The black and white dogs in each of us

"Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected a moment and replied, the one I feed the most." It's not really clear who first spoke this quote, but I think each of us struggle with feeding the right dog every day. As leaders our goal should be to always feed the white dog within us. This week I would like to discuss self esteem and how it affects our lives.

 

Bob Proctor wrote "You are the only problem you will ever have and you are the only solution." I know this is especially true in my life. When I look back on many of the problems I have faced I can clearly see that I, and the low self esteem I possessed, were the major causes. If you were to analyze the winning people you have known I am certain you would find that they have a healthy self esteem. On the other hand if you were to look at all of the low achievers you have been around you would notice that they are plagued with low self esteem. Luckily for all of us self esteem can be improved because it is in our hands. It is an inside out process that we can develop through daily self-improvement exercises.

 

Here are some of the ways we can improve our self-esteem:

 

• Dump early events in our lives, or careers, that cause us to have doubts in our abilities
  
• Think about productive things
  
• Promote respect for variation
  
• Form relationships that nourish
  
• Accept yourself from the inside out
  
• Seek out mentors
  
• Forgive people who have wronged you
  
• Be grateful for the good things in your life
  
• Get rid of self-degrading remarks
  
• Accept all compliments with a simple thank you
  
• Enjoy initiating new contacts and acquaintances
  
• Develop a feeling of your own self worth
  

 

How is that for short list? Do you think that any of these things would help you? I know they are all something I could work on. Someone told me a long time ago that "you can't be valuable to others until you value yourself." Good luck this week in everything you do. Please add some comments if you can think of anything else that should be on this list.

 

Have a great week!