Read Your Own Brochure

Do You Have a Confidence Problem?

A very successful motivational speaker named Charles Jarvis was once approached by a young colleague who asked him how to get more speaking invitations. “Is there something wrong with my brochure?” the young man asked. Dr. Jarvis replied, “No. The worst thing you can do is talk to your mother or your grandmother, or read your own brochure.” Jarvis was using humor to convince the young man to improve his speaking skills. There was nothing wrong with his image nor with his self-esteem.

Most of the people I talk to have the opposite problem. Everyone knows a beautiful woman who thinks she’s ugly. Many parents have little or no confidence when speaking to their children. Young people are forevermore doubting their own appeal to their preferred sex. And you middle agers are deathly afraid to apply for a promotion lest you get fired or, even worse, laughed at.

Don’t Spend Another Day of Your Life Discouraged

The How to Feel Toolbox has a powerful technique called “Read Your Own Brochure.” The technique is simple. You wake up in the morning and repeat these words. “I am awesome.” You can vary it to meet your style. “I am wonderful. No one in the world can do what I do.” I do this every single morning of my life. Usually, I do it as I swing my legs off the bed. Sometimes I forget. But as soon as I remember, I recite the words. “I am awesome.” It doesn’t matter to me if I’m astride the porcelain wishing well in midstream. I recite the words: “I am awesome. People need me. There is no one in the world who can do what I can do.”

Other books and websites may call this technique “affirmations.” Whatever. I have to look that word up every time I see it. That’s why I call this technique “Read Your Own Brochure.” Review how awesome you are. You made it to another day. You know more than you knew yesterday. Every day is a new day.

Listen to Yourself

Reading your own brochure is useless unless you believe it. If necessary, make a list of things you can do that no one else in the world can do. This can be a mental list that you never write down, or you can write it on a sheet of paper, a white t-shirt, the car windshield, the bathroom mirror, your Chihuahua. Anything. I would bet you could find a seminar in which people create their own brochures with Microsoft Publisher or something. Whatever you do, make a list that you can believe. Start with something like this (Bullets make it look more official).

• Love my child
• Love my parents
• Care for my wife/husband
• Do my job

There are millions of people in the world who are irreplaceable in the humblest of jobs. You may be one of them. I know that I am. I have a rather humble job. I am an in-home caregiver for a woman with muscular dystrophy. I have been doing this job for ten years. I have adopted techniques for lifting her that it would take another person several months to learn and to develop the muscles for.

I can tell by the way she wiggles her foot whether she has an obstruction in her airway. I can tell by the look in her eyes whether she is in any kind of pain. I can tell by her posture whether her seat cushion is inflated properly.

Yes, of course, I’m lucky. I have the best job in the world. And I’m the best in the world at my job. But I also know that there are millions of people just like me. But how many of those millions are aware of how excellent they are? How many of them are depressed and discouraged? What if they were to read their own brochures?