Where Do You Find Infinite Levels of Success?

June 2, 2014 marked the 10th anniversary of the day I graduated from the United States Air Force Academy, and on this day, I reflected on how proud my entire class was of this accomplishment.  For some, this was the biggest moment of their life!  How can we remain proud or maintain a strong self-esteem after such an experience?  We cannot live our entire lives in that one moment...there has to be something that we can be proud of each day.  

You might be thinking that pride is a bad thing, but someone once told me that pride is the virtue of respecting oneself.  Pride is a rational evaluation of self where one has done something worthy of the praise received.  Here's where it gets real!  A proud person often wants to continuously improve him or herself.  My personal desire to improve myself motivated and propelled me to create the Live In Self Community.  Here we don’t measure our achievements against anyone else’s achievements; this would be being prideful.  We want you to be proud of who you are, so we encourage you to “give it 100”, give it your best, not someone else’s best.

Let me offer an honest thought: Sometimes, I take for granted things that happen on a daily basis that are both ordinary and extraordinary and forget the value of experiences that I have accomplished.  Sometimes, my gratitude is lacking.  In daily moments of gratitude, we witness infinite levels of success in ourselves and others.

While we should remember the past and be proud of experiences like a college graduation, we should also look to the present for moments to be proud of.  With a sense of humility, take a look around and discover or recollect what and who you can be proud of in all dimensions of your life.  Live inside out.

Here are 5 tips for staying proud in the present:

• Take care of your body. Eat healthy, sleep plenty, and exercise regularly. Always dress like you matter. Develop and test your endurance and discipline.
• Be uplifting. Steer clear of negative energy-depleting people. Surround yourself with positive people. Use social media in a productive manner to uplift yourself and others.
• Stay committed to the experience called life. Approach life with joy. Start by being open and friendly. Say “Hello, how are you?” to friends, family and strangers. Reach out. Be willing to lighten someone else’s load. If someone needs help, be there. Speak up for the timid. Show them you have noticed their plight.  Spend quality time with people. Share, learn and laugh.
• Take care of your mind. Always participate in continuous learning opportunities. This could be anything that increases your knowledge foundation such as enrolling in classes and reading current events. Affirm yourself. Recite your personal statement regularly. Stop the negative thought patterns.  Recharge self. Be still. Be quiet. Be aware. Reflect. Awaken.
• Recognize yourself and others. Watch success. Success is happening all around you. Acknowledge it – all of it. Own your failures. A failure or mistake is a learning experience – a lesson. Forgive self and others for failures. Do not harbor resentments. Learn and progress.