Cheerleading is a Full Time Job ...

especially when the one you are cheering for is yourself! It’s hard enough to be optimistic when looking for the right job given everywhere you turn people are losing theirs and you are reminded on a daily basis just how bad the job market is. Think, if you were paid to be optimistic all the time and it was your actual job to promote, encourage, rah, rah, yourself all day long, do you think it would make a difference in how others perceive you? I do.

Think about it, or better yet, throw a few bucks in a jar every time you say or think something positive and uplifting and down right inspirational about yourself. You might not become rich, but you certainly will see that even a few moments focused on positive thoughts can yield equally positive results.

But how do you keep motivated when it becomes harder to be your own cheerleader? Rejection, disappointment, hard times, and sometimes too much of a good time, can make you weary and tired of always being “up”. It’s possible to give yourself a break every once in awhile and let yourself wallow in fear, become scared, nervous and anxious about what’s not coming your way, so long as you know how to bring it back to the center. Being fearful has its advantages. It makes you focused, aware, appreciative and most of all “alert” to what lies just beneath the surface-whether that’s an opportunity or a sink hole. A good “fear-letting” is healthy every now and again and allows you to detox your emotions in a constructive way, clearing the way for a more positive and encouraging dialogue to occur between you and your most loyal audience, yourself.

One trick you can try and call it “The Cheerleading Game” is to sit with your best friend, confidante, colleague, spouse or significant other and shout out positive words to the other person such as, “You are Great,” “You’re Funny,” “You are Smart,” “You’re Successful” until the both of you run out of positive things to say about each other. Not only are you helping someone else feel better, but a funny things happens, you begin to help yourself feel better too. It’s always easier to tell someone else how great they are, it’s another thing to muster up the strength, energy and honesty to tell yourself how great you are. Fear. Fear leads to complacence which leads to “What the hell?” thinking and to a”Why bother?” attitude.

It’s easy to get discouraged and stay discouraged whether anything significant has occurred or not. It’s much harder to be positive and stay positive especially when nothing significant has occurred. It seems we all need that magic charm, a little smile from someone, an encouraging word to make us think it’s O.K. to move forward. We constantly seek approval and encouragement from others and think without it, we are not good enough to encourage or approve of ourselves. Not so, we are the ONLY one that matters in choosing how we approve and encourage actions, thoughts and continue to motivate ourselves by taking small, but significant steps onward.

And although this can seem like an exhausting task, bottom line, if we can’t find the energy to sing out our own praises and motivate ourselves to push through the doubt, then who else really will?

Go ahead, tell me how marvelous you are, and while you are at it, look in the mirror and tell yourself that too!

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