Take a Look: Changing Your Opinion Of Yourself

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Sometimes it's not about changing who we are, but it's about changing our opinion of who we are. Learning to look after yourself isn't worth a thing if you don't respect yourself. And when we are looking to make certain changes or step towards certain goals, we need to change our opinions of ourselves. Looking in the mirror and deciding that you are someone who is worth improving on is just as important. But this can take a long time to consolidate in our minds, bodies, and souls. How can we change our opinions about ourselves?

Look in the Mirror

Some people stop and look at themselves to check-in. Taking time for self-reflection is essential. And sometimes there are things about ourselves that we don't want to see in the mirror, but it's taking the opportunities to address what is truly a problem and what is a superficial issue. You may fixate on a little issue like a crooked tooth, and while you can easily find a multiple award winning dentist, fixing these little issues is only one aspect. You need to look in the mirror and ask yourself some tough questions about who you are. Some people are constantly on the go, and they never have the opportunity to stop and look in the mirror. And while many people do this for fear of what we might see, there is a time and a place for reflecting. Taking the opportunity to check in with ourselves will give us a more rounded opinion of what we think we should change and what is actually window-dressing.

Find the Habit Associated With What You Want to Change

Many people treat the symptoms rather than the underlying cause. For example, if you are overweight, trying to exercise a bad diet is not going to shed the pounds. Learning to make changes in your life is about finding the right habits that form that thing in the first place. If you want to reinvent yourself you've got to find the habits that create that trait. There will be things in your life that you do not practice, but when you start to look at the individuals you admire and their personality traits that you would like in yourself, it boils down to the habits they have embedded in throughout their lives.

Setting Goals

It is so important to remember that you can't change it overnight. Acknowledging that a certain habit won't be solved right away can help you. By setting yourself a goal and then taking the opportunity to practice it every day, it starts to consolidate in your subconscious. Rome wasn't built in a day and new habits take a while to settle in. And when you set a goal, it is vital to make it realistic. If you have a big goal, can you break it down into smaller more manageable ones? Focus on the small goal and spend a few weeks practicing it every day before you start to move on. Consider it like ironing: you go over one part of the clothing until it is smooth before you move on to the next.

Surround Yourself With the Right People

When we discover that we want to change the one thing that can keep us from ever developing is the people we associate ourselves with. That's not to say we should surround ourselves with people who are constantly supporting us. If you surround yourself with people that say “yes” all the time, you aren’t going to be challenged. While it's not ideal to surround yourself with people that are constantly looking to beat you into the ground, you've got to find people that will give you constructive criticism and tough feedback. This is essential if you want to grow.

Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

If you want to be a different person and change your opinion of yourself, you've got to go beyond your preconceived limits. When we encounter a tough stimulus in life we either adapt or run away. This might be a very simplistic way of explaining embracing change but we have to remember we are still primates in so many ways. In order to grow, we've got to give ourselves the stimulus for growth and this means going outside of our comfort zone. This means that while we don't necessarily have to jump out of a plane, if we can provide enough of a stimulus that we feel just beyond our limits and we get used to this, we can start to push our comfort zone out further and further. Before you know it, you will look back and you will see how far you've come.