Blowing your own trumpet? Good or bad?
What does this mean? It refers to boasting about your own achievements. You may have been told from an early age not to boast, not to blow your own trumpet and of course, it is NOT GOOD TO BOAST! But read on…
However, it is good to recognise your own achievements, remind yourself of them and be proud to speak of them.
The phrase ‘blow your own trumpet’ dates back to around the 16th Century when, in medieval times, trumpets were blown to announce the arrival of the king and when merchants arrived they had to blow their own trumpet to announce their arrival.
So why am I talking about this today? Because through this blog I want to remind you NOT to boast but to acknowledge your achievements. Doing this is a form of self-care. It also builds resilience.
If you have been following my YouTube videos you will already know the importance of resilience and how through creativity you can build resilience.
At this point, I am going to remind myself and you, my wonderful readers and followers, of my achievements in directing you to my book Changing Seasons of Life: Your Creative Journal – you can buy a signed copy from my website. Why do I remind you? Because it can be your journal. Again if you have been following my live videos you will know the benefits of journaling and having an achievement board beside you that reminds you of what you have achieved.
Writing in a journal or diary does not mean writing at length but writing down what you have accomplished. Take a break each day to think about what you have achieved. It can be tasks that you have completed. You can use my Changing Seasons of Life pages where you write down your ‘to do’ list which includes not just work tasks, or physical tasks but also what you are going to do to improve your emotional, psychological, mental, and overall well-being.
You can divide the blank pages in my book into 3 columns, one is your ‘to do’ list’; one is your ‘done’ list and in the third column write a few words about what went well and how satisfying did it make you feel.
You may already do this exercise for work projects but I am asking you to do the same for your well-being. If you do not look after yourself and undertake self-care, then you will find it challenging to do or complete work tasks.
I often tell you not to focus on the past but I also talk about facing challenges and if you do not learn lessons from these challenges then more come along, even harder than before, to teach you a lesson.
Look back on your life and think about things that have happened to you that you thought were challenging, even bad. Did you learn from these? Or did you face even worse challenges? Read more about this in my book Resilience and Courage: The Key to Endurance
You are not alone. I have faced many difficult challenges and when I did not learn a lesson, another challenge came along even worse than the last. However, what I did eventually learn was that when I saw challenges as opportunities these very challenges became my greatest strengths.
Of course, what could be better is to try to avoid or prevent bad things from happening. So here are some tips. Ask yourself these questions:
- Is this challenge a bad thing or can I turn it into an opportunity?
- What can I do to turn it into an opportunity?
- What lesson can I learn?
By working through these questions you will discover how powerful it is as you are taking control.
You can use these tips in the workplace or in life in general.
I hope you are using my ABC regularly and for today’s blog do this:
A – I turn challenges into opportunities
B – breathe in deeply through your nose from the diaphragm to the count of 3, hold for 3 and exhale through the mouth to the count of 3
C – use your creative imagination, using all your senses, to imagine that challenge as an opportunity, or that difficult task already completed.
Before I sign-off I will be announcing something really exciting soon – so Join my community to be the first to hear my news.
For now, remember my two trademark tips – smile and laugh, they cost you nothing,
Virtual hugs to you all.
Patricia x
