What do you say to a friend or loved one when something good happens to them? You are happy and excited for them so you congratulate them and tell them how proud you are.

What do you say to a friend or loved one when something bad happens to them? You are supportive and offer words of encouragement to keep them going. It’s important to you that they keep their heads held high and push through the difficult time.

What do you say to yourself when you’ve had something good happen to you? If you’re anything like me, you tend to question whether there has been a mix-up. You’ll also play down your achievements like you don’t deserve them.

What do you say to yourself when something terrible happens to you? You focus intensely on all of your “flaws” and nitpick your capabilities. You start calling yourself names and putting yourself down.

Seeing these patterns makes me wonder why we treat others with much more kindness than we treat ourselves. The one person you should always be kind and respectful to is yourself. You have to live with yourself. You have to wake up everyday and greet that person in the mirror. Choose to be kind to them. It makes for a horrible time coexisting with negativity. Stop bullying yourself and change the way you speak to yourself. When everything is handled in a more positive way, that will have a cascading impact on other areas in your life. All of sudden, your moods will change along with your perspective and confidence. You’ll learn to love those self-proclaimed flaws and flaunt them as perfection. You are a badass!

Have you ever heard of the golden rule? “Treat others how you’d like to be treated”.

Let’s tweak that a little to say “Treat others and yourself how you’d like to be treated”.

Throw the negativity in the trash. Live every day to the fullest, be happy, and love!