Are you selling yourself well? Are you well packaged? Have you ever assessed yourself, even for the fun of it? What are your positive points and what are your negative points? Asking of all these questions could end up increasing your business and social success.

Begin by jotting down your points. Make a self-image inventory. This will give you a better picture of your own self. Then comes the second part: the need to focus on, and change the parts that you do not like about yourself. These are normally acquired habits that can be changed with a small dose of will power but being consciously and constantly aware of them is the beginning. You are perhaps letting memories of past short comings influence you. Become aware of this fact and whenever these memories raise their head, remind yourself that you can manage better now and picture alongside it the correct and more positive action that you would do if the situation rose again. It is practical philosophy that we cannot control every situation or person but we can certainly control our own thoughts and actions.

The approach that works best to improve one’s self-image is that of Positive Thought Strategies. Here are some pointers:

• Do you exaggerate? Do you think in extremes term about everything? Correct your internal voice.
• Don’t allow negative thoughts to take hold. Stop them before they can influence your conscious actions.
• Accentuate the positive. There is always a positive side. Force yourself to look for it.
• Feel comfortable with yourself. We all have strong points and weak points. So have others. Accept this and develop a strategy where you use the strong attributes to overshadow the negative ones.
• Replace criticism with encouragement. Talk to yourself as a counselor. Why berate yourself? A lot of people tend to continuously nag themselves and in extension others too. They are doing themselves no good. This is not how things change. Be cool and impassively dissect the situation and learn from it. But stop here! Don’t carry it forward. ‘If’ and ‘but’ and ‘perhaps’ wont help you to go farther.
• You are not running the world. Are you? Then don’t feel responsible for everything. Take a back seat. Enjoy the scenery.
• Don’t allow others to manipulate you. Observe how the words of others influence your own feelings and thoughts. Before you jump to any conclusions, analyze the words and situations you are confronted with. The ‘Whys’ and ‘wherefores’ of motives when seen from every angle, selfish and altruistic, can be very illuminating. Others are not angels. Their motives can often be questionable, and understanding this is important to keep one’s view of oneself balanced. On the other hand, don’t see negative motives in everything and everyone. Good and sincere people tend to be direct, scathing and blunt. Often their directness can hurt but these situations should be used as positive building blocks to form the new self-image more to your liking.
• Forgive and forget. This is good therapy and will show in your image.

Begin now. Go to a corner by yourself. Meditate and put his line of thought and action into practice. Let the garden
bloom.