Bullet Proofing Your Self Concept

Your self concept can either make or break your prosperity plan. In order to prosper, you'll find yourself pushed in directions that you never expected and challenged in ways that require ever more confidence and resilience.

We all need self love so that we can be sure, if necessary, that we can defend ourselves against failure and start in another direction if necessary. This requires that we learn to be our own heros with a deep well of faith in ourselves and a habit of not beating ourselves up for dreams that might not come true.

Here are some tips for developing a positive self concept that have worked in my own life:

Surround yourself with people who show love and respect for you and discard the rest of them - guilt free.

True love means wanting for a person what that person wants for him or herself. If you what you want for a person, you are not loving that person, you are loving yourself through that person.

If you have religious or other emotional concerns about how to get toxic people out of your life, read the following books:

If you need more of a deeper probing into your guilt and emotional suffering after reading these books, seek a therapist -- but make sure the therapists that you talk to are experienced in evaluating the worth of your existing relationships.

So many therapists tend to focus on how to fix you so that you can adjust to whatever environment fate has dealt you.

You need to know whether you should be in that environment in the first place, and you have to be able to explore all aspects of that issue with confidence that you will receive unbiased feedback.

Immerse yourself in hobbies and other things that you enjoy. Devote time each day to making yourself happy, by doing things like going to the movies, theatre, dancing, sporting events, favorite restaurants -- anything that gives you a sense of enjoyment.

There were days when I worked long hours, but I always took the time to take a walk down by the Hudson River in downtown New York. The water always looked like aluminum paper layered on top of millions of grilling ridges. Those were my introspective moments that took me away from the self-criticism and the stress. Take time like this to appreciate beautiful things like this.

Build a positive inner voice. Self-image

Notice how you talk to yourself and try to recognize where the voices come from. Read my Staying the Course article, where I discuss the types of horizontal and verbal messaging that harm your self concept and limit your ability to accomplish your goals.

Also, read the book Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin Seligman. See whether you can import the principles set out there into your own life before and during your exploration of the millionaire mindset. Make it fun, though. Go through your learning curves and don't expect it all to happen at once.

Pay attention to exercise, diet and sleep. Be good to your body by nourishing yourself properly and exercising regularly (get a checkup, though, if you are planning on starting exercises that will elevate your heart rate). The endorphins released into your body during strenuous exercise are amazing and perpetuate a feeling of being at peace with yourself, like alcohol with no hangover in the morning or undue stress on your internal organs.

Indulge in pleasure travel. Take trips to your favorite vacation places or pamper yourself at your local resort or day spa.

Don’t let your spending get out of control, but stay in an environment pleasing enough that it will make you feel special. There are many cheap flight search engines and discount hotel websites that can get you to any idyllic location you can imagine on a budget.

Send out postcards to everyone you know showcasing yourself having a great time! Those feeling will filter through you.

While traveling, put yourself into the middle of lively activity with other people whose carefree feelings will rub off on you.

Don’t give yourself a hard time if you feel like you are not as carefree as the other people around you. Think of it this way – in life, a lot of joyous behavior is engaged in to shake off the blues, not necessarily to reflect the way people actually feel. Join in on the fun on that basis, if on no other.

To find out more about Planet Wealth Travel: converting pleasure travel into prosperity, go here.

Don’t rely on psychotherapy and anti-depression medication. If you feel the urge to talk through a problem with a professional, by all means use your insurance and go for it.

The quality of mental health professionals out there runs the gamut. Finding the one that is going to cause you to love yourself is like trying to find an imbalanced roulette wheel to exploit.

The casino will have replaced its roulette wheel by the time you decide what stacked numbers to bet on, just as your quest for self love will have run out of steam (and possibly insurance!)

Psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers don’t have all of the answers. Even the smartest doctors will try to weasel out of the chore of identifying why your self concept is so damaged by medicating you. Once medicated, you won’t care to explore your problems anymore. But the problems will come back once you are taken off the meds.

The Secret Is Unlocked! Now you know how your self-concept relates to wealth creation. You probably thought that you could live with a poor self concept without too much trouble. You may not have thought that a positive self concept was part of the millionaire mindset. That is the secret that has been kept from you.

Now you know why we dance and laugh and slide down banisters and sleigh ride and dive head first into lakes that are just a little too cold. It is not just to kill the time. It is because it makes us feel "light," and that puts us in a space of positive energy where our self concept can thrive and we can align ourselves with prosperity and abundance. Self-love puts you in that great space in your mind so that you can more effortlessly draw more and more of the things that you want toward you.