When you’re committed to grow, when you’re committed to better your life, it’s far too easy to forget just how far you’ve come.
I’m guilty of this myself. I beat up on myself a lot because I’m not where I want to be while completely ignoring that I’m a completely different person than I was a year ago.
Girl, you deserve to recognize and see just how freaking strong you are. It’s time to appreciate how far you’ve come. This is easier said than done, which is why I’m breaking down.
Below you’ll find three steps to recognizing how far you’ve come and accepting how amazing you are. Also – be sure to read to the end! I’ve got a little gift that will help you on your journey.
Let’s go!
10 steps forward, 8 steps back is still progress
I was sitting in the occupational therapist’s office in tears. “I don’t understand. He’s lost so much progress. What am I doing wrong? Is he ok?”
She took a deep breath and glanced down at my son playing on the floor, getting frustrated and throwing pieces of the playset everywhere. “Karleigh, you’re doing a good job. This is normal. When kids progress a lot in one area, they tend to fall back in another. It’s because the brain is focusing so hard on growth here, that it can’t give this area it’s full attention. This is a sign that you both are doing something right. This is progress.”
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but this conversation has played on repeat in my mind ever since.
How often do we beat ourselves up because we tend to slip backwards? How often do we get so upset because we’re not where we want to be or we lost progress?
10 steps forward and 8 steps back is still progress. It’s still forward motion. It’s a sign that you’re human and you’re moving toward your best self. That’s incredible.
As I was sitting in the OTs office that day, my outlook on my son, myself, and life completely changed.
Progress is progress. Look at how far ahead you are right now from where you were.
Celebrate your victories
One of the biggest roadblocks I see in people is that they forget to celebrate their victories. You don’t take the time to pat yourself on the back for the work you have gotten done.
Instead of recognizing that we got 50 things crossed off of our list, we beat ourselves up for not doing all 200.
If you end the day exhausted only to feel like you’ve gotten nothing done, then this is a problem in your life.
I’m not saying that we need to celebrate mediocrity or not putting in your best effort. But if you’re giving each day your all and feel like garbage at the end of it, then I’m talking to you.
I go into this a lot deeper in this blog post if you want to fully understand why this is so important.
But right now, your brain doesn’t know how to recognize all you do because it’s used to you telling it that it’s not good enough, not smart enough, too dumb, too lazy. When you teach it to celebrate those victories as you go, not only will you feel better, but you’re going to be more productive and experience life in a much more positive way.
See how you’ve grown
Take a second and look back at where you were a month ago, 6 months ago, a year ago, 10 years ago. Look back at where you were and take stock of where you are now.
It’s so easy to look in front of you and see the 30 miles you have to go and forget to recognize that you’ve already walked over 100.
Take a deep breath and sit with this for a minute. Think through how much you’ve gone through.
This was one of the hardest things for me to do. Growing up, my worth was tied to my achievements. I didn’t want to look back because it felt like it didn’t matter.
But in doing so, I was completely disregarding not only how much I’d grown, but how much I’d gone through, how strong I was. I survived abuse, eating disorders, and mental illness.
By not recognizing what I went through, I wasn’t allowing myself to reach my full potential. I was still living in this place of “not enough” because I didn’t want to see how far I’d come.
Now it’s your turn.
Think through your life, even if it’s not fun. Think about what you’ve survived and how strong it’s made you. You deserve to feel as strong, capable, intelligent and worthy as you really are.
Boo, you’ve come so much farther than you give yourself credit for. It’s not selfish to look back and recognize that. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “hot dang. Look at all this. Look at that. I went through that and survived. I’m pretty dang awesome.” Not only is there nothing wrong with that, it’s required.
You don’t have to be ecstatic about where you are right now. You can still push toward your goals, you can still fight for better. But you’ll never reach your goals until you recognize how far you’ve come. It can become the fuel to propel you forward.
I know this is all easier said than done. That’s why I created my Victory Journal. This was inspired by working with clients who struggled with this concept. At the end of each day, they write down five victories. I’ve seen them go from resistant, to struggle, to absolutely LOVING the progress they’re making because they finally see it.
This free resource can completely change your life if you let it. Click here to grab yours!
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