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Manifest your Magnificence

Are you self-deprecating? When someone gives you a compliment do you smile & say “thank you” or do you negate it all, with off- the-cuff negative comments like: “it’s nothing”, or “that old thing, I have it ages”. Do you realise that you are putting yourself down & insulting the person who took the time to notice & compliment you on something that struck a chord with them? No matter what you feel, an acknowledgement of their appreciation of you is called for, the best way to do that is to simply say “Thank You”, with a smile. I remember when I was about eighteen, was starting to go to discos (night clubs to you younger readers), talking to my mother one

day about it. I was complaining about being asked up to dance by someone who I didn’t like, she asked what I did, so I told her I’d refused him, told him I didn’t dance. Well, to say she took a few strips off me is putting it politely According to her this poor guy had to pluck up the courage to cross the room to ask me to dance, then had to brave the stares of my friends, some derisive, others curious, then actually ask me, then suffer the embarrassment of a refusal, walk back to his pals some of whom also laughed at him. At the time I didn’t see a young man who thought I was attractive enough to take a chance on,who manifested a magnificence within himself to overcome his trepidation & take that chance, I saw someone who reflected all I hated about myself at that time: self-consciousness, awkwardness, trepidation & fear & I didn’t want to be associated with it. My mother’s view-point on the whole event changed my outlook, she told me to imagine someone doing that to me, from then I stopped refusing dances when asked. It takes a lot of courage for someone to do it, they are putting themselves out there, they are finding something within themselves & offering to share it with you, be it a compliment, holding a door open for you, smiling at you or asking you to dance with them.

So how do you manifest your magnificence? What are you good at, really, really good at? Become really good at something, anything & transfer the method of being really brilliant at that one thing into everything that you do. Do you put your best effort into everything that you do? Or do you like a lot of people start off with the best of intentions, then lose steam as you go along & cut corners? Do you greet the day with joy (go back two posts, read Jumpstart your Joy)? Think back to when you woke up this morning, what did you say to yourself just before you got out of bed? Was it positive or negative, did you use possibility words like can, may, will or necessity words like: must, should, have to? Do you believe in yourself, do you acknowledge & reward all your achievements? Do you look at others with envy, resentment & be-little their achievements, even in your mind? Or do you wonder at how they do it & consider asking them for advice so you can achieve a similar success. Are you trying to do it alone? Do you feel you can’t ask for help? If so, why-ever not? You don’t go to school & teach yourself, you don’t start a new job that you’ve never done before a hit the ground running, you have to ask lots of questions to find out how to do it properly, so why not ask for help now? Takethat inner doubt or fear, cast it aside, find the brave part of yourself that overcomes those

fears &doubts & ask for help. Other people are simply waiting for a chance to manifest their own magnificence by helping. all they need is someone to ask them. So kill two birds with one stone, dig deep inside yourself to do something you wouldn’t usually do, also by asking for help let someone else shine with you.

Anything that is negatively based is taking from your magnificence. The brilliant you that you are dulling with negative thoughts, actions or words. When you put off doing things because of procrastination instead of just doing it also takes from your magnificence. We all have choices, we can choose to be mediocre in our world or we can choose to be magnificent. Which will you choose?