Hi Reader!

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How are you doing?

I'm back, I recovered from surgery, and I'm ready to get to work! 😤

There was a part one to this email (you can read it here) and now I'd like to share part 2.

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Honestly, we’re about halfway through the year and it’s time to step things up.

We all know how important it is to have confidence + good self-esteem.

It includes beliefs about how skilled we are, how capable we are, plus whether we are likeable.

It affects every area of your life.

ESPECIALLY creative projects where you're relying on your own self to fuel them.

And relying on your confidence to pull you into new opportunities.

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Back in May, I was trialling a CBT exercise I first read in a book about 10 years ago.

(I'm not going to share the book. Because I just looked it up and it's now turned into a MLM life coaching scam 😃)

I remembered it working very well when I tried it previously.

And what I established - it still works! (The exercise, not the scam).

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Through this, I was able to start painting again and making more videos again.

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I’m about to share exactly what to do to have higher self-esteem.

Disclaimer first though. It gets repetitive and boring after a while 😅

But if you end up dropping it, it honestly doesn't matter.

Because it works with short-term experiences, you can just start doing it again whenever.

And using this, you can completely transform your self-esteem in about two weeks.

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Part 1: Mindset

Before we get into the method, we have to switch our perspective.

And understand that beliefs you have about yourself are NOT a reflection of reality.

Your friends, colleagues etc. definitely see you with less judgement than you see yourself.

By processing your recent experiences differently, you can CHANGE your perspective.

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Not enough people know that your self-esteem is NOT based on the summary of your life achievements so far.

It is actually formed from your most recent experiences (over a week or two)

and crucially, how you felt about those experiences.

Which does make a lot of sense, right?

It can change drastically from week to week depending on what you did, who was nice to you, who wasn’t nice to you...

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Part 2: Method

The basic idea of this is to pick experiences from the past couple of weeks that made you feel good about yourself.

And think about them. A lot.

Pick 3 and write down:

• What was the experience?
• How did it make you feel?
• What does it say about you as a person?
• What would you say to a friend who had the same experience?

e.g.

A client praised me on a good bit of work I did. This made me feel proud and confident in my skills.

This shows I am skilled at my work, I’m intelligent, I’m a good problem-solver, I’m creative, etc.

To a friend I would say: that’s great, you deserve recognition for your hard work!

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Now repeat that until you have a list of 10 things. (No need to write loads of detail after the first 3).

Summarise them into a few words and put the list in your notes app.

If you can’t think of anything, try and think smaller.

It could be like "a stranger greeted me in the street"

or "I played with my dog"

or "I found a great birthday gift for a friend".

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Part 3: Practice

Set a reminder on your phone to look at this list at least 3 times a day.

And spend a few mintues remembering each experience.

Really feeling and appreciating how each one shows good things about you.

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When you have a new positive experience, you can add it to the bottom of your list and delete the oldest thing off the top.

Doesn't matter whether that's three new things a day, or just one per week.

By the time "helped old lady in the supermarket" has made its way to the top of your list, you've probably thought about it at least 20 times.

It will be cemented in your memory as a good experience.

Your mind will be filled with thoughts about how kind, helpful, successful etc. you are.

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I'll be honest, it's really difficult to stick with this in the long term.

(I haven't done it in over a month 🤐)

No matter, you can just pick it up again whenever you want.

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Once you have more confidence in yourself, it translates over to:

• starting/carrying on projects more easily
• an easier time facing difficulties and failures
• more ease with networking and chatting with people
• less fear and doubt when marketing/selling your stuff
• more bravery in trying new things

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Let me know if you try this, did you like it?

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Much love,

Damon

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🌱 Stuff I'm Doing Recently 🌱

July Week #3

(Links with an * are affiliate)

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Find me on: My Website | Instagram | TikTok | LinkedIn​

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