finish by appreciating yourself, saying that 'I love you'. Stay there for a few more seconds to really feel the experience, as if you were the one in the mirror who had just listened to all of this appreciation.
When you being to act more positive and nurturing towards yourself, it is natural to have physical and emotional reactions as your release the old negative parental wounds, unrealistic expectations and self-judgments. When Jack Canfield practiced this exercise, he recognised that after just 40 days all of his negative internal self-talk had totally vanished.
A big part of creating more success in your life is rewarding yourself when you succeed. Rewarding yourself for your wins powerful reinforces your subconscious mind's desire to want to work harder for you. It's just basic human nature.
