As a true blue Aussie, I like to think of myself as wearing my heart on my sleeve. When I like someone you know and when I don’t you will also know. Aussies are just practical, no nonsense say it how it is, kind of wonderful people! So when I started my health and wellness business about seven years ago, I was told that in order to grow your business, reading self growth books was a must!!! Seriously??!!! I don’t need that I thought, while nodding my head agreeing to the importance of self growth to my business partner. You see as an Aussie, I thought, I was “bonza” as we say, I was excellent,I was awesome, I was perfectly fine with myself and who I was……or so I thought!
Then I watched “The Secret”, a friend suggested that I start there. Humming and haaaing, I decided to give it a go and so I watched it as there was no way I was wasting my time reading a self growth book. Then a funny thing happened….I loved it! I loved the movie The Secret, I related to what they were saying and I loved the direction of where it was going.Then I was off and planting self growth seeds and daily watering them!!
You see, we cannot grow in our life and our business unless we grow in ourselves! Better yet, the self growth did not just affect my business and my attitudes relating to that but it permeated into other areas of my life. My kids noticed that I did not scream as much, that I had more patience and that I did not sweat over the small things, even if something broke! The old me would have be furious but the new me decided that it was a “thing” and that what was done was done. I read book after book , I applied many of these teachings to myself and my life and I found myself becoming a better version of me! A me that I really liked and can I actually say..loved!!
We are our own worst critics and especially women I find more so than men.We criticise the way we look, the way we dress, the way our hair grows, one day we love ourselves, the next day we don’t. Honestly it can be quite exhausting! So by reading these books and understanding how “normal” we really are just made so much sense to me. So here are my tips for planting those seeds and watering them to grow.
- Read, Read, Read. There are thousands of books on self growth, pick one and start reading. A little a day goes a long way.
- Rachel Hollis , she spoke at a work conference and I had no idea who she was before, now, I absolutely love her and have her book, Girl Stop Apologising on audible so I take her in the car with me and as Rachel reads her book, I swear she is talking to me sitting in the passenger side!
- Practice what you read, put into effect what you read. Reading is great, but if you do not implement anything, you will stay stagnant.
- Believe in yourself. Your belief will grow with the more you read. You will come to love yourself above all else in a non vain way.It is a love of self acceptance flaws and all.
- surround yourself with like minded people and just remove the toxic people from your life. Sorry, I know this sounds easy and I can hear some people say,”well, I just cannot …” If you cannot remove them from your life, then start changing how you react to them. You cannot control them but you can certainly control how you react TO them.
I wanted to share some of my favourite books to read so you have a place to start!
- Rachel Hollis, “Girl Stop Apologising”
- Rhonda Byrne, ‘The Secret”
- Napoleon Hill, “Think and Grow Rich”
- Dr Joe Dispenze, “Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.”
- Jen Sincero ,”You are a Badass , How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and start living an Awesome life.”
- Romi Neustadt ,”Get over your Damn Self”
So go ahead, be bold pick up a book and read and water those beautiful seeds of self growth and watch yourself blossom into a beautiful flower.
Would love to hear what you are reading?