Potential ingredients for personal victory include:

- We have done our absolute best

- Actions are taken consistent with core values like truth, integrity and mutual respect

- No one wins unless everyone wins

- A clear conscience

- We did not shrink from difficulty

- The basis for everything is unconditional love.

How well do these criteria describe victory for you?  What else would you add?  What would you delete or change?  Are these elements directly applicable to your everyday life?

Yep, February 14th is rapidly approaching. A time to celebrate romance . . . and a time to LOVE YOURSELF!

Anthropologist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said, “The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others, but ourselves as well.”

Unconditional love . . . a fascinating and often elusive ideal. It flies in the face of loving someone else or oneself as a REWARD for being “acceptable.” You just get to love yourself completely with no reasons or justifications . . . just because you exist.

If unconditional love is possible for anyone (and I believe it’s possible for everyone), maybe it’s for our ourselves because we alone know both our “failings” as well as our “noble intentions.”

What are the implications of unconditional love . . . just for today . . . to love yourself unconditionally? Has that been difficult? Do you consider it even possible? What are the practical effects of this kind of COMPLETE SELF-LOVE? Why does this matter?

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.

This is Valentine’s Week, and we are drawn to thinking about hearts and chocolates and romance. A good time to consider our topic for this week: LOVING YOURSELF.

It’s been said that you can’t truly love another until you love yourself. We live in a culture that constantly engages us in comparison to images of perfect people living perfect lives. In a way, self-loathing is an integral part of consumer marketing.

The message is something like: “You can only be loved / lovable if you are like these perfect people . . . and you can fix what’s wrong with you and your life by buying our products.”

Living in that environment of conditional love, we have found it tough to be tender, kind and forgiving to ourselves. We often hear people say that they are extremely hard on themselves.

Karl Jung said, “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”
This year, how about a Valentine’s Day for you, too, as well as your loved ones?

What would that day look like? How could you make a clear expression of love for yourself this February 14th? What would you do? What would you not do?

Copyright 2009. E. B. Hutt Bush and Coaching for Results, Inc.