Being proud is all about celebrating our wins and being proud of our achievements, because we don't do that. In Australia particularly have been brought up with something called the tall poppy syndrome, that is a group consciousness that we've been given since we were little kids that says, if you do something great, you don't want to tell anyone or share that greatness because other people are going to pull you down because of that achievement.
At school we were taught that the smart people were nerds. It was the smart people doing great things who were ridiculed and mocked and bullied. So we have this culture within us, from very early on in our lives, that if you're doing something really great or if you're winning or you're being amazing at something, then you've got to hide the fact and not promote it to the world. Which is really unfortunate because that's not healthy for any of us. Imagine striving for something and achieving it, then not being able to share it with anybody and just going yeah okay well, I've done that, what’s next.
To a degree that's what happened with my book, once I wrote it I wanted to get it out there so I had to do the marketing and I had to build a website. Can you hear those “had to’s?”
And that's what happens so often in our lives, we achieve something amazing or something that's important to us and we don't take the time to celebrate it. So Proud Pearl is all about bringing that celebration into your life regardless of how small a thing you've done or achieved. It's about you taking the time to stop and recognise “Oh, I did that”.
Just take a moment and say, “I am the best at that and I am so grateful and happy that I did that today, because I feel amazing”. And when we do that, it allows us to feel joy. You know the joy that we're striving for in our Change Journey’s? Stopping and feeling proud of an achievement also tells the universe that you want more of that, more success, more happy moments.
In our lives we're so busy looking forward; we've got plans and goals and we're looking forward to what's next. But sometimes, it's really important to just stop, turn around and look at what you've just achieved and how far you've come. Especially on your Change Journey, because sometimes it can feel like you're walking up this really steep mountain, and you've got all these massive boulders that you have to get around when in actual fact if you just stopped and turned around to look to see how far you've actually come, that you’ve already climbed a fair way up the mountain, the rest doesn't seem so hard or insurmountable.
So that's what Proud Pearl is all about… celebrating your wins, looking back, looking at your achievements and going from there.
I invite you to look back on your life however far you wish, because I'm sure that there will be 1,000’s of things that you've actually achieved that you haven't properly acknowledged, celebrated or allowed yourself to be proud of. I'd really like you to take the time to do that because you will feel so amazing and it will really renew your energy and your joy, and it will help you to continue further on your Change Journey.
Now I just used the story of my book how I didn't do celebrate after I’d finished writing it. But in essence, it was then having the awareness that I didn't do it that allowed me to stop and do it at a later date with even more pride and celebration. I actually ended up spending a good couple of days basking in the glow and really enjoying the fact I had just written the book, and that gave me the energy to keep going with all the things that I had to do, rather than them being tasks or chores that felt heavy and hard because I hadn't allowed myself the time to celebrate.