Episode #118
This episode will challenge you to look closer at how you see yourself so you can show up as your best self every single day.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER: The below transcript was automatically generated and has not been reviewed to ensure complete accuracy. Any references or quotes should be taken directly from the audio recording and not the below transcript.
(00:00): Preview
Hey, on this episode, we are talking about self-image and we’re going to dive a little deeper past what you might tell me or someone else, what you think of yourself into what you’re actually thinking about yourself and the kind of stories you’re dwelling on and thinking about. And I think this is going to be a key to unlocking you showing up as the best version of you every single day. So let’s get into it right now.
(00:24): Intro
Hey, this is Ryan S. Howard, thanks for tuning into my podcast. I call it your faith at work, because we want to get your faith out of the church and into the world. We want our faith to be active, and I’m here to help you get unstuck and fulfill all the God-given potential that you were created with. I’m going to help you find your God-given assignment so that you can advance the kingdom every single day. We’re going to do that and work in the culture and in life, visit Ryan S howard.com to learn more, welcome to another episode. And
(00:55):
We are diving a little deeper into a topic that is maybe more important than, you know, and it might be something lingering under the surface that could use a little attention and make a huge difference. Just like that little tweak on their golf swing or whatever it is that you might be doing. So when we think about self image, you know, image is something that we see everywhere. You know, it’s, it’s part of a performance in your work. It’s part of, you know, how others see you. It’s, you know what we have on social media and all that. And what’s going on there with image and we have branding, we have all sorts of things, but the most important that affects everything is your self-image. How do you see yourself? And as I mentioned in the introduction, I think that your quick answer, if I say, how do you see yourself?
(01:46):
I think your quick answer may be different than how you treat yourself or how you maybe talk to yourself. And I mean, that just like the kinds of thoughts you have about yourself and whether you actually talk to yourself or not, it’s the thoughts you have that you’re dwelling on about yourself, maybe about your past, that sort of thing. And so that’s what I want to dig into. So right now just capture, what do you think about yourself? I mean, how do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as someone who is dependable as someone who shows up with someone who’s follows through on commitments and when a man or woman of integrity, someone who has their word follows through on their word, someone who’s on time or someone who’s always late. Do you see yourself as someone who never meets their commitments or just always hitting snooze?
(02:34):
And you know, I’m a night owl and I’m, can’t be a morning person. And I just always fail to get up and I want to do all this, but I just can’t seem to get started and I can’t get anything going. And I’d try all these things and I keep failing and, oh my past this, my past that, and I don’t know what the future’s gonna be like, how do you see yourself? I mean, what comes to mind? Is it generally positive or is it generally negative? And if you think about the kind of thoughts that you just allow, and we can’t control all the thoughts that come in, but we can control what we dwell on. We can control the thoughts that stay. We absolutely have that, you know, we need to have a renewed mind. That’s what Paul says and God’s word. We need to have a renewed mind.
(03:16):
We need to have our thoughts, sit on things above what God thinks. So now if you’ve got a picture of what you think of yourself now, think of a time when you maybe didn’t do something the way you wanted to do it. What did you say to yourself? I mean, what were you thinking? Were you thinking, wow, I did it again. Look at that. I failed again. I just can’t get anything off the ground or I just can’t follow through on this thing. I mean, are you kind of beating yourself up and do you dwell on it or do you, does it make you think about other times when you made the mistake or when you didn’t follow through or whatever that particular thing may be, or maybe you got into it with a coworker or a friend or a spouse and you just it’s like, well, here we go again with whatever it is.
(04:03):
Or maybe you have some emotional trigger or something, whatever it is. I mean, what, where do you go with that? Do you dwell on it? Do you, is it a negative space that you go to, or do you just kind of say shut it off and say, you know what, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna go there one way that you can and really test what your saying to yourself and thinking of yourself is if you had the same situation that you’re criticizing yourself of, or that you may be beating yourself up over, if a friend came to you, you or a family member or someone from work and said, look, this is going on. Or you, you saw them doing that thing or not doing that thing. What would you say to them? I mean, would you be, would you talk to them the way that you talk to yourself where you’re criticizing and reminding them of everything that they, every other time they ever did it and getting, beating them up on it and all that?
(04:53):
Or would you maybe be a little more couraging? You know, I mean, think about that. How do you treat others? How do you treat yourself? And so why not treat yourself that way? Because really, if you think about it, what do you think is going to lead to a better result? I mean, if you, you see yourself positively as someone who does is that way or not that way, and you know, in the positive, the way you want to be, or someone who you’re just have a negative opinion, you’re just negative on yourself all the time. I mean, who is, which one is more likely to achieve what God has for them, which one? And which one we can even get into that. What does God think of you? How does he see you? He’s not surprised by him. So I want to challenge you this week to really capture what it is.
(05:42):
Yes. Because this is something that I had a disconnect between what I, what I believed I thought about myself or what I was telling, you know, what, the way I kind of would have expressed it to you or to someone else. But then actually, if I looked at what I was saying to myself about how I was going about things, and I have this such a high level of kind of expectation, and if it doesn’t get something perfect, you know, then I just don’t do it, or I don’t start it. Or, you know, if it’s not, and, and that’s not that’s not a endearing, that’s not a good thing because they ended up doing very, you ended up doing very little because you have these high expectations. So that’s something that I saw in myself where it’s like, I need to get rid of that.
(06:27):
I need to get rid of, they need to deal with that. Because when I did make a mistake, what I would do is I would just beat myself up. So for example, I started a new morning routine and I was getting up at five 30 or 6:00 AM every day for a few weeks. And then finally, one day I overslept, I woke up at like six 20 something and I went downstairs. I started beating myself up over man. I was doing so good and this and that. And then I just kinda caught myself and I would have went into a, you know, I don’t know, 10 minutes or something, or maybe soaked on it all day. Like, I can’t believe I did to get like how stupid, you know? So I just said, you know, I caught myself, I actually recognize it. And I said, I’m just not going to do that.
(07:09):
I’m just going to move on. I’m going to get back into it and do my new routine. And that was it. And you know what, instead of kicking the bricks over and then starting over, I actually built on top of the bricks that were already there. That’s what we need to do with our foundation. So if we keep beating ourselves up over mistakes, well, then that we’re not gonna have a good image of ourself. We’re not going to have a good opinion of ourself. I mean, if you think of it, are you a leader you would want to follow? You know, I had a tough time answering that before, you know, where it’s like, man, I just, no, no, I would not. I mean, yeah, I kind of out here, it looks pretty good from but I kinda know what I think of myself now that I’ve started thinking about it, you know, and I’ve started and I’ve dealt with all this stuff cause they had to go.
(07:56):
Cause I realized how much it was holding me back and limiting me this, this is a mindset thing because what are you saying? What stories are you telling yourself? You know, are you always reminding yourself of failures or are you, are you pushing those to the side and reminding yourself of just moving forward, you know, and sticking with your routines and sticking with what you’re doing and maybe it’s time to get some routines that may be something that you need some help with, but what do you think of yourself? So just take some time this week and really pay attention to what you’re saying to yourself. Like what, what stories are you drilling on? What thoughts are you letting stay in your mind? And if they serve you, if they are uplifting, if they bring you peace and joy and they help set you up for the next thing or what you’re doing and help you be present, then, then by all means, keep them that’s what you want.
(08:46):
Is there a God honoring and rights that keep them, but if they are not helping you, if they’re dragging you down, if they’re making you upset, if it’s you’re dreading something, if you’re just, if it’s leading to negative, you go, we call it self-talk. But negative just opinion of yourself, whether you’re speaking it or just thinking it, does it serve you and help you get to where you want to go. If it does you keep it, if not, you get rid of it, get it, get it out of here. So I think, you know, if you can take some time, especially this week and just really take note, observe, pay attention. What are you saying to yourself? I mean, what stories are you telling? What are you drawing on? What are you allowing in your mind? And I think that as you start to siphon off these negative things and start to bring in and double down, the more positive thinking about yourself, you’re going to show up differently.
(09:40):
You’re going to be a better version of yourself and you can get your cup full and so that you can be pouring into others. And so you want to be the best version of yourself every single day. So, all right, I want to invite you before you go to send a text message to 3, 3, 7, 7, 7, and send the words, faith at work. I’m going to send you a free 21 day devotional. That’s going to help you jumpstart this introspective life, help you get to that next stage. And we’ll get you on the email list as well. So, all right, that’ll do it for this week. Have a great week and we’ll see in the next episode, God bless.
(10:15): Outro
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