I see people in my gym wearing these T-shirts that say, “Make me proud to know you.” There’s some kind of a baseball team or basketball team, and it’s on the back of their shirts, so they’re all supposed to be keeping up with each other.
It really got me thinking about this idea of worrying about other people being proud of us, whether it be at our jobs or as good parents. No matter what the role, we want people to like us. We want thema to be proud of us.
But do we want that from ourselves?
It really got me thinking when I saw those T-shirts. “Make me proud to know you.” Wait a minute. If I’m not proud to know me, what difference does it make what you think, whether you’re proud of me?
What if you switched your focus from worrying about losing weight, about doing all these things, to being proud of yourself in any given role or moment of your day? Did you show up and do the work? Did you get back on track when you got knocked off?
The feeling of pride comes because you have the resolve to keep going and keep working on the things that are important to you, and because you’re honest and truthful to who you are. It’s only when we deviate from that, that we then lose that sense of pride — when we’re following somebody else’s agenda, or when we’re worried about what everyone else thinks of us, or when we don’t live up to our fullest potential.
Instead of it being all about these measurements and scale indicators and dictators, what if I’m proud of myself because I showed up today? I did the work at the gym. I put in everything I had in that moment.
I’m about to talk with my coaching clients, and I’m going to show up and be the best version of myself in that moment, and I’m proud of myself for that. I show up as the best mom as I can be in this moment, and I’m proud of that.
What if you focused on being proud of yourself in all aspects of your life? What if you really made a point to show up and be authentic to who you are and do what is in your heart and what is important to you? Then, when you look back at your life in a day or a week, you think, “Man, I am proud of myself. Look at what I’ve done.”
It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about achieving some crazy, lofty goal. It’s about, in that moment, doing what you can do and being proud of yourself for that.
I just wanted to share that with you because I think if we made that our mission, to be proud of ourselves in any given situation, I think it would really clarify and correct a lot of the things that we feel are out of order.
I’d love to hear from you on this. Comment below or on Facebook and let us know if you’re struggling with being proud of yourself or if you are finding yourself having more pride. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.