How full is your joy jar? aka your confidence and self-belief
At the beginning of the year I decided I was going to reinstate my joy jar.
It’s where I note down all the things that bring me joy, no matter how small and put them in the jar. Here’s what it looked like then:
Here’s what it looks like now, 7 months on:
It’s a visual reminder to mitigate the brain’s tendency to remember more of the bad stuff than the good. And you know how much I like to bang on about surrounding yourself with visual reminders to boost your confidence and self-esteem.
Because it truly works.
Just like the ‘Feel Good’ folder I have in outlook. I started it on 14/02/2020 and as of today it has 194 messages in it
I don’t even go back and read the messages. The act of moving emails of praise to the folder helps to reinforce that I am appreciated and competent.
So on the days when I make horrendous, mortifying mistakes, like oversleeping and missing the start time of a course I’m co-facilitating (thank goodness I wasn’t flying solo), I have a growing bank of evidence to prove that I’m not a complete idiot.
Confidence and self-esteem can be grown, it just takes some effort, consistency and time. Even if you don’t believe the awesome things people say about you, save the emails anyway because 194 good versus 1 mistake is pretty good odds.
And a full jar on a shitty day makes it easier to put it behind you.
It’s never too late to get started.
What’s one thing that gave you joy this week?
