At times it can be difficult to feel good about where you are in life. For many of us, it’s easier to remember our failures more than our successes. It’s common for us to focus on the opportunities we missed, chances we didn’t take, and goals we didn’t accomplish.
Why do we spend so much time remembering our mistakes, but not our successes?
Whenever we make a mistake or experience failure in life, that moment is typically accompanied with some sort of strong emotion, and our brains are wired to remember events of heightened emotion. Unfortunately, most of us place more emphasis on the negative events and failures in our lives, compared to our successes.
Think back to when you made a mistake or experienced a failure in your life. Like when you received an F in math class and your parents grounded you, when you fumbled the football and your coach yelled at you, when your business failed, or when you made a mistake at work and your boss fired you. These events stand out in our minds because they were very emotional experiences for us. We all make mistakes in life, but we also have many successes as well.
Unfortunately, we tend to overemphasize are failures and under appreciate our successes. By doing this it can be hard to feel good about where we are in our lives. We look back on our past with feelings of failure, shame, and guilt. The truth is that we all have more success than failures, but we are too hard on ourselves to accept and recognize our successes.
One simple way to feel great about your life is to celebrate your successes. Why is it important to remember your past successes? The reason it’s important is because of its positive impact on your self-confidence and self-esteem.
“Knowing that you have had successes in the past will give you the self-confidence so you can have more successes in the future.” Jack Canfield
One of the best ways you can feel great about yourself and your life is to remember your successes, and write them down in a success log. Here’s what you need to do…
- Get a pen and a pad of paper, or open a new Word document on your computer.
- Think all the way back to when you were born and try to remember every single thing you have accomplished in your life.
- Write down all of your major accomplishments as they come to mind, one by one.
- Try to think of 100 things you have accomplished during your life
If you have a hard time thinking of 100 accomplishments don’t worry. When I did this exercise it was difficult for me to get to 100 accomplishments too, but then I realized I was being too hard on myself. With that in mind, I realized as a baby I learned how to crawl, then I learned how to walk…both seemed to be pretty significant victories. Then I added things like graduating from high school, learning how to swim, to passing my driver’s license exam. Eventually, I was able to think of 100 accomplishments and you can too if you really try.
Once I did this exercise it felt great to look back on all the positive things I had achieved in my life. I keep the list in a place where I can see it so I can look back and reflect on it from time to time.
Another thing I do now is I keep a daily success log as well. At the end of every day I write down something positive that I achieved during the day. This helps me end the day on a positive note as well.
I hope that these exercises will help you feel great about yourself and your life. Just remember that you have many more successes than failures in your life…you just have to remember them.
Written By Brad Johns
Brad is a Positive Blogger, Follower of Jesus Christ, and Founder of Tenzy
The Positive Project 