Notes of Encouragement

We all crave encouragement and rewards on a daily basis. We are always hoping for some kind of recognition from someone else. We rarely look to ourselves for those things. We fail to encourage, reward, and recognize ourselves. Maybe not everybody has that problem but I know I do. Day in and day out I hope that someone will say something good to me; recognize me for the hard work I put in or give me a word of encouragement for my efforts. I hope that someone will give me some kind of incentive for what I just did. I fail to remind myself that I could actually do that for myself. A pat on the back is something we all crave, especially when we are putting ourselves through discomfort to change. Change is never easy so of course, we want to be recognized for that. However, we need not to place our desire for incentives or rewards on others. Sometimes I think it is okay to receive rewards from others but only we can be satisfied by our own self-gratification. It is so powerful to give ourselves something for what we are doing for ourselves. Why is it powerful that someone rewards their own self? It is important because we are our biggest competitors. I am my biggest enemy. You are your biggest devil. We all give ourselves such a hard time for not being perfect. “I didn’t lose the weight I was hoping to lose so I must not have worked hard enough.” “I didn’t gain the muscle I was working for, I must suck.” “It’s never going to happen” “I only lost a little.” We discourage our own selves. By rewarding yourself, you are recognizing your hard work. You are self-gratifying the ability you had to reach your goals. You didn’t give up. You are showing yourself you are proud of who you are, what you are becoming, and how you are getting there. Reward yourself for any good change you make in your life. For any progress, gain, loss, whether big or little reward yourself! Set a goal, give yourself a reward for that too. Here’s my suggestion for you. Approach your life from a position of “opportunities” and “possibilities”. Don’t look at the wrong you do in your life but look at the positives you reached. Set up a regular, meaningful reward system for yourself, maybe weekly, monthly, even daily, to give yourself recognition. Plan benchmarks for yourself. We all need a kick in the butt but this will help you sustain motivation for the changes you are making. Positive reinforcements from ourselves get us further than putting ourselves down for what we couldn’t or didn’t do. 

Remember we are our BIGGEST enemy; change it and be your BIGGEST support with rewarding yourself. If you’d like more information on how to set up a reward system or ideas of what to reward yourself with feel free to email or call me. I would be more than happy to help. 

Mikenna Kossow
mikenna@guidingfitness.com
9167528515