And give yourself the treatment you deserve.

How many times have you criticized yourself for the smallest things since waking up? I know, silly question. Too many times to count probably. How many times have you felt like you need to take better care of yourself?

We are our own harshest critics, biggest hurdle, and the nastiest dream killer. The ironic thing is, we do all of that without even realizing it.

I became obsessed with taking better care of myself once I moved to another city. I was expected to work longer hours and perform in a high-stress environment. I was to live all by myself for the first time and the last thing I wanted was for my health to break down and force me to return.

I read about several habits, mindsets, and daily rules to ensure I wasn’t being too hard on myself and driving my brain towards burnout. However, the one thing that has been with me for the longest has been this one extremely powerful rule.

This rule covers everything and ensures there are no corners to cut. It ensures you put thought into taking care of yourself and set yourself up for success. It simply states:

Take care of yourself like you would of a person you love the most

Let that soak in and maybe re-read a few times. Now think about that. This makes all the difference in the world. You now have only concrete standards to look up to. You can repeat this question whenever you feel like things aren’t going in the right direction.

The mind shift for me was unbelievable.

What do we do if we miss an important goal or a crucial deadline?

“You are stupid!”, “You can’t do anything right”, “You are an idiot who fails at everything” and similar phrases are what we feed ourselves all day long. Sometimes, for weeks or months.

What do we do when talking to the person we love the most?

We tell them that it’s ok. We tell them not to be too hard on themselves. We tell them that this one instance doesn’t define who they are and that they can try harder next time and succeed.

How do we talk to ourselves before tackling something scary?

“I don’t know if I can do it”, “Damn, I’m going to suck at it”, “What will people think?”, “I’ll only embarrass myself”, “Why the heck should I even try” and other similar phrases echo inside our brain. Basically nothing but seeds of doubt.

How do we talk to the most cherished person in our life?

“I believe in you”, “I know you’ll rock”, “You can do it I know”, “You’ll blow it out of the park” and simply nothing but pure motivation and courage is all you’ll let them feel.

Do you get where I’m going with these examples?

Life is too short to live in anger and self-loathing. It is too precious to be wasted fighting with the person you are with all the time. It is too foolish to be wasting our powerful mental energies to manifest the negative outcomes.

If you liked this idea, make sure to subscribe to my email list to get more articles like this in the future. Have a wonderful day, love yourself, and thank you for reading.