Self-Love – Day 12 – Dedication

Dedication is the work you put in when no one is watching. 

Your dedication tells a story about your self-love. Think about the things that you are dedicated to, based on the definition above. Is it a clean house or self-development? Making sure your family is safe and cared for?

What if everything that you are dedicated to tells a story about your self-love?

Think about that for a moment. 

When we think of our goals, desires and habits, how many of those revolve around other people? Chances are, it’s lots. In which case, we can be prone to selflessness when it comes to our dedication to these tasks. 

And that is what we are looking at today. 

Recognizing the importance of “self” and self-love in your dedicated pursuits. 

Why would we do that?

Isn’t it noble to dedicate your actions to others?

It is, but not to the detriment of yourself….which is where the philosophy breaks down. We need energy to fuel our actions. If we constantly give away more energy than we accumulate…guess what happens??

So how do we dedicate ourselves to helping others in a way that fuels us?

The concept is simple, but it’s application is not so easy. 

1. Pencil – jot down the top pursuits that have your full dedication.
2. Percentages – What percent of these are about others? (bearing in mind that serving and helping others makes us feel good, but it’s still about others because it is not a solely self-centered project)
3. Compare and Contrast – Split the dominant other’s and dominant self pursuits. Then look at them individually below
4. Feel – How do you feel after you do these things? Checkout your energy levels. Do you have more or less after a day of dedicated work? Or even a few hours? For example, one of mine is exercise and nutrition – yep it’s just for me and I feel great after a workout or a nutritious meal.
5. Why? If you have more energy….. What elements are key to how you feel? If not, same question. Also look at times when you may have more or less depending on the day. Which way is the scale tipped?
6. Where? Where does the energy come from? Does it feel like a sense of completion? How about an excitement about the kind of work you are doing? How about from a sense of connection with those around you? These answers will tell us what drives you to do these things in the first place.
7. How? How does it mesh with your WHY…your purpose in life. You know the one…that gets you out of bed in the morning. 
8. What? What will you do about the ones that rob your energy? In the long run, the things that only serve others will deplete us. If we do choose to keep doing these things, then what will we do to help keep our energy up?

Now, where you go with all of this information is up to you. But one final thought – Self-love requires honesty. When we are honest about the elements that make up our lives, especially the things we are dedicated to, then we can make the changes that will be beneficial to us in the long run. And that is the ultimate action of self-love!

Give yourself a little love today!