Self Confidence & Body Image: Week 2

Monday, 15 June 2015

For those of you following my June journey, you might remember that I set myself a bit of homework last week; to write a list of my strengths and weaknesses. The point being that if I can identify my strengths, I can build upon them, and if I can identify my weaknesses, I can learn to accept them and move forward.

Strengths

Willing to help others                         Can see the bigger picture
Trustworthy                                        Team player
Meets deadlines                                  Honest
Self-Motivated                                    Good with computers
Quick learner                                      Want to improve myself
Can look after myself                          Independent

Weaknesses
Decision making                                Don’t like to say ‘No’
Over thinks things                             Speaking in front of large groups of people
Trust people too easily                      Spend too much time worrying about what other people think

Unfortunately, I don’t think this exercise had as much impact as I hoped for. Listing my strengths and weaknesses is something I do every year as part of my work appraisal, and something I’ve done as part of job applications all through university. I found listing my strengths to be just as easy as writing a list of weaknesses, and none of the weaknesses I thought of were things that I hadn’t already realised over the past few years.

My challenge now is to move forward by accepting my weaknesses and building upon my strengths. Luckily I had an opportunity to do that this week.

Work's been...interesting....the past few days. As a result of something that was announced last Tuesday morning, I had a big decision to make. Do I apply for a new role within the company? Or not?

This gave me the opportunity to really test my ability to make decisions. I failed massively at over thinking it, spending 3 days arguing with myself over every little detail. I ended up overthinking so much I dreamt about the decision, and it's outcome, and as a result didn't get much sleep last week. I talked to a few different people to get their views and opinions on what the right decision was, and took on board their comments. But annoyingly no one would make the decision for me.

Amazingly though, I woke up on Friday morning feeling very relaxed and calm, something that I hadn't felt all week. And I'd made a decision.

I was so proud of myself for coming to a decision, and I knew it was the right thing to do for me. I went to work and told people the decision I'd come to and I didn't start to re-question it. Definite progress! Let's hope I can keep this up.

I’ve also tried this week to continue with my #ILoveMyselfBecause tweet challenge, but from Thursday I must admit I forgot about tweeting it. This week at work was a bit overwhelming and I just completely forgot about it. I'm still finding this challenge hard, I can't think of a new reason every day as to why I love myself. But I'm persevering.

Monday - #ILoveMyselfBecause it’s 7am & I’ve already been for a run & showered. I’m normally still in bed.

Tuesday - #ILoveMyselfBecause I am good at finding nice restaurants to eat at.

Wednesday - #ILoveMyselfBecause I try my hardest to do what is right all the time.

Thursday - #ILoveMyselfBecause I’ve found something I love to do. Dance. And it’s a brilliant distraction from the world.

Friday - #ILoveMyselfBecause I woke up knowing that I’d made the right decision.

Saturday - #ILoveMyselfBecause my hair is in good condition (felt so proud when my hairdresser told me).

Sunday - #ILoveMyselfBecause I'm the expert popcorn maker in my relationship.

This week I'm off to a colour me beautiful event. I'm not quite sure what to expect as it's an event through work, but I'm hoping to learn some tips on style and colours that suit me. I tend to dress in a very smart-casual style that covers the body bits I don't like, and is comfortable. But maybe I'll be able to find stuff that suits me better and build by confidence? We'll see how it goes.

Sarah x

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