Self-appreciation is also called self-love. Often times, when working with a client, this is something that I see missing. We all think “I love myself, I like myself, that’s all good, Doug.” But I can tell you right now, I have a lot of clients that pay me a lot of money to help them break through barriers to up-level their lives. The reason this works is that I am able to look past them and see the love or missing elements within themselves. Often times, the first things I have them do, is really assess their level of self-appreciation. Often times if you’re listening to this, you’re someone like me, someone that really likes personal development. Developing one’s self, and that’s great, but your personal development project needs to be smaller than your self-appreciation project.

I encourage you to have a self-appreciation project. What do I mean? What I mean is having an actual system of the project where you’re making sure you’re appreciating yourself. It’s not only yourself today, but also forgiving yourself from the past. That could be something as simple as “I didn’t go running this morning”, and allowing yourself grace and forgiveness. We tend to beat ourselves up over and over again. We beat ourselves up so much that there is no way we would do that to another person who is our friend. Isn’t that crazy? We’re the one person we spend the most time with, and yet we expect ourselves to grow, but we are not appreciating ourselves.

Now, if you’re married and you have a spouse, you know that if you’re not appreciating your spouse, they’re not going to stick around for very long. That’s true for yourself. You have to appreciate not only your current self, but also your former self, and give that forgiveness. Today, I’m going to encourage you to go into your journal, look back, and look at your self-improvement and self-appreciation. Have more depth and more time dedicated to each. Develop your own self-appreciation project. That could be as simple as giving yourself gratitude 5 times a day. Being grateful for things that you’ve done in the past: wins, accomplishment, and things you’re doing now.

You’re listening to this podcast. You’re making sure you up-level your life. Most people don’t do this. This makes you the top 1% of the world. Give yourself credit. Be here every day. Make your self-appreciation project bigger than your personal development project. I can guarantee you to wins in all areas of your life: business, relationships, body, mind, spirit.

Take care of yourself. Love each other, but also make sure to love yourself.

That’s it for today. Of course, always go to www.authorofyourownstory.com where we expand on these topics and get into deeper dives, as well as email a daily tip or trick right into your inbox to uplevel your five to thrive: mind, body, soul, relationships, and business.

See you tomorrow.

Make sure to sign up for our newsletter, to get tips, tricks, and insights.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

Just yesterday, I was invited to be on a seminar. It was a virtual seminar called The Virtual Summit. I was the expert in marketing, but the conversation took a turn. See, the host asked me a question. They asked me, “Hey, Doug, there’s all these people that are trying to run online businesses and grow them exponentially.” Which is a big word to use when you talk about business. But they’re trying to grow their businesses and while they’re doing that, they’re worried about social media.

They don’t want to post on their own social media pages. Now, you might be wondering, what does this have to do with the daily growth hack if I’m not in a business that’s online? Well, it has everything to do with it, because what I told him, was the reason that people aren’t actually posting on their own personal accounts, is they’re worried what others will think of them.

Now, when I told this to the moderator, he was actually shocked. He was like, “Oh, man, you’re totally right.” The reason is, I see this all the time. Now, I see with my coaching clients when I do deep dives into their businesses, and into their lives. Now, I get the benefit of doing this in a very intimate setting and I’ve been doing it for a very, very long time. Now, but I also see this with my marketing clients.

I own two agencies. Within those agencies, we often get asked questions from clients about how they can brand themselves or market themselves to a higher level. Yet, they’re not willing to take the steps necessary to put themselves out there, right? They’re not willing to post on their own personal page. What I’ll hear things like, “Well, Doug, I’m just going to post on a business page and that way I can post about this side hustle that I have.” Or, “I’m going to post about what my real dream is. My real dream is to coach men or to mentor women,” or to whatever it may be for that person. But they only want to post on a business page.

Well, I can tell you that I’ve tested recently, and business engagements on social media, Facebook, in particular, has gone down by over 400%. That’s not a good strategy. But really what I want to know is, why aren’t you putting yourself out there? Now, I’ll use social media as an example for this daily growth hack. Why aren’t you posting your true passions or what you’re really doing on social media? The reason that is, is fear, right?

You’re afraid what some people will think about you. You’re afraid that some people will make fun of you if you fail. Or maybe you’re afraid that you’re an imposter and you have imposter syndrome. What I will relate to you that, if that strikes a chord with you, is it didn’t really kinda fake it ’til you make it, you would just stay the same. We all do it. That’s okay.

By putting yourself out there, that gives you the leverage and the opportunity to grow. Now, this doesn’t have to be just social media. How many people are just not going to the gym because they’re scared what other people think of them? Or, how many of you are not saying something, or having that conversation in a relationship because you’re worried what the other person will think. Or, you’re worried what the people around you will think.

Maybe you’re still in a relationship that’s not serving you, and you’re worried that your friends, your family will think, “Ah, I can’t believe you got out of that relationship. What are you doing? That person’s amazing.” They don’t know what’s inside of you.

But the truth of this whole story is, nobody cares. Nobody cares about what I’m doing or what you’re doing, right? Because they are concerned with what they’re doing at the moment. Right here as I film these daily growth hacks, I film on video. I walk into my office, and if you’re listening to this on audio, you could imagine I walk into my home office, I flip on the camera, and I talk about my experiences and what’s going on for me. The way I get leverage in that is because I’m coaching clients. I’m coaching people on a daily basis and helping them overcome their hurdles.

That’s what I want to do for you. That’s why I produce these. Now, I could easily make fun of myself and I’ve talked about these in other daily growth hacks, where the lighting’s not good, or the background’s not good, or I’d been you all night with my infant, or whatever it may be. These are all stories. The truth of the matter is, most of you haven’t even thought about anything that I’m doing if you’re watching this or my voice while you’re listening to this.

You’re thinking about yourself. That’s great. Knowing that is the spotlight affect. And then go back to a previous daily growth hack, right here where we talk about the spotlight affect, and that was when we talk about the spotlight is actually on you, or you think it is, but it’s only on you internally, right? The spotlight is only on you in the sense that you are the only one worried about what you’re doing. Nobody else is.

I ask you, why are you not putting yourself out there? Why are you not putting yourself out there on social media or putting yourself out there on business, taking risks? Really going after what you want to, because you’re worried what other people think. Again, the truth is, most people don’t care. Those that do care and those that are putting you down, they’re trying to pull you down because they’re scared about what they’re not doing.

Remember, there are two ways of having the biggest building in town. One way is to build it up with integrity and with hard work, so you have the biggest building. The second way is to burn everybody else’s down. A lot of you have friends and family that are burning buildings around them. They’re trying to take you down because they’re scared because you’re going up and becoming the author of your own story. They’re scared you’re going to leave them. Or, they’re scared that, you know, by you becoming the author of your own story, you’re showing them what they’re not doing.

When I talk about what lies below the surface, and that’s the surface of your excuses. What really is happening? If you’re not going to the gym because you’re worried people are going to look at you funny, what really is happening there, right? What are you really worried about? What’s really the worst thing that’s going to happen? If you’re not putting yourself out there on social media and I can tell you at least 30 people that I know that are listening to this daily growth hack on a regular basis, have had business ideas that you’ve had, for over a year, yet you haven’t done anything to move them forward.

I’m here with a loving calling you out of saying, you’ve got to push forward. Put it out there. People will jump on your passion. They’ll look forward to helping you out. Worst case scenario, if you try something. You fail, you dust yourself off, you learn from that experience, and you continue to grow. The best part, if you’re being yourself, you’re living your life and is the author of your own story and not somebody else’s.

Here’s another news fact for you. People don’t care what you’re doing, in fact, the stories that you probably created about what other people think of you, aren’t probably true, right? They may not even exist. I encourage you to clear those up as well. But that’s a whole nother conversation. Right now, what I want you to do is, grab your journal. Write out your Five to Thrive. What I want you to do is, write out one thing in each of those areas, and we all have them, why you’re not moving forward.

Now, what I want you to do once you’ve done that, right? That’s the first step. Do the work. Write those down. And then what really lies beneath that? What are you worried about? What is scaring you? What is stopping you from stepping into your own power and actually doing those things that you love? Why are you worried about what other people think? Is this in a relationship or is this in a business idea, right? Do you have a business idea you want to run with or a business you want to start?

Whatever it is, write it down and then write down the worst things you can think of. Now, what I want you to do is a bonus for you, is when you think about putting this out there into the world … Let’s just imagine I’m going to use Facebook or LinkedIn, whatever you use on social media, but imagine putting this idea or thought into the world and putting it out there. I want you to think right away if you did, who were the first three people that come to your mind, that you’re worried that they’re going to say something. Like, “I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

Who are those people? Now, what I want you to do is talk to those people. Talk to them about what you want to do and understand their point of view. Step into your uncomfortability, step outside of your comfort zone, and that’s where growth happens. This is what’s going to allow you to grow and become the author of your own story.

That’s it for me today. Remember, go to authorofyourownstory.com, where you get more tips, tricks, and insights and deeper dives into these. We’re also going to be going over to Facebook and doing Facebook live, so we answer your questions live. I’d love to have you there, and I’d love to have you know about them. The only way to get access is to go to authorofyourownstory.com and get on that newsletter. That’s it for me today. Go out, have an amazing day, and enjoy yourself.

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!

So, what are categories of improvement? Categories of improvement is just another way of talking about how to categorize your life and look at where you want it to go. So, we’re going to break your life down into two main sections.

We’re calling them containers here. We have personal and then we have business.

What I want you to do is take out two separate sheets of paper. On the top of one, write personal and then I want you to list all the roles that you play. So, I think it’s Stephen Covey who does this from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I got this from Tony Robbins, this exact exercise, and modified it in my own way.

So, for personal what I want you to think about are all those roles you serve personally. Whether it be as a father, mother, son, husband, wife, friend, whatever it may be. Look at all those areas: areas of finance, for example. I like looking at the 5 to thrive right away, it’s quick and it’s easy. Again, that’s mind, body, soul, relationships, business and what other categories you personally might have. Again, maybe it’s a father as well.

Then, we’re also going to take on the next sheet of paper, once you wrote those down, and do the same thing with our business.

What are areas of improvement within your business?

Now that could be obviously in every area of business you have –  marketing, finance, logistics, or operations. What are the things that you need to be in your business, or whatever business you’re pursuing, even if you’re a student? If you’re currently in between positions, think about what are those areas that you’ll need to develop consistently to get where you want to go.

So let me give you an example of what mine are to hopefully help you a little bit. First, we’re going to have what that list is and then next to that list we’re going to write down what the ultimate goal or vision is. So, for each actual container and each category of improvement, let’s say it’s in the area of finance in my personal life, I’m going to write down what the ultimate goal and vision is for that. Something that’s going to be motivational for me.

Now, don’t write the word finance, write something that’s going to motivate you. This is something that’s supposed to pump you up a little bit. So if you’ve written down husband, like I did, I took out the word husband, erased it, and wrote down “world’s best husband”. So do something that actually lights you up.

Here’s mine:

In my personal area I have financial wizard and master of leverage.

What’s my ultimate goal and vision there?

I don’t have to worry about money, I can buy my wife anything that she wants, we can give gifts to people with reckless abandon and cost is just never an issue.

In my personal category, next one down I have: emotional athlete.

What’s my ultimate goal and vision there?

I’m able to dive deep into my emotional states, get real, get raw, and also control my state at any time powerfully. I’m fully in control of my emotions.

Another category, i’m just going to list them down without using the ultimate goal and vision because I think you get the point there.

Relationship god

World-class health and fitness

Renaissance man

Bestselling Author of My Own Story

Soulful Guide

Community leader

World’s best husband

Complete spiritual connectedness

Authentic friendships

Moving down to the business container I’ve wrote:

Gladiator leadership

Network extraordinaire

Empowering others

World-class entrepreneur

Creator of profit

Marketing and PR maven

Internationally known connector of leaders

Director of my own state

Wealth creator

Those are mine, and I’ll share those in the community with you. I’d love to hear what yours are. what are those categories that you’ve actually selected for improvement? Now, these are categories of improvement you’re going to keep improving rest of your life.

I’d love to hear what yours are. So again you’re going to have them in personal as well as in business.

if you’re watching the video on youtube or somewhere else I’ll go ahead and share some examples on there. If you’re listening to this on the audio version, go ahead and head over to authorofyourownstory.com where you can always get each episode’s show notes as well as other tips and tricks and, of course, our daily teachings newsletter delivered right to your email inbox.

That’s it for me today.  Have a great day and remember….

Be the Author of Your Own Story

If you like these daily growth hacks, it would mean the world to us if you would take a moment to subscribe and review us on iTunes!