Dare Each Day to Be the Amazing Person You Are

You are a gift and it’s about time you know it

I can hear you saying to yourself: Who me? I’m ok, I have some nice qualities, but there’s no way I’d describe myself as a gift.

If you’re one of the many who don’t appreciate how special you are, I wrote this article to shake up your belief system.

Yes, you are a gift. If you’re not yet ready to fully buy into that notion, I encourage you to at least open up your mind to the possibility.

Why You May Not Appreciate How Special You Are

Here are two typical reasons:

Reason #1: You have an active critical inner voice

That voice is constantly monitoring your actions and words. Its fine-tuned radar picks up on the slightest little thing you may have done wrong and turns it into a character assassination — as evidence you’re not enough.

Your harsh inner voice likely came about when you were a kid, as a product of how critically your parents spoke to you.

They may have criticized you for as small a thing as getting some spaghetti sauce on your shirt when you were eating dinner. And your dad shamed you by saying: What the hell is wrong with you. Can’t you eat like a human being! You’re 10 years old already.

Reason #2: As a child, your parents never treated you special simply for being yourself.

Rather, they only treated you special for your accomplishments, such as bringing home straight A’s on your report card or winning a dance competition.

The message you took away from your childhood and brought into your adulthood was that you’re only special for your achievements — such as getting a job promotion a few months after being hired or completing a half marathon.

That’s a very transient form of feeling special, not one you can count on. How will you feel about yourself if you lose your job due to an economic downturn or if you badly injure your back and can only limp around the house at best?

Do you frequently give yourself a hard time? Do you base your self-worth on your achievements?

If so, that’s definitely not the recipe to view yourself as a gift simply for being you.

True confessions — I’m one of those people who tend to do both.

Today Is a New Day

The past is the past. I’m done selling myself short. It’s high time I appreciate how much of a gift I am.

So, Mr. Inner Critic: I’m no longer buying into your BS. Feel free to keep on yacking away, but I’m not listening to you anymore. You know absolutely zilch about the real me and how special I am. Nor did you ever.

And I’m done believing I need to achieve something to appreciate my specialness. That’s another load of BS I bought into when I was a little kid and held on to throughout my life. I’m an adult now, and I’m dropping that belief system like a hot potato. Because it’s been burning me up for my whole life.

I deserve better. I’m a gift simply for being me.

That’s my pep talk. I feel better now. I feel encouraged.

But this article is not intended to be about me. It’s intended to be about us.

In that vein, I reach out my hand to you — to walk alongside me, to support each other in our quest to view ourselves as the gifts we are.

Back to the Title of the Article

Dare each day to be the amazing person you are

Let’s do our best to dispense with the self-limiting beliefs that hold us back from seeing ourselves as the gifts we are.

Why do I use the word “Dare”? Because being the amazing people we are is an act of courage — as more often than not, it will take us out of our comfort zone.

A quick example — let’s say you had a big argument with a friend and have been out of touch with them for years. Give them a call. Yes, you risk them hanging up on you or rehashing how you wronged them.

But call them anyhow. It’s irrelevant how they respond. That’s because being amazing is not a results-oriented business. Rather, it’s all about doing the right thing, the kind thing — not using our discomfort as an excuse to hold ourselves back.

That in and of itself is a gift — we are offering the gift of our authentic, loving selves.

Regarding pursuing achievements, again, being an amazing person is not about the results. Rather, it is about our intent and effort.

For example, regarding writing on Medium, there’s nothing wrong with pursuing a goal of making $100 a month. And if you achieve that goal, it’s perfectly fine to take pride in it.

But that’s not what being amazing is about. Rather, it’s about the effort you put into the writing craft. If you never reached your monetary goal, you would be no less amazing.

There are many writers who don’t care about money at all. Or if they do, it’s of secondary importance. Their primary focus is on positively impacting the lives of their readers.

In my book, that makes them amazing people — just for having that goal foremost in their minds.

Even more impressive is the heart and soul they put into their articles, their courage in sharing their life experiences for the sole purpose of connecting with their readers and making a difference in their lives.

If you are one of those writers, you are amazing. You are a gift — regardless of the number of reads you get or the money that you earn.

In Closing

You are an amazing person precisely as you are, regardless of your shortcomings. Even the Buddha was not perfect (I googled that, lol)

You don’t need to attain any level of achievement to earn the designation of amazing.

All you need to do is put forth your best effort in whatever you are pursuing. Whether you are expending the effort to be a great writer, a great partner, a great mommy or daddy, or a great friend — it’s all the same.

Thank you for being you.

A giant shout-out to Ali Hall, who wrote this fantastic article, chockful of insights, on what the essence of a person is. That it is not our ego, regardless of how strongly we identify with it.