The nice thing about egotists is that they don’t talk about other people. ~Lucille S. Harper
I am convinced all of humanity is born with more gifts than we know. Most are born geniuses and just get de-geniused rapidly. ~Buckminster Fuller
I read an article in Heal Your Life by Michelle Phillips called “How Great Are You!” She asks the reader to list twenty great things about ourselves. While we were driving to Moab, I decided I’d try it. How hard could that be. Well, it took me twenty minutes to come up with the list. I didn’t expect it to take that long. I thought I’d whip out a list and have more than enough. I thought I’d at least get to thirty and if I’d wanted to spend another ten minutes to get there I probably could have. 
My point is that I didn’t think I’d have any trouble coming up with all the great things about me but I did. Why? We should be our own best advocates. We should love ourselves more than anyone else does. I think I do but according to my list, I might be slipping on my own advocacy. So I tried another list, on Jim this time to see if I struggled in the same way. I didn’t. It only took me five minutes to come up with a list of twenty. My question is why is it so easy to find the beauty in others and less easy to find in ourselves. Maybe it’s because we’re just not used to patting ourselves on the back. It’s that old feeling of being egotistical. That’s really too bad that we get in our own way by perceiving that thinking of ourselves as wonderful is a character flaw.
I now have my list posted on the stickies on my desktop so I can look at them daily and remind myself. I think I’ll give Jim a list so he can tell me how wonderful I am too. There’s nothing like a little spousal cooperation to assist self esteem. I kind of like this idea. Maybe I’ll send this idea to a marriage counselor to use in their practice. Oh, there is another item for my list – creativity. See how this works. Once you start, you see so much more in yourself. I suggest you read Phillips’ article and try creating your own list. If nothing else it makes you feel pretty darn special for a while.
Now I want to try and make a list too! What fun and how insightful. One thing I used to practice in my marriage (but have fallen out of the habit of doing) is to think and then say one wonderful thing to your spouse at bedtime just before you fall asleep. If I could not think of one particular thing, I often simply said, “Thank you for helping me have a beautiful day.” It is amazing how much good this does for a relationship. And now that I think of it, I could be saying that same thing to myself!! Thanks Missy. I love reading your blog.
Last year, probably on New Year’s as a resolution, Jim and I went to bed saying five things we were grateful for. It was great to do but then we went somewhere for the week-end and forgot to resume the habit. I liked it too. We drifted off to sleep in a grateful state rather than hectic or worried or whatever emotion might have been in the forefront. I do believe it makes a huge difference in a relationship and in our emotional state.