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How to Treat Yourself with More Respect
In the 10-Week Transformation we have accountability sessions.
We all sit around in a semi-circle – kind of like kindergarten – and talk about how last week went and about how this week is going to go.
In the past, each person would talk individually about how last week went. They would report on whether or not they did their workouts, ate healthy, and drank their water.
There oftentimes would be a consistent theme.
“Ugh, I screwed up last week. I missed 1 of my workouts. I fell into the temptation of eating sweets at work. I forgot to drink my water. I had a terrible week.”
In reality, they had a pretty good week they just weren’t giving themselves very much credit.
This time around, in the 10-Week Transformation, instead of reporting on how your week went, everyone is reporting on how their “accountabilibuddy’s” week went.
So, if I’m accountabilibuddies with Rachel then I’m going to say how Rachel did last week with her goals and she’ll say how I did.
And this past week, something smacked me upside the head.
Not literally.
I had started to realize a different energy that was coming from these sessions.
I had been leaving them feeling much more uplifted than I had in the past.
And the figurative smack upside the head happened when Brandon reported on his accountabilibuddy Amber (again fake names to keep them anonymous).
Brandon pointed out that Amber had a crazy week. She wasn’t feeling 100%; she had some travel with work; and she had some unexpected things come up.
And so, she got in 2 workouts last week instead of her goal of 4.
But then he acknowledged that she had some other wins.
She hit her water goal.
She ate healthier.
She got more sleep.
Even though her workouts fell a little short she did really well controlling what she could control.
And similar conversations happened with other people.
Everyone has been starting off by saying, they had a “great” week and here’s why. Or they had a “pretty good” week and here’s what they did well.
And they give them grace where they needed grace.
But do we do this when we speak about ourselves?
Most often we say things to ourselves that we would never say to anyone else.
We talk about ourselves and say we had a “crappy” week. But we would never openly say that about someone else.
We would never say something like,
“Ya…Amber really screwed up this past week. She’s just not very disciplined and is probably never going to get the hang of it.”
We would never say that about someone we were responsible for helping.
We might acknowledge that the week was not as good as it could’ve been, but then we’d go on to acknowledge the challenges that they faced and the small wins they still had.
Point being – be gracious to yourself.
Dr. Jordan Peterson’s 3rd rule in his 12 Rules for Life book is:
Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.
When you fall short, don’t beat yourself up.
Acknowledge the challenges you faced.
Identify how you can work through them better the next time.
And acknowledge the small wins that you did have.
At Best You, we pride ourselves on encouraging others which is key, but it’s just as important for you to encourage yourself.
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