Discover Your Worth! He looked at her like she was ice cream. She looked at him was like he was chocolate cake. I sat there watching their expressions of young love like I was starved. In that moment, I felt alone and unwanted. I was absolutely convinced that loneliness was my destiny.
In retrospect, I realize that one of the biggest hindrances to my growth was taking everything personally. My singleness didn’t mean something was wrong with me. It was simply a fact of life. I often felt slighted when in reality disappointments are par for the course. In life, it’s important that we know how to “normalize” our challenges.
Feeling “stuck” happens to all of us. We can feel trapped by stagnation as we wonder how to take our businesses, relationships, careers and personal growth to the next level.
The question of “What next?” can be overwhelming. Years ago, I naively believed that life would just give me the success I desired. I didn’t realize my daily choices in the NOW were setting me up for success—or failure—in the NEXT. My mindset wasn’t producing the choices I needed to be emotionally, mentally and spiritually “available” to succeed.
I’ve identified eight choices that we as winners must make on a daily basis to keep our inner-lives free. Today, we’ll focus on the first four. Each day, you’ll be presented with the opportunity to:
1. Choose Excellence: Mediocrity is easy. It doesn’t require that we grow, or stretch, to become the person we desire. If the next level is truly what we want, then we must choose to be excellent and willing to give the extra time, energy and effort it often requires. The path of mediocrity is crowded with people who opt for convenience and mass acceptance. Excellence often requires that we go the “extra” mile, but its rewards are exponential.
2. Choose Greatness: Being small and petty is so easy that children do it without being taught. It only requires that we allow our base emotions to rule us. Every day, we’re presented with opportunities to be small in spirit—stingy or ungracious. Let’s expand our personal capacity by choosing the high road.
3. Choose To Speak Up: You are here—you matter! Every day presents the choice to be heard, or to fade into the background. To show up and express our gifts means risking the ire of others. But fading and denying our power to make others comfortable means losing out on living at our best. When we purposely count ourselves out—we send the message that it’s okay to overlook us. We should not apologize for our existence. People don’t know we count—until we let them know that we know we do.
4. Choose To By Pass Bitterness: Bitterness results when we don’t properly face, address and grieve our disappointments. One of its dangers is that it inhibits our ability to develop the relationships and connections that will bring healing and grace to our lives through love and support. We must make the choice to keep being grateful and open. Bitterness isolates us from the love and connection vital to our development.
You were born a winner but moving to the next level is a choice. Let’s commit ourselves to making choices in line with who we are—the eight choices that winners make.
Do Your Work! Practice recognizing the moments when the daily opportunities to make these choices present themselves. Choose wisely when they do.
Define Your Wealth! I choose to win by speaking up, forsaking bitterness, choosing greatness and excellence. I am a winner who chooses to win!
Recently named the “North America’s Next Greatest Speaker” by eWomenNetwork, Felicia T. Scott is a Certified Empowerment Coach™ who empowers her clients to turn their Worth into Wealth as she partners with them to DISCOVER their WORTH, DO the WORK and DEFINE their WEALTH. Get more insight, download the FREE “8 Choices Winners Must Make” seminar MP3 on her website.