This is Anne with your Coaching On The Go.

The last couple of weeks I’ve been coaching you on different ways to review something so that you can have a good look at the feedback and data and what you did well, then focus on what has kept you from your highest level of operating.

I’m talking about the fact that 95% of people who are asked report that they are not operating to their full potential.

When you look at a project that’s been completed, or a quarter that’s completed, or a year that you just got the opportunity to complete, there’s so much amazing data there.

You can get caught up in looking at it and decide, “What are a couple of things that I’m willing to try differently this year or do differently this year to not have those same results of resistance?

At the end of the coaching that I did with you over workshops and several weeks of Coaching On The Go, the last thing that’s part of that whole process after you commit to change is engaging in self-compassion.

Today and this week, I’m giving you five lessons about self-compassion and your inner voice.

If you can’t have a beautiful environment that’s safe to play in, you’re going to have a difficult time experimenting and trying things and taking risks.

Today’s lesson is about kindness towards yourself.

Treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding, patience, love, and generosity as you would offer to your best friend.

What would that look like?

A way I like to think about it is, if I had the opportunity to bump into my three-year-old self and know that it’s my three-year-old self, how would I treat that three-year-old?

I would be giving that three-year-old a lot of encouragement to take risks and try things and see what might happen and learn from those things and enjoy that process.

I would be very forgiving with her and encouraging, like a cheerleader.

These are two different ways you can think about it.

How would you treat a stranger?

Someone used to say to me, “I want you to treat yourself as good as you would treat any student that ever comes into your classroom.”

When he said that, I understood the difference between how I treated my students and how I treated myself.

It wasn’t close and it helped me to understand how I get to treat myself.

Self-compassion involves being gentle and supportive towards yourself.

It involves creating an environment, a fertile ground for experimentation and playfulness.

Especially during challenging times, this is important because it’s during the challenges that people often look at themselves and say, “Why didn’t I do better? “Why am I not doing better?

“What am I doing wrong?”

“Why am I continuing to make mistakes?”

When I used to get sick, I would go into an amazing amount of self beat up because I believe that thoughts are things and the disease that you create within your body is from you and your thinking.

I would feel like I made a mistake.

How could I be, after all these years, so unable to stay in balance to the point where I don’t get sick?

Over time, I’ve reframed that.

I’ve softened it to knowing my body is giving me feedback on how fast I get to go. 

What can you do to constantly work on creating the most beautiful, safe, open environment for your life to be free so you’re not the one that’s holding you back from all the things that you want in life?

Today’s message is a lesson of kindness towards yourself.

Treating yourself as kind and generous and patient as you would treat anybody else in the world, like your best friend or a child…a beautiful small child?

Practice that today.

That’s your call to action.

When you notice you are being hard on yourself, what can you do to flip that and be loving, nurturing, kind, and a safe place?

Have a beautiful day.