The Exercise Which Shifted My Being

During my Be With Session with Steve Hardison (i.e The Ultimate Coach) on the 17th December 2021, he gave me an exercise right at the end of the session that I committed to doing. My commitment means I am going to do it. No matter what.

Steve asked me to take a legal pad and completely fill it with statements of what I acknowledge myself for on my flight home. We had started the process in his office but he really wanted me to get the point he was making. He told me he had spent a whole session with another client just listening to him acknowledge himself. Just the 15 minutes we had spent doing this was shifting something for me so spending much longer with this exercise was going to be interesting.

Maybe in part, it’s being born and brought up in the U.K. Culturally we don’t like to blow our own trumpet, show off or even acknowledge what we are great at. Perhaps it’s partly my Indian heritage or maybe it’s something else entirely. I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter. I’ve held back from truly owning my greatness, thinking it would be arrogance. I’ve dialled myself down for my whole life and even whilst this has shifted massively over the past 20 years, I know I have still brushed off compliments I get.

Steve Hardison helped me to see that my being overly humble was me not loving God’s creation. Wow. What a complete mind shift. He did an exercise with a box of chocolates that I will never forget and I may post about that separately. I wasn’t accepting other people’s acknowledgements and I wasn’t acknowledging myself. I have been a planet masquerading as a satellite.

I spent 4 hours on the flight home writing, writing and writing some more. After 4 hours, my hand felt like it was going to fall off and I needed a break. I hadn’t even filled up half the pad but something had shifted in me. I knew I could stop there but I had committed to filling the pad.

I get home and the following day I continue filling the pad up with acknowledgements to myself. Every day I find more things to acknowledge myself for both personally and professionally. These are real acknowledgements and I am shocked at how much I am writing.

I start to notice I am acting differently. I am less reactive with my wife, less defensive if she says something I might have interpreted as criticism. I realise that my self-esteem has been strengthened through this exercise. In the few professional conversations I had last week, I am showing up differently. It’s like the volume has been dialled way up.

Due to my contracting Covid this exercise took longer than planned but last night I filled the pad and I realised I could have written more. I messaged Steve Hardison and thanked him for requesting that I do the exercise because of how much of an internal shift it has generated in me. I’m now way more open to accepting acknowledgements. I’m less reactive to criticism. My self-esteem has risen. I am BEING a different man and human than a couple of weeks ago. I am UNLEASHED!