who are we? [Under editing]

Chapter 8:Appreciating ourselves.

In this chapter I want us to look at this importance of appreciating ourselves and the milestones that we make in life. It can be so easy for us to always congratulate others for their success as well as their achievements, and obviously this is not a bad thing and if anything it very beautiful for one to be able to celebrate others and their achievements in life especially when we ourselves do not have anything in our lives that we feel is worthy of being celebrated or appreciated, however we need not forget our own achievements and our milestones because this often leads to us feeling like we are stuck or even like we are not moving at a fast enough pace.

Appreciating ourselves involves us being able to look back and reflect on our achievements and realizing that we have been able to achieve great things, despite popular belief waking up every morning despite this being a blessing is on its own an achievement and thus something that is worthy of appreciation.

It probably seems like insanity to celebrate something as minor as waking up and getting out of bed, but when we realize that there have been days when we did not feel like getting up and we did not feel lie facing the world then we start to appreciate why being able to do even this is something that is worth celebrating and appreciating.

Often we measure our achievements based on an unrealistic scale, we would rather appreciate our achievements when they are as big as something like world peace or ending child labor, and anything that does not amount to that is something that we often feel is not worth any celebration or achievement which truly is unfortunate because this alone shows that we tend to judge ourselves and our achievements far greater than we should.

The reality of the matter hear is truly simple, and that is that not all of us will become nor be celebrated like Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Nelson Mandela,Siya Kolisi or Martin Luther King Jr, but the reality of the matter is also that all of us are responsible for celebrating ourselves and our achievements, all of us have the responsibility of looking at ourselves and our achievements and saying to ourselves "well done, you did remarkably" we do not have to wait for the world to celebrate us or acknowledge our achievements in order for us to do this.

Appreciating ourselves and our achievements requires that we understand that we are indeed great, no matter how small our achievements may sometimes feel, it requires us to understand that all we have achieved is enough, that we are enough, it requires that we look at ourselves in the mirror and acknowledge that we have achieved things that we had only dreamt about a few years ago.

When we learn to appreciate ourselves as well as our achievements and celebrate these achievements then we are closer to realizing our true value and the value of the things that we have managed to achieve, despite what the world tells us and what the world requires of us, what we do on a daily basis and the things that we do that are outside of the ordinary are worthy of celebration and that celebration and appreciation begins with us.