Many of us let other people’s and our own perceptions dictate our self-worth. Others of us let these same beliefs decide our skills, attributes and capabilites. Too often these perceptions are negative and we don’t become our extraordinary selves.

Each of us is truly unique with unique talents and attributes. We all need to shed our negative thought patterns and learn to take back our own power and appreciate what we have to offer others,  relationslhips, our families, our careers and our communities.

Diana Rivenburgh discusses these ideas and gives personal examples of how she achieved success. Watch her interview here.

For those of us who experienced childhood trauma such as being abondoned by our natural parents in some way, life can be confusing.

We may be confused about who we are. Our thoughts are, if our own parents didn’t love us, how good can we be? We can’t be worth much.  We must be bad, unlovable, weird and/or different and on and on to ad nauseam. But the truth is that we need to understand and appreciate our true value. We are who we are and that’s good enough. That’s not to say there isn’t room for self-improvement, there always is, however, it’s not a good idea to reject the whole “package” because of a few flaws. And it certainly isn’t a good idea to do that if the rejection came on the part of people who either didn’t or couldn’t appreciate us; or if they had insurmountable problems of their own.

In her book, Tap Water Girl in a Bottled Water World, Dr. Shirley Garrett explains this concept beautifully and how she came to appreciate her own worth.  Watch my interview with her for some insights and then go pick up a copy of her delightful book.