Today I went for a run on the trails. The trails are my happy place. I’ve been walking with some jogging thrown in recently, but haven’t gone for a full out jog/run without stopping for a couple months. Today I was feeling it, I wanted to run, and it felt good. At the start, I gave myself a goal of going 2 miles without walking for more than a few seconds. I made it! In fact, I went almost 3 miles! I was soooo proud of myself for making it almost 3 miles and it felt so so good! I wanted to share this accomplishment, but almost immediately stopped myself. I told myself that it wasn’t really that big of a deal. I told myself that if I shared with anyone, let alone the entire social media world, that it’d look like I was just bragging about myself. And we’ve all learned that bragging is not cool.
Why is it so hard to feel and be proud of ourselves? Sometimes we even feel guilty for being proud of ourselves. We choose not to share our accomplishments or things we feel pretty dang good about because we worry it will be seen as boastful, or look like we are bragging, or that we think we are better than others.
Beyond that, we don’t even allow ourselves to feel pride. We don’t let ourselves recognize that feeling of pride. And if someone else recognizes us and/or compliments us on something we’ve done or accomplished, we often brush it off with a “oh, that wasn’t anything special” comment of some sort. Not only does this hurt our inner selves, this reaction also devalues the feelings of the person who complimented us. And the circle just goes around and around with no one feeling good about themselves in the end.
So after my run, and after the massive conversation that took place in my head around sharing and pride and bragging and all the things. I told myself “NO!”. I told myself that this is something I can be proud of (totally working on the whole positive self talk thing). So I let myself be proud. I smiled and threw my hands in the air in celebration, because I was proud of myself! And then I came home and wrote this blog, because I want you to be proud of you too!
At my last meet up with my spiritual director, she challenged me to write out three things I was proud of myself for each night, rather than three things I was grateful for. Now, don’t get me wrong, a gratitude journal can be great and important too! But I also think that learning and allowing ourselves to recognize things we do well, and are proud of each day is SUPER powerful!
At night, many of us go through our day and point out all of the things we messed up on. We get bummed about the things we could have done better or differently. We nit pick ourselves to sleep, and promise ourselves we will do better tomorrow. We fall asleep with all of these negative thoughts rolling around in our heads. That’s sad. And I know we don’t enjoy this. Because I know many of us do this each and every night, I LOVE the idea of the “proud of me” journaling each night. Or if you aren’t a journal person, cool! Just say it to yourself, find 3 things and say them out loud or in your head. It’s important to recognize the good! I love the idea of recognizing at least 3 things we are proud of each day. And these things can be as simple as “I put on pants today”! Don’t make this hard!
I got dinner on the table before 7pm tonight! (Wow, I am freaking amazing!)
I got all 3 of my children to bathe/shower today. (I’m totally rocking this mom thing!)
I took the dog for a walk and enjoyed a little quiet time for me. (Dang girl! High fives for self care!)
See! So many things we do on a regular basis and never give ourselves credit for! Stop downplaying the importance and awesomeness of the things you do. You are amazing! Be proud! Be loud and proud! You are totally worth it!
Live wildly friends! Xoxo - Chrystal
Side note: if you are reading this in real time, we are about to start a challenge in September. It’s our #livewild30miles30days challenge. Walk/run/jog/skip/etc 30 miles total in 30 days. This challenge is built around being proud of yourself! I created a mileage tracker so that you can color in or check off a box after each mile you finish! And each time you check that box, I want you to celebrate, share with all of us, share with your friends, your partner, your dog, your kids! Be proud of YOU and show others that they too can be proud of themselves.