The True Self School Podcast

BODY Day 2 - Psalms 139:14 The Bible translations that I want to review today are the new King James Contemporary English version and the new living. New King James says, I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. The CV says, I praise you because of the wonderful way you created me. Everything you do is marvelous. Of this, I have no doubt. The New Living translation says, Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous. How well I know it. What's interesting about this scripture are the three words that I want to highlight. Fearfully. Reverence - High esteem - to admire with pride, to have joy and wonder and delight to approve. High regard - to consider or think of someone or something in a specific way. Great respect - a deep feeling of admiration of someone elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements. God says you're fearfully and wonderfully made. Now this word wonderfully means Wonderfully Distinct - Recognizably different. Separated - viewed as a unit by yourself, masterpiece, work of art. Distinguished - An observable difference, respected, impressive. Marvelous Extraordinary - very unusual, exceptional, amazing, astounding. Surpassing - incomparable, outstanding Wondrous - inspiring a feeling of wonder or delight. So you're exceptional, you're amazing, you're outstanding, you're inspiring, delight in wonder. You're recognizably different. You're viewed as a masterpiece of work of art. There's an observable difference about you that's respected. People admire you, they have joy and wonder, and they take delight in you. And they have great respect for you, which is a deep appreciation. So how can you not have confidence? How is it that you not say to yourself that you're wonderful, that you're created this way on purpose, that the hard work and skill and equality to God used to create you makes you extraordinary? That you were created with admiration and pride and joy and approval simply stated that you're enough. That you are fearfully and wonderfully made; that you're impressive. Your abilities and qualities, and achievements are built into your DNA. How could you not have self-confidence when you understand what the word of God says about you? He says that you're fearfully and wonderfully made. You were created with a wonderful purpose; you are extraordinary; The hard work and great skill, quality, and materials used to create you. You are enough. You are designed with appreciation, joy, and approval. You're fearfully and wonderfully made. Again, I say God made a marvelous work with you. And you have impressive abilities, qualities, and achievements built into your DNA. Finally, you're fearfully and wonderfully made approved of distinguished and exceptional. Let's end here with a prayer. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you. Praise you for fearfully and wonderfully making me everything you do is marvelous of this. I have no doubt. God, I choose to believe your word about who I am. I walk in your confidence that you built in me. Every day, I will remind myself of where I come from and who I am, and what I'm capable of. I'm more than enough. I'm more than a conqueror. I can do everything that I was created to do. And as always, you give me exceedingly abundantly above all, I ask, or think, according to the power that's active in me. So, Lord, I activate the power of self-confidence you placed in me and move into my day assured of the success you planned in my life. In Jesus' Name, Amen. If this devotional was helpful to you and you like more devotions like this, go to TheTrueSelfSchool.com/devotion. And sign up for the free (7) seven-day self-confidence devotional. Every morning for (7) seven days, you'll receive an email with a devotional was created to d...

Day One – Philippians 4:13 New King James' translation says. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The Amplified translation says. I can do all things which he has called me to do through him who strengthens and empowers me. Fulfill his purpose. I'm self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency. I'm ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace. Now the NIV, which is the New International Version, says. I can do all of this through him who gives me strength. I read different translations so that I can get a fuller understanding of what the scripture means. After I do that I sit there and I meditate and I ponder what I read. And then I come up with. I called Michelle's translation. Michelle’s Translations: So here are some translations from me. I'm ready for anything and equal to anything. I have the ability, the strength, and the power for all things I'm self-sufficient in Christ sufficiency. I can do this. I have everything I need to successfully get it done. Now when you're doing a devotional, it's really important. At least I think it's very important. It's been very beneficial for me.  To not only meditate on the Word, but actually go in and study that word to get in there and find out what those individual words mean. When you have a full understanding of each word that jumps out to you.  It makes the scripture come alive to you. So in that Scripture can do means to be strong in your body for you to have strong health. It means to have power exerting and wielding power and having the strength to overcome. To be able to have the power and the skill, the opportunity to do something. When he says all things, it means whatever. Now the interesting thing about the word, whatever is that it's called a pronoun determinator. What that means is that it's used to emphasize no restriction. So whatever all things it means, thoroughly complete with every detail. Every includes all things. Everything means there's nothing that's left out of it. And then we have Christ. Which we know is Christos. In Greek, it's Jesus Christ, our Messiah, the son of God, the anointed one. In his anointing. He himself strengthen. Means to empower and to give me authority and power and confidence to do something. So I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me means I can do everything in my body. I have strong health to do it. I can exert and wield energy. I have the strength to overcome. I have the power and skill and ability to do something. Whatever it is because there is no restriction.  I can thoroughly complete it with every detail intact. All things I can do because Christ the anointed one, has empowered me. He's given me the authority, the power, and the confidence to do this. So let's take a moment now and do a meditation. MEDITATION So after I have read the scripture and then I've gone through each translation. And then I've created my own translation. And then. I have studied the Scriptures so I got a fuller understanding of each individual word. It is now time for you to meditate. And some of the new thoughts that I would encourage you to meditate on are as follows. I can do whatever I need to do. I can do hard, complicated, disciplined work to get what I need and want. I am furnished with the necessary powers of administration. I am provided with everything needed to accomplish/execute and rule. I have everything I need to accomplish/achieve and rule. I already have everything I need to achieve excellence. I can do this; I have everything I need to successfully get it done. PRAYER Father, in the Name of Jesus. Your Word says that whatever I bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever, I loose on earth is loosed in heaven. So I bind: Fear Doubt, and Low self-Confidence I loose the continual thoughts that: “I’m ready for anything and equal to anything.”

You know you hear a lot about self-confidence, and we talk a lot about it here because that's a buzzword that people think that's the catchall for, you know, feeling good about who you are. But when I was studying self-confidence in the Bible, I kept coming back to love, and in the New Testament, there are two primary commandments; the 1st is about loving God with your mind, your body, and your soul, and in the other one. It is to love others as much as you love yourself, and a lot of times, we talk about loving other people, but we don't. Get down to the nitty-gritty or what I think is the nitty-gritty of that commandment that God talks to us about. He says that we have to love others as much as we love ourselves. And so, a lot of times, it's in the church community or even in the world. It's like, well, you know, if you love yourself that you or arrogant, or you're selfish, or you know you shouldn't be that way. That's not the proper way to be. You get a lot of shame from it, and there is balance. Don't get me wrong; we can get too far into just putting our needs above everything else and not considering anybody else and not coming to an understanding of that when you have. Ship with other people. There are certain things that there's a given a take, but primarily if you're not taking care of yourself. You are not taking great care of other people, regardless of if you're selfless or not. And so I want to talk about that right now talking about, you know, treating people. Typically we treat people that we supposedly don't care for and that aren't our family, friends, or loved ones better than we treat our loved ones. That's an interesting concept because excellence is supposed to come from the inside out and those that are closer in your circle. Should get the majority of the love the most significant benefit of the love and from them getting the greater benefit of your love. They're able to utilize that love and. Give out more love to their circle, so it's kind of like an explosion is a blast radius. You know those that are closer to where the bomb was detonated. There's most of where the damage is, and in this situation, they'll be most of where the love, compassion, understanding, and care should be. Many times that's not the case. We give so much outside of our family outside of ourselves outside of our inner circles to people that are around us. Yes, when we come home, when we are finished with our day's work, we are so exhausted, and we don't have anything to give to those people or children or family or loved ones or friends. And most importantly to ourselves, because we can't continue to give out to other people if we are empty. If our needs are not met. If we don't know who we are or haven't done the things that we need to do for ourselves, giving out to other people is basically. Vein, as far as I'm concerned, it's fake. It's like this thing that I found out about, like McDonald's, that the cup sizes are all exactly the same. It's not real; it's an illusion. You know you're not really giving the best part of yourself. You're not utilizing the best part of yourself because you are empty. And so. The first person that you're supposed to love outside of God is you. You know we're taught. As I said, we're taught that loving other people you know is really important, and it is. I'm not saying that it's not. But we're really not taught about self-love because if we have an awareness and an understanding about loving ourselves. Then they'll be disciplined. They'll be happy. They'll be goal attainment. They'll be rest and relaxation. You know there'll be so many things because we know that we have to take care of ourselves, start to enjoy, and start to feel the wonderful ecstatic. Calm, patient, joyful, serenity elation, amazing health and mind-body effect. Our spirits will get the opportunity to lead because we are living holistically,

Have you ever wanted something and did everything you knew to get, achieve, or receive it. You decided to get it, researched precisely what you wanted, and knew everything there was to know about what you wanted. You were now an expert on your desire. You cut pictures out of magazines, searched for photos on the internet, bookmarked all the best sites, and made a vision board. You looked at that vision board every day and got excited when you saw the pictures of your desire. You thought about it constantly, whenever you got a spare moment. While you stopped at a red light waiting for it to turn green, you saw yourself with your desire. You talked about your desire to other people so much that they got tired of listening to you. As the days and weeks started to pass, your enthusiasm started to wane, and you thought about your desire less and less. You walked past your vision board as if it was part of the painted wall, no longer seeing your desire the way you had seen it initially. It now seems like a daydream, something you did to pass the time one day when you were bored. No, it wasn’t a daydream, it was indeed something that you wanted, but you didn’t realize that you had to receive the desire before it manifested in physical form. There are four primary elements to belief, and receiving it is an important one. When you believe something, you have to: Accept it – believe its existence, say yes to it, welcome it into your life Consent to it – give it permission to happen, it doesn’t just arrive – you have to create it Form an impression in your mind of what you are receiving – you have to see to receive it Serve as a receptacle for your desire. You plant the belief for your desire in your soul Provide space for it, make room for your desire – literally and figuratively Detect it or pick it up like a broadcast signal. Whatever you focus on, you attract Too many times, we give up on what we said we wanted. We put in hours of prep work, and as soon as we don’t immediately see the manifestation of what we want, we get discouraged and quit. That discouragement or lack of enthusiasm can take on many forms like: Anger – which is a secondary emotion, and masking the real feeling you don’t want to deal with Disappointment - which is sadness caused by the unfulfillment Then we stop and usually quit. Now filled with regret and a limiting belief that may sound something like: “What’s the point in trying? I’m not: Smart enough Pretty enough Old Enough Young Enough Rich enough Popular enough Tall enough Small enough Any Enough will do Then we rationalize It’s not for me God didn’t want that for me When one door shuts, another door opens “People” are always trying to keep me down The truth is none of those things was the issue. They were just roadblocks, obstacles, situations that stood in between you and what you said you wanted. When you believe something, you know that it doesn’t just walk in the door until you have manifested it. If you’ve just started believing, then it’s like the muscles in your body. You have to exercise them so that they get stronger and can handle the weight. You also need to stretch them to keep them flexible and healthy to maintain a range of motion in your joints. The receiving part of your belief works the same way. Your belief is flexible, healthy, and has a solid range of motion to handle the weight of receiving your desire. Pick up from where you stopped believing; you don’t have to start over. Go back to your vision board, continue to look at it; See your desire in your mind, say it out loud, talk to your desire and tell it to come to you, prepare your physical environment to handle your desire. Train your mind and your thoughts as well. Go ahead and receive your desire; it’s waiting for you. Whenever obstacles - extra weight applied to your belief,

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and she's pretty successful in her industry, and she was telling me about a project that she's working on. While describing the project, there was passion in her voice - she was angry. At the same time, she was processing her feelings from the client's experiences. And there was this compassionate empathy, this visceral anger that was coming up from inside of her. And you know she was talking about how people don't have access to certain information and the choices they make as a result. And as I was listening to her. I was thinking about my own life and the lives of other people. And just my observations of things that I had seen, and I would come back in and listen to words as she was saying, and it was all boiling down to choices. And a lot of people say if you know better, you do better. Well, that's not necessarily true because we can have a tremendous amount of information, but we don't do anything with it. We can. We can spout it out; we can recite it. We can verbalize it back to other people. We can give them advice from that information that we've provided, and it can help them because they go and put it into action. But if we're not utilizing that information, it's just information. And what I was realizing was that we don't realize that we have choices many times, and that can be in any area of your life that could be purchasing a home—having a better relationship. Living in a different environment, living in a foreign country, starting a business. Going to school, not going to school. Choosing who you want to love. Depending upon the environment that you're in and how your mind processes information, and their previous experiences that you've been a part of, you don't sometimes realize that you have a choice. You know you see women that were battered and abused, and people say, well, you know why stay in that relationship. Sometimes people don't realize they have a choice. And then when you realize you have a choice, or you get that epiphany or that IHOP moment. Then something else comes in and is like, well, what do I choose? And there's so much that's available in this world today. Suppose you're not accustomed to making choices for yourself. If that's not something that you've done before, you've always done with other people wanted you to do. You've never taken the time to sit out and think about what it is that you want. Think about who you are. Think about where you want your life to go. Then you have no idea, no concept that you can make a choice. And what are your available options? A lot of times, we choose from the lesser of two evils. But guess what, you don't have to choose from a list of two evils if you have choice A and choice B. Guess what? You can create a choice C, Or you can select neither of them. But many times, we don't realize that we have those options available to us and then the other thing you could live in a community. Let's use housing as an example. You can live in a society where there are homes, and other people live in homes, and it never crossed your mind that a home is available to you. And then if when you purchase a home, what community do you want to live in? Do I have to live around the people that I grew up around? Can I move to another state? Is it OK for me to live in a specific community? Do I have to live in this country, you know? And so, there are so many other things that go along with making choices. But the primary thing that she and I were talking about was. Many people don't realize that they have the ability or the option to choose. I know for myself I didn't have. The understanding that I had a choice. I grew up in a family where I didn't choose what I ate. I didn't determine what I wore. I didn't decide what time I woke up. I didn't choose what time I went to sleep. I didn't choose who was around me. You know, I didn't decide what I was going to study in school...

Have you ever considered loving yourself unconditionally? No strings attached. Getting up each day, happy about who you are, and looking forward to what the day would unfold? Have you taken the time to think about who you want to be, where you want to go, and write down your ideal-self characteristics, values, and morals and looking into the future of the happiness, peace, prosperity, and accomplishment that you have and achieve? The best way to do that is to start with spending time with God. Get to know Him and who He is. When you see God, you will see who you were created to be—made in His image and likeness. Take time each day to connect with God, letting Him know He is your priority. Spend time in His presence, developing a solid relationship with Him. Learning and depending on His: Character Power, Grace, Wisdom, Love, Compassion Simply spending time in His presence, not asking for anything other than spending time with Him. I won’t keep you long today because I’d like for you to take a few moments and pull aside and focus on God. Make Him your priority. Get rid of all distractions. Mute your phone and lay it face down. Turn off the television. Find a quiet place and pull aside. Tell God how much you love Him and how you can’t live without Him. Tell Him what He means to you. Remind Him how He Makes you feel. Make it clear to God that you can’t live without Him. Bask in the love and intense emotions and feelings that spring up inside you that you can’t explain, and their intensity catches you off guard. I Challenge you to Love on God. His nature is so kind and wonderful that before you can finish telling Him how you feel and what you think, He will overwhelm you with the love and feelings that He has for you. I’ve tried to outlove God several times. And have been reduced to a pile of joyous tears and unspeakable happiness. God is Amazing. I’m tearing up now, just thinking about His love. CONCLUSION I challenge you to start with one minute – 60 seconds. Start telling God how much you love Him and what He means to you and watch Him overtake you with His love. Psalm 22:3 says, “God inhabits the praises of His people.” Be prepared to be overwhelmed!

I have all my life tried to figure out how to be better at who I'm supposed to be, how to achieve what I'm supposed to achieve. I didn't have anybody to teach me, and those people that were teaching me I didn't realize that they were teaching me. Over the years have studied and hit my head against the cement floor and I've come up with what I call a spiritual discipline. There are eight things that I do to get what I want in life when I don't do any of one of these things, it throws me off, but I finally found the eight things that done together as a system as a process helps me to create everything that I want. Everything that I need and gets me into the place where I'm supposed to be in terms of living and creating the life that I want to have. I've done it many times and I didn't realize I was doing it at the time. I would do some of it. Then I would do other parts of it and I couldn't figure out why things weren't working the way they were supposed to work, and it's a lot of back and forth that I have done trying to figure it out. And then it dawned on me I need to create a system. And these are the things that I was doing that helped me get to where I was all those times that I reached all my goals. I was doing these eight things. Let me tell you briefly about it all starts with me would study as a Christian. Always start with the word of God. Everything that you can think of that pertains to your life in the word of God, even if it's not mentioned Eric directly. If you're reading the word or if you're listening to it, you're going to find the answer to every issue that you have in your life. So I study the Bible and read the Bible. I scour the Bible or research the Bible and I find what it is I'm looking for, then to amplify the study that I've done. I do research outside of the Bible, research books, situations, circumstances as an example when I wanted to find out about lust, I went through the Bible and I found all of the words the Greek and Hebrew that the Bible mentions. As lust and then from there I read through and I found two or three scriptures that we call revelation that spoke directly to me, and from those three scriptures, I delve deeper into it. I would get the revelation from the Rhema, meaning I would get a word and understanding that hit close to my heart that it was like, Oh yeah, that's the one I've been looking for. That's exactly what's happening to me. That's why this is happening. That's how to get to that destination. So I study and then after I study, I meditate. I am literally meditating. And no. As a Christian, you know a lot of US Christians we stray away from meditation, but the word talks about meditation early in the beginning of the book, over in Joshua 17 and eight this book, it allows, should not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, and you shall make your way prosperous, and you shall have good success. Meditation is something that we're supposed to do now. I personally believe that there's some value in meditation where you sit and you breathe deeply. You know five times and clear your mind. Just calm down what's happening, your soul calms down in the body released anxiety, the anxiousness, the stress there's a lot of benefit in doing that. Breathwork is very important because a lot of times we don't breathe correctly and we're stopping our breath and that stops the energy and the oxygen to your brain and so you don't think correctly. So when you're anxious, Sir when you're afraid you know you are holding your breath and you're not thinking correctly. So doing that breathwork that setting yourself up to meditate is very important because what it does it cultivates the field for the meditation of thinking and pondering over what it is that you're supposed to be meditating on. So, for instance, Deuteronomy 818 says, remember the Lord that God he is the one who gives you the power to get wealth.

Everybody has a purpose, and I believe that God created each person for something specific. When you realize your gifts and purpose, and you walk in that, you live in that, and you do that. It just kind of comes naturally. God wants to say something. He wants me to relay knowledge to you differently today. So what you're going to hear is what I believe. God wanted you to say through me. Be blessed. I hope you receive it. You know, I want to talk about being blessed. I have come through so many things in my life. I've seen a lot of abuse. I've seen a lot of abundance, and no matter what, even when I didn't even know it, God was always with me. He's: Loved and protected me Provided for me Given me, everything that I could ever think of or ask for and a lot of stuff that I didn't even know was available to me. Understood me for who I am, accepting me for who I am and what I am. I love spending time with God. He's my best friend. I can go to him and talk to him about anything. I'm so blessed. It's not about the pursuit of things, the attainment of material possessions. It's not about being in a relationship with other people that are blessed. It comes from inside. It's how you feel is how you think. It's how you move in the world. I'm blessed; there's nothing that I can't have. There's nothing that I can't do. There's nowhere I can't go, there's nobody that I can't be, I can be whoever I want to be, I can do whatever I want to do. I can live where I want to live. I can have whatever I want to have. I am blessed. It's amazing how much: God loves me. He cares. He's provided for me. He's protected me. He has in store for me. He says I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, thoughts of good and not evil, of an expected end. He knew me before the foundation of the Earth, creating me knitting me together in my mother's womb. He formed me. He knows every molecule. He knows me. He created me. I have a purpose, and when I flow in that purpose when I live in that purpose when I do what He's called me to do, I am perfectly happy. I am content. PRAYER for God's Blessing. He's a glorious God, a merciful God - Hallelujah, an omniscient God. He knows everything. He's omnipotent - Hallelujah, He has all power. Hallelujah, Lord, I praise you for your Grace and your mercy and your kindness. I exalt you and reverence You for this opportunity to let people know that I am blessed and let them know that they're also blessed. That You love them, that You protect them, that You provide for them. Lord, I give you praise and glory and honor. Hallelujah, Lord, I thank you for the confidence that you placed in the people that hear my voice. Lord, I Thank and Praise You for their: Lives. Prosperity.  Health. Relationships. Careers and purposes. Hallelujah Lord, Gifts. Lord, I thank you and praise you in the name of Jesus. They have a sound mind, and Your peace surrounds them. Lord, I praise and glorify your holy name for you. Lord, you're worthy. You are magnificent. You, Lord, are glorious Hallelujah. I give you the praise, the glory, and honor. God, you're worthy. God, you're an amazing God. You're a miraculous God, and I thank you for your people. In Jesus' name, Amen. Get the Self Confidence Jumpstart Meditation

Today I’ll share with you a life-changing technique that cost me thousands of dollars to learn and decades to understand. Let me tell you about a skill set that you can activate every day that inundates your mind with confident power, facilitating the person you want to become. Okay, calm your mind, get relaxed and peaceful and think about the person you want to be, with the qualities you want to embody. Imagine what your: Life would be like? Where do you live? Do you live in a house, an apartment, a townhouse, a tiny home? How big is it? How many bedrooms? Do you have a sauna? Do you live in the city? The country? The suburbs? By the ocean? In the mountains? In a different country? What’s happening with your health? Are you disease-free? Are you a vegan, a fruitarian? Do you exercise, how often? What kind of exercise? Bodybuilding, Pilates, running? Do you have hobbies? Sewing, motorcycles, para-sailing? Your standard of living? $50K, $150K, $500K, a million a year? Is your house paid for? What kind of car do you drive? Do you have a driver? Who are the people in your life? Do you have a family? Are you married, have children – how many, nieces and nephews? Career, Ministry, Retired, Volunteer work. Do you travel? Where do you go, how often, with who, how do you get there? Now, don’t edit yourself or be “realistic” when answering these questions. Go crazy, think of the most far-out their things you can, as if it was a fantasy that you could participate in – Because if you can think it, you can have it. Don’t forget the excitement you would feel in the dream. Fun Fact: Completing this exercise is programing your subconscious with the new you. One of the most powerful techniques to modify your self-image is visualization. How you see yourself is who you become. If you don’t put in the effort and time to create yourself, whatever influences you will create an image for you. If you watch a lot of TV and you don’t spend any time seeing yourself or what you want to do, you may not like the image that materializes. Images are commanding, they: Intensify your desires and strengthen your beliefs Increase your willpower and build your persistence There are four components of a visualization: Frequency Clarity Intensity Duration Let’s briefly discuss each component. 1st Component Frequency is how often you visualize an event, goal, or behavior. Frequency has a powerful impact on how you think, feel, and behave. People who accomplish extraordinary things continually visualize their desired results, thinking about what they want to achieve all the time and replaying the ideal image repeatedly, like re-watching a movie continuously on the screen in their minds. Interestingly, the number of times you replay the film in your mind indicates how much you want the event, goal, or behavior and, at the same time, intensifies your desire to have it and your belief that it’s available to you. 2nd Component Clarity is the second component of visualization. Clarity is how precise you see in your imagination - the detail and vividness. There is a direct relationship between how clearly you see a desired goal or result and how quickly it appears for you. Think about when you thought about something you wanted, and your initial thoughts were vague and fuzzy. But the more you thought about it, the clearer and more detailed the image became. Eventually, you could see it without closing your eyes, and it materialized in your world. Successful people are very clear about what they want to be and do; Their mental pictures are precise. Unsuccessful people are unsure about what they want to be and do. Consequently, the vague, fuzzy mental images don’t motivate them nor activate their cognitive processes, and disappointment and failure materialize in their world. 3rd Component

Your ideal self, what you believe is the best version of yourself in every area of your life. Your ideal version influences how you think about yourself and your behavior; this is your perfect self. The qualities and values that you value highly and admire in other people. It’s the grand total of your dominant desires and goals. The you that you want to be. The perfect you. Happy, peaceful, and high achieving people have a very clear ideal self; they’re continually setting high standards, and putting in great effort to achieve and live up to them. When you put the work in, the clearer you are about who you want to become, the more likely you will develop into that person. You’ll rise to the dominant aspiration of yourself. You become who you want to be. The flip side of that is unhappy, unfocused, and confused people have an unclear, blurry, distorted ideal self, and in most cases, no ideal self at all. They’ve given little to no thought about the qualities and values of the person they want to be and develop into, and definitely no effort to get there. As a result, their growth and development atrophy over time. Life becomes a grind, and they lose their desire for self-development. When you define and clarify your values and integrate them into your daily life and decisions, your attitude improves. Because your outer world mirrors your inner world, your life circumstances change to reflect your improved attitude. SELF-IMAGE Moving on to your image – the second part of your self-concept. How you see and think about yourself today. Your self-image or “inner vision” determines how you behave in situations. It’s a reflection of your current dominant qualities and values, meaning you act like the inner vision you hold of yourself consistently. Kool fact, you can change your behavior by upgrading your inner vision. This process of self-image modification is one of the fastest and most dependable ways to improve your behavior. When you begin to think and see yourself as more competent and confident, your behavior becomes focused and effective. Deliberately changing your self-image – the way you live, speak, and behave, creates a different life. Positive change upgrades your life. Negative change diminishes your life. God has set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, and has given you the best answer and the system to live an abundant life. When you change your inner vision, you change your life and who you are. SELF-ESTEEM The third part of your self-concept is your esteem. Your self-esteem is how you feel about yourself. The emotional aspect and a foundational quality of achievement and behavior. A key to your effectiveness and happiness. Like a battery, it’s the power source to your behavior – the source of energy, enthusiasm, vitality, and optimism that powers your behavior, that makes you into a high-achieving confident person. Two factors determine your level of self-esteem: How valuable and worthwhile you feel about yourself Self-efficacy How much you like and accept yourself as a good person. The personal assessment, how you rate yourself, no matter what’s going on in your life. The rating isn’t dependent on external factors. Someone with genuine self-esteem can have many challenges and setbacks in their current circumstances and still have a high, optimistic estimate of themselves as a person. Self-Efficacy Self-efficacy – how competent you feel you are in whatever you’re doing is the second factor determining your self-esteem level. Self-efficacy is about how you believe you perform. It’s the element that real self-confidence is built on. Your worth and efficacy reinforce each other. When you feel good about yourself, you behave well, and when you behave well, you feel good about yourself. Both are required. Neither functions well without the other. How much you like yourself determines your level of self-esteem. The more you like yourself:

Your self-concept is your bundle of beliefs about yourself and every part of your life and your world. It’s the “master program” of your subconscious computer. The Law of Belief says that your beliefs determine your reality because you always see the world through a screen of prejudices formed by your belief structure. Your self-concept, which is your belief structure, precedes and predicts your performance and behavior in all areas of your life. You always act consistently with your self-concept and the bundle of beliefs that you’ve acquired from childhood. Stated another way, you’re where you are and what you are because of what you believe yourself to be. Whether you’re rich or poor, happy or unhappy, fat or thin, successful or unsuccessful, your beliefs make you that way. If you change your beliefs in any area of your life, you begin immediately to change in that area—your expectations, your attitudes, your behavior, and your results all change. Your outer world is an expression of your inner world; it can’t be different. You’re not what you think you are, but what you’re thinking about. Everyone is programmed to be who they are today. For lasting change, to act or behave differently, you have to change and reprogram your self-concept. The reprogramming occurs when you replace the self-limiting ideas and beliefs with self-affirming thoughts that update your master system with new beliefs and ideas. Begin to think of yourself as you want to be, not as you currently are. When you change your thoughts, they begin to materialize as you have envisioned them. ASPECTS OF YOUR SELF-CONCEPT There is a direct relationship between how well you do anything and your self-concept in that area. You perform as well as you believe you are capable of achieving. Your outside can never be better or different than you think yourself to be on the inside. Whenever you’re doing well and feel good about yourself in any area of your life, you demonstrate a positive self-concept in that area. Whatever area you’re dissatisfied with or performing sub-par in, your negative beliefs dominate that area. What makes positive change possible for you is that your self-concept is primarily subjective – based on experience, not necessarily fact or truth. Your beliefs about yourself, especially your self-limiting beliefs and doubts, aren’t based on the truth or facts. Negative ideas about yourself and your abilities usually are based on false information and the impressions you have taken in and accepted as truth. When you start to reject self-limiting ideas, they begin to lose their power over you. When you deliberately change your self-concept, your true potential becomes unlimited. THE TURNING POINT The turning point for you will happen when you learn how your self-concept controls your life and then decide to change it. Your self-concept is a general summary of your beliefs about yourself. Within your self-concept, you have groups of smaller self-concepts, which control your behavior and performance in every area of your life. You have a self-concept for your personal appearance, how much money you will make, where you’ll live, who you’ll be in a relationship with, even how popular you are with friends and others in the world. Each self-concept also has a subset of self-concepts. For example, a person may have a positive self-concept about their knowledge about weight loss but a limiting self-concept about their ability to maintain a healthy weight. And that’s why the person can tell everyone else about weight loss and management but doesn’t maintain a healthy weight for themselves. As with all beliefs, your self-concepts gradually move into comfort zones. Your subconscious does everything it can to keep you there, resisting all change, positive and negative. The comfort zone is where discipline and achievement go to die.  When you feel like you can’t break a habit, you’re in a comfort zone.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. What you think and feel about yourself and your abilities results from your life experiences that have conditioned your behavior and designed who you are today. If your life isn’t what you want it to be, don’t throw in the towel, I’ve got great news for you. Just like the body is self-renewing and produces a brand new body of cells every seven years. Your mind is also self-renewing, and you can create new neuro-pathways in 90 days, with some work on your part. YOU ARE YOUR THOUGHTS Whatever you think about, dwell on, meditate, worry about, you become. When you focus on something, it materializes in your life. When you intentionally focus your thoughts on the person, you want to be and the qualities and characteristics you want to embody and express, you implant and embed those thoughts into your subconscious. Your subconscious then goes to work through your actions to bring about your beliefs. Your thoughts become your character and your personality. Some people like to say they are “self-made,” this is a true statement. When you’re focused on what and who you want to be, do, and have. You will become the person, do the activities, and have the possessions and titles you desired. In essence, you make yourself. So, if you’re not satisfied with your present life circumstances, you can change your thoughts, feelings, and actions to align with what you want to change. GROWTH ISN’T EASY Do you know someone who is constantly talking about what’s wrong with their life and how they don’t what they have? Those are the same people that think the same negative thoughts and have the same negative emotions – they continually create destruction in their life. Thought is creative. When you hold a thought in your mind, it will produce, create, or manifest itself in the natural. Here’s where the work comes in. To create positive self-confidence, you must take total, complete, systematic, single-minded control of your conscious mind. Consistently discipline yourself to think ONLY about what you desire and purposely omit the things you fear and don’t want.   YOUR INNER LIFE PREDICTS YOUR OUTER LIFE Remember, change requires you live from the inside out. What happens in your outer world reflects what’s happening inside your mind with your thoughts and feelings. Your happiness and success develop from living your life in harmony with the laws that govern who you are.   INTEGRITY OF YOUR INNER LIFE If you want to enjoy self-confidence in your outer life, you must apply complete integrity in your inner world. Living your life consistent with your primary values and principles while thinking and acting in harmony with your goals is self-confidence 101. It’s the template of how you live. When you’re crystal clear about what you believe is good, right, and worthy and live by your values, you will have solid self-confidence. When you are “true to yourself,” everything you do and say expresses your personal convictions.   WHAT ARE YOUR VALUES Developing high levels of self-confidence starts with knowing yourself. It’s time to think through and decide on your values. Grab some paper and something to write with and Ask yourself: What do you stand for? Won’t you stand for? Are you willing to sacrifice for? Would you work for? Would you die for? Do you value God? Family? Health? Career? Freedom? Compassion? Truth?     INTEGRITY IS IMPORTANT You’re probably thinking, “Michelle, what does this have to do with trusting myself. Well, I’m glad you asked.   When you don’t know what you believe and how you’ll respond to situations contrary to your beliefs, you don’t trust yourself. You can’t. You haven’t proven to yourself that you are trustworthy. You can’t because you say you want something and then do something else when situations and circumstances get tight or uncomfortable.

The thoughts and feelings about who you are and what you can and can’t do result from your experiences and conditioning and don’t determine what’s possible for you. The bible talks and teaches about being perfected or maturing. It’s similar to the personal development principle – the law of becoming. In that, each person is becoming, evolving, growing, maturing, and perfecting who they are. The perfecting and development happens through the dominant, persistent, conscious, and unconscious thoughts. Stated another way, you’re what you thought you were yesterday. And tomorrow you’ll be what you think about today. There is a quote by Bruce Barton that says: “Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance.” This quote means that courage, determination, and a conviction that you can absolutely accomplish what you put your mind to are standard equipment when you develop self-confidence. Did you know that between you and what you want is fear? The cool reality is that everyone has exceptional untapped potential for health, wealth, and happiness on the other side of fear. The Big Question So the age-old question: What would you do if you couldn’t fail? What if you were totally fearless of people, places, and things and believed you could act in your own best interest in any area of your life? Limitless Self-Confidence When your self-confidence is unrestricted, you believe in yourself and your abilities, set amazing goals, make big plans and commit to achieving targets that you couldn’t see yesterday. By any means necessary, you achieve and realize your dreams, make more money, lose weight, buy amazing houses and dream cars, and have healthy relationships with yourself and others. You do what you want to do and don’t conform to the opinions of others. You define what your life looks like—living each day consistent with what you want. You’re bold and creative. You organize your life and resources and design your life just the way you want. Respect, Clarity, and Possibilities Self-confidence changes your behavior. You speak with confidence and clarity. Communicating exactly what you want, which people recognize and respect. Opportunities and possibilities that you hadn’t imagined materialize because you believe in your ability and other people see the confidence. Self-Confidence is Developed Most people have low self-confidence in multiple areas of their lives. Just existing and doing what everyone else is doing. Unhappy and doubting their abilities. According to Abraham Maslow – people usually “sell themselves short.” Negatively comparing yourself to others, dwelling on your weaknesses, and settling for less in life than you want, and what you could have if your confidence were higher. A little-known fact is that self-confidence is developed. You can enjoy high levels of self-esteem, self-respect, and personal pride. Self-confidence can be learned with practice. Little practice, little confidence. Great practice, great confidence. You can build yourself up and be perfectly confident in any area that is valuable to you. I can teach you how. Roots of Low Self-Confidence Some people are equipped early in life with high levels of self-confidence learned from their parents or people in their lives. Most people start with entrenched feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. As a result of destructive criticism, lack of love, abuse, abandonment, and rejection, we grow up with diminished feelings of self-esteem, low self-confidence, and feeling “not good enough.” This shows up in people working really hard to achieve success on the outside while deep down feeling like an imposter. Also known as “fear of success. What’s really happening is they feel unworthy, no matter how much they achieve. At its extreme is hopelessness – my mother committed suicide because her life felt hopeless.

Stop giving up! That’s why you aren’t getting anywhere except behind. How do you expect to succeed? Or do you think real life is like what you see on the movie screen? Let me be the one to break the news to you and say that’s not going to happen. You may not get a happily ever after the first, second, or even the third time you begin to do something. That’s why you have to be clear about your vision and know why you’re doing it. That “Why” has to fuel you when everyone around you is telling you to stop, that it’s a waste of time; that God isn’t in it; that you got out ahead of God, that you aren’t meant to do this; that you’re not being realistic. Also, for the times when you are telling yourself the same things and usually worse. Something worse you can say to yourself is that you aren’t some form of enough. Not smart enough, not young enough, not old enough, not skinny enough, not white enough, not educated enough, not enough time, not enough money, not enough people that like you, you’re not loveable enough. I call “Bull” on all of that. If it’s what you want and you know down deep in your knower. Then it’s time for you to pull aside from the world – the TV, people talking in your ear, whatever you’re reading, the social media platforms that you’re scrolling through to get answers and likes, and validation from. Pull aside by yourself and think. Don’t criticize yourself, but think correctly. Whatever you’re thinking is who you are and what you are doing. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You already had the heart to heart with God, and you know that what you want is possible. Remember what Matthew told you that Jesus said to him and the disciples. “With men, this is impossible; but with God, all things are possible.” Don’t let fear back you down now. Stand up and fight, push through, and use that 40% reserve inside of you sitting there. That reserve that kicks in when your life is on the line. Focus on your destination and get clear on your strategy. Look at your situation. Remember, what is your goal. Where do you want to go, and what do you want to achieve? Tell yourself,” Okay, my situation isn’t ideal, but how can I still get to my destination?” Suppose you lived in a remote location and wanted to get to a city that was one hundred miles away. You don’t own a car, so you got the money together and hired an Uber car and driver to come and pick you up and take you to the city. On the day of your trip, for whatever reason, say the Uber driver and car didn’t show up, but you still needed to get to the city, and there wasn’t anyone else that could come and get you for six months, what would you do? Would you: Do your usual and blame other people and your circumstances for your life, not going the way you want it. Get upset, then discouraged, and make the appointment for six months in the future? Look around your environment, find materials, and build a car or a motorcycle or a skateboard to get you to the city? Would you gather all of the resources you had on hand, pack a bag and set out walking to your destination with the single thought of “I’m going to make it to the city somehow.”? Look I’ve just brainstormed and given you three possible ways to respond. You can choose to respond however you want, but the choice is yours – let’s be clear on that. What I’m saying isn’t one of those talks where I make you feel good about giving up. It’s one of those talks where I tell you the truth. What you choose or don’t choose is YOUR decision, and you have to be ready to deal with the outcome. It’s your life, and you’re 100% responsible for it. Nobody else is responsible for giving you anything, saving you or making your life easier, better, or kinder. I know this may be hard to hear, but since no one has told you this, I’m giving you this information so you can make informed choices. I want you to have the best life possible. I don’t want you to spend years or decades blaming other people for ...

Self-sabotage is when we say we want something and then go about making sure it doesn't happen. Stop standing in your way.

Help I Want to Give Up! Have you ever felt like you wanted to give up on something? Like Popeye, “You’ve stood all you can stand, and you can’t stands no more.” You’ve done everything you can think of. You have exhausted all of your financial resources and maybe even the resources of others. You’re not alone. Everyone has found themselves standing at the edge of a mental cliff, contemplating throwing their dream or goal over the edge and turning around and walking away. I know you’re getting caught up in the frustration and the overwhelm of all of the knowledge you have to attain and completing unending activities to realize your dream and see your goal achieved. What if I told you that your cliff experience is part of the journey. What if I have some help for you. What if I could encourage you to keep going with a strategy so that you don’t give up, stop, or quit. I Got You. Let’s talk about the cycle of success – the excitement to create, the discouragement that comes from your perceived failures, and can lead to your overwhelming desire to quit before achieving your dreams and goals. Why Do We Give Up Easily? Have you ever wondered why giving up is one of the first thoughts you have when things get hard? It’s partly because of the Pleasure Principle, also known as instant gratification. The good news is that you’re normal, and what you’re experiencing is part of the standard success cycle. You only want to experience pleasure and avoid discomfort and pain at all cost to satisfy your psychological or biological needs. You don’t want to delay, and actually, you are fighting putting off to a better time what is needed now, to achieve your dream and goal. Your mind isn’t renewed to press through the fight. Instead, you want to flee. The combination of anxiety and overwhelm is designed to convince you to give up. I’m sure you’ve heard a variation of these sayings before: Success isn’t easy Green peas come before the dessert What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger Disappointment and overwhelm are common when you’ve done all you know to do, and you haven’t achieved your dream or goal. Let me assure you that giving up isn’t the answer – especially if you know that you know what you’re working towards is what you’re supposed to do, be or have. Yes, there will be times when you want to give up; that’s normal. But giving up isn’t the correct choice. The Result of Giving Up Overnight success is a lie. Everyone who has succeeded has failed many times; those who have achieved great success have failed hundreds of times, and others have failed thousands of times. Sometimes you have to work harder, sometimes you have to work smarter, sometimes you have to adjust and modify the plan, but you don’t give up. You are not a quitter! A quitter is worse than a failure. Quitters don’t believe in themselves because they think they don’t have any strengths, gifts, or talents. Let me give you some truth here. EVERYONE has a: · Strength · Gift · Talent What’s happening is that you are telling yourself the wrong information. You are basing your decision to win and succeed on a lie and probably on several lies - destructive thoughts and limiting beliefs. The truth is that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and you have greatness to contribute to the world - to your sphere of influence. I’ve said this before and will continue to say it – there are people out there waiting for you. There are people out there, praying for everything that you are right now—all of your perceived imperfections, flaws, and weaknesses. Giving up is not the correct choice. If you want to give up, tell yourself the truth. Admit to yourself that you’ve decided not to do the hard work. That you want to continue to live in the struggle, the overwhelm, and the anxiety that you’re in right now. Because it’s familiar, you think it’s easier – it’s actually harder to quit than to win.

Today, I want to talk about how so many people undervalue their own worth by comparing their lives with someone else. This behavior is damaging to your self-confidence because you are the person that you believe over everyone else.

I want to share a tool I created to help my clients develop their self-confidence; it's a meditation and visualization. As with anything, confidence is created, developed, and maintained by what you think and believe.

Let's talk about Believing the Unbelievable. Here’s the one thought I want to put on your mind. “When God created you, everything you will ever need to be or do was placed inside you.”

Stop giving up! That’s why you aren’t getting anywhere except behind. How do you expect to succeed? Or do you think real life is like what you see on the movie screen? Let me be the one to break the news to you and say that’s not going to happen. You may not get a happily ever after the first, second, or even the third time you begin to do something. That’s why you have to be clear about your vision and know why you’re doing it. That “Why” has to fuel you when everyone around you is telling you to stop, that it’s a waste of time; that God isn’t in it; that you got out ahead of God, that you aren’t meant to do this; that you’re not being realistic. Also, for the times when you are telling yourself the same things and usually worse. Something worse you can say to yourself is that you aren’t some form of enough. Not smart enough, not young enough, not old enough, not skinny enough, not white enough, not educated enough, not enough time, not enough money, not enough people that like you, you’re not loveable enough. I call “Bull” on all of that. If it’s what you want and you know down deep in your knower. Then it’s time for you to pull aside from the world – the TV, people talking in your ear, whatever you’re reading, the social media platforms that you’re scrolling through to get answers and likes, and validation from. Pull aside by yourself and think. Don’t criticize yourself, but think correctly. Whatever you’re thinking is who you are and what you are doing. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You already had the heart to heart with God, and you know that what you want is possible. Remember what Matthew told you that Jesus said to him and the disciples. “With men, this is impossible; but with God, all things are possible.” Don’t let fear back you down now. Stand up and fight, push through, and use that 40% reserve inside of you sitting there. That reserve that kicks in when your life is on the line. Focus on your destination and get clear on your strategy. Look at your situation. Remember, what is your goal. Where do you want to go, and what do you want to achieve? Tell yourself,” Okay, my situation isn’t ideal, but how can I still get to my destination?” Suppose you lived in a remote location and wanted to get to a city that was one hundred miles away. You don’t own a car, so you got the money together and hired an Uber car and driver to come and pick you up and take you to the city. On the day of your trip, for whatever reason, say the Uber driver and car didn’t show up, but you still needed to get to the city, and there wasn’t anyone else that could come and get you for six months, what would you do? Would you: Do your usual and blame other people and your circumstances for your life, not going the way you want it. Get upset, then discouraged, and make the appointment for six months in the future? Look around your environment, find materials, and build a car or a motorcycle or a skateboard to get you to the city? Would you gather all of the resources you had on hand, pack a bag and set out walking to your destination with the single thought of “I’m going to make it to the city somehow.”? Look I’ve just brainstormed and given you three possible ways to respond. You can choose to respond however you want, but the choice is yours – let’s be clear on that. What I’m saying isn’t one of those talks where I make you feel good about giving up. It’s one of those talks where I tell you the truth. What you choose or don’t choose is YOUR decision, and you have to be ready to deal with the outcome. It’s your life, and you’re 100% responsible for it. Nobody else is responsible for giving you anything, saving you or making your life easier, better, or kinder. I know this may be hard to hear, but since no one has told you this, I’m giving you this information so you can make informed choices. I want you to have the best life possible. I don’t want you to spend years or decades blaming other people for ...