How to feel good enough (and teach your kids how to feel good enough)

Posted by Karen Degen on 10th December 2012

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Not feeling like you are good enough is at the root of many issues.  It can seriously hold you back in life, impacting on your happiness and success.  There are a number of ways we can seek to change this belief and I’m going to share one of those with you now.

One of the things I do whenever I succeed, achieve something significant or do really well, is first of all feel proud of myself.  It’s most definitely OK to feel good about yourself.  At the same time as feeling good however, I also tell myself “even if you hadn’t achieved that you would still be good enough”.  What I’m doing is programming my brain to feel good enough anyway, whether I’ve been successful or not.  This sets me up nicely for next time I make a mistake, fail or fall short in any way.  When that happens (and it will) I can feel good enough anyway because my sense of self worth is not tied up in what I’ve done or how well I’ve done it.

It’s an absolutely amazing thing to do with your children and sets them up with a good sense of self worth for life.  Whenever they win a race or get a good mark at school or make something awesome at art give them a hug and tell them how proud you are of them, but then tell them “even if you hadn’t done that you’d still be good enough and I’d still be proud of you and love you just as much”.   Next time they lose or don’t do well they will still feel good enough.