Quit Beating Yourself Up … Feel Frickin’ Proud Of Yourself This Fall

My To Do List is always so long. Like, ridiculously long. Unrealistically long. As soon as something gets crossed off the list, there’s another hundred and one things to replace it.

Can you relate?

It feels so overwhelming and demoralizing sometimes. And it always provokes this relentless script that rolls in my head, “Gawd! I never get anything done. I suck. Why am I such a lazy shlub?! I can always find time to waste on stupid things, why can’t I manage to get shit done?!!”

And let’s be realistic; we are crossing things off our lists all. day. long. Every day. All the days. (And if things aren’t getting crossed of, it’s because we’re constantly doing things that aren’t even on the list.) We have lists for everything. Lists for home. Lists for work. The lists go on and on.

I have an endless list of things to do just for this website. There are so many things I wish I’d have accomplished by now.

I was working on this site the other day and my aggressive, constant script was, of course, playing on repeat in my head. I was doing something that required an overview of the blog posts I’ve written.

And, you guys, the most amazing thing happened … It was like my vision suddenly widened.

All of a sudden I really saw all theses blog posts I’ve written. So many. Over twenty since I started The Seasonal Soul just a few short months ago. Then my vision kind of widened again and I realized, “Holy CRAP! I created all of this. The Seasonal Soul. This vision. I brought it all to life.” And my vision widened again and recognized, “Dude, erin. You were published this week for a second time in an online magazine with over 3 million readers.” Just a few short months ago I’d never been published in anything in my life ever.

And you know what … not once in the past few months have I stopped and said to myself, “Holy shit, erin!! Look at all this awesome stuff you’ve done. I’m so. damn. proud of you!” Not once did I say that.

You know what I did say … “Gawd! I never get anything done. I suck. Why am I such a lazy shlub?! I can always find time to waste on stupid things, why can’t I manage to get shit done?!!”

It’s so lame.

We’re so mean to ourselves. We’re so focused on the next fifty things on our lists, so consumed by the things we haven’t gotten done, that we forget to look backward at all the things we have done.

When was the last time you paused, looked behind you, and recognized your own accomplishments? When was the last time you felt really proud of yourself? How often do you skip over acknowledging your successes before you start beating yourself up for all those things still on your list?!

This autumn I challenge all of us to adjust where our focus lies. Instead of being consumed by our To Do’s, let’s spend some time reflecting on our Got Done’s.

Autumn is harvest season, after all.

The season for celebrating all the harvests we’ve been fortunate enough to receive this year. The harvests in our gardens and our own personal harvests–all those things we put time, energy and loving care into over the past many months.

This is the season for celebrating those things in your life, and within yourself, you’ve tended to and nurtured this year. This is the time to recognize and celebrate all you’ve accomplished and created–just like any veggies grown in a garden.

If you’ve ever grown a garden, or even grown just one little tomato plant, you know how super proud and excited you feel about your very first, beautiful tomato. So proud. We tell everybody, “Check out my tomatoes.” We watch them in awe as the fruit forms and grows into juicy plumpness. We’re excited to share them with our friends and neighbors when they’re ready.

This autumn, let’s try to feel that same pride in ourselves.Because I know you’ve been working hard in your life. And I know you have so much to feel really proud of.

So stop selling yourself short. Stop ignoring your accomplishments. And for criminey sake, stop that ridiculous, mean, just wrong script that’s running in your head about yourself.

You work really hard in your life. You get things done. You do. You accomplish awesome things. You just don’t take the time to celebrate them. Or even notice them.

So, take a minute now. Pause. Reflect on your year so far.

What have been some of your successes? What have you created this year? How have you grown?

And dammit, whatever your accomplishments, take a minute and genuinely feel freaking proud of yourself!!

Life is hard. Our To Do Lists are relentless. Our internal scripts are so damn mean. But you are showing up in your life. You’re facing it every day. And you’re managing to have some wins along the way. Be proud of that. You absolutely deserve it!!

And, I wanna hear all about it … What are your accomplishments this year? What have you created and grown? What are you so proud of? Please tell me in the comments below.

And, keep rocking and rolling. You’re frickin’ awesome.

xoxo
erin
❤

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