Be Comfortable With Who You "Am"

"I ams whats I ams, and dats all dats I ams"

Popeye, the Sailor Man

We could probably take a good lesson from Popeye and his famous line above. The cartoon character of Popeye wasn’t pretty, overly intelligent, terribly charming or overly ambitious. He was who he was and that’s all he was. He wasn’t bothered by his limitations or by simply being Popeye. He found comfort in accepting himself and made no excuses to anyone. If that wasn’t good enough for Olive Oyl, Wimpy or Pluto—well, too bad.

It takes great self-awareness, self-love and self-esteem to be comfortable being ourselves. To be self-aware, we have to monitor our thoughts, especially the negative ones. We have to know when we’re repeating self-negating mantras, like “I’m worthless,” or “I’m a failure” or “I’m nothing but a nuisance.” Replacing these ugly, untrue thoughts is essential—and doable.

To develop and maintain self-love, we have to replace our negative mantras with positive ones, like “I’m one of a kind with irreplaceable value,” or “I make mistakes and gain wisdom on my way to success,” or “I am what I am and that’s good enough for God and me.”

Self-esteem flows naturally from good self-awareness and healthy self-love. The more we know about our true selves, the more we will like being exactly who we are. And the more we like ourselves, the more comfortable we will be with allowing ourselves to love the person that we are. The more we love that person inside us, the more we will affirm that person and share ourselves with the world around us. People have to know us to like or love us. Once we are willing to share ourselves by coming out of our self-imposed shells, the more people will value us. And over the course of all of this inner-growth we will develop healthy self-esteem without even having to think about it. One day, we simply realize that it feels pretty good being us.

It’s never too late to stop being mean to ourselves, and it’s never too late to turn our lives around. We simply have to make the effort, realizing no one else can do it for us. Change your thoughts about yourself and you will eventually change your entire world from dreary black and white to glorious living color.

We can start right now. Let’s tell ourselves all day long “I’m adorable!” The more we say it over time, the more we will come to believe it, and—better yet—the more we will come to feel it. Say to yourself right now “I’m adorable” and allow your soul to shine!