Bring Order And Harmony To Yourself: 10 Tips To Embrace Self-Sufficiency
Being a self-sufficient person is an excellent way to bring more order into your life. When you are self-sufficient, you do not depend on anyone else to provide happiness, security, or satisfaction for you – instead, you provide those things for yourself.
Even if you are not a particularly self-sufficient person, you can learn to grow this quality within yourself. Consider these ten tips to embrace a more self-sufficient life.
Tip 1: Emphasize the fact that you can trust yourself to do the right thing and make good choices.
Self-sufficiency is a mindset. In order to embrace this mindset, make sure you are regularly emphasizing to yourself that you can absolutely trust yourself to do the right thing and make good choices every day.
As you repeat this idea to yourself more and more, you will begin to accept it as reality. To do this, you may create a mantra you can easily repeat to yourself each day, such as:
- I can handle anything life throws my way.
- I have the power to make good choices.
- I am capable of doing the right thing.
- I can take good care of myself.
- …and many more!
Mantras can be unique to you and your thoughts. Choose one that resonates with you and your goal, and then use it often.
Tip 2: When you do something well, celebrate it.
Celebrating yourself and giving yourself kudos for doing something well is a positive type of reward. Whenever you say kind things to yourself, you accept this as a sort of reward. In order to keep getting those rewards, you will continue the behaviors that lead to them.
To do this, make sure you are recognizing and celebrating times when you do something well for yourself. As you begin your journey to self-sufficiency, this may be even a small or simple thing you do well, but it does not matter. No matter how big or small, celebrate it.
Tip 3: Practice doing some things for yourself that you would normally depend on someone else to do for you.
If you normally do a particular activity only when someone else can help you, try doing it for yourself. As you begin to engage with self-sufficiency, you can identify these activities or events in your life that you would normally require someone else to either help you with or do for you.
For example, if you do not like to order your own food at a restaurant, practice by going alone or calling a takeout order for yourself. Give yourself more opportunities to engage in these activities alone to build more confidence in your ability to be self-sufficient.
Tip 4: Reserve some aspects of your life for only yourself to enjoy.
Find some parts of your life you enjoy – perhaps a hobby or a good TV show – and reserve them as something to enjoy alone. Finding pleasure in an activity that you are not sharing with other people creates a sense of satisfaction with yourself that does not require another person’s presence to enjoy.
Tip 5: Plan more outings alone.
Practice doing things alone. For example, try going to see a movie or grabbing lunch at a favorite restaurant by yourself. If you find yourself rearranging your schedule or canceling plans because a friend cannot go with you, give yourself a chance to try it independently to further embrace self-sufficiency.
Tip 6: Practice learning new, useful skills.
Learning new skills to be more self-sufficient is a great way to embrace the concept of self-sufficiency. For example, learning how to cook new dishes or sew are great ways to be a more self-sufficient person – rather than depending on someone else to cook or sew for you, you can tackle these tasks on your own. Knowing you have the power to do these types of skills yourself is a huge boost to your feelings of self-sufficiency.
Tip 7: Do things that boost your self-esteem.
Having a higher sense of self-esteem can make it easier to trust yourself and be more self-sufficient. Do what you need to do to feel good about yourself. Compliment yourself, dress the way you like, embrace your strengths, and use kind words with yourself. When your self-esteem is higher, it is much easier to trust yourself to be more self-sufficient.
Tip 8: Stop looking to other people for permission to do things or make choices.
Do you enjoy having validation from a friend before making a decision? The next time you find yourself seeking opinions from friends or family before making a choice, pause and ask yourself why you are asking them first.
If you feel like you need permission from someone else to do things or make choices in your life, consider if you are too dependent on them and if their opinions directly affect the way you approach your life. If so, practice formulating your own opinions first before asking others for their thoughts.
Tip 9: Get to the root of why you feel like you depend on other people.
Anytime you find yourself struggling to conquer something in life, there are often some deep, underlying causes to why you are experiencing that particular hardship. If you struggle to be self-sufficient, there may be some root causes of why you depend heavily on others.
Take some time to really explore your feelings and get to the bottom of why you feel like you depend heavily on other people. Taking time to learn more about these feelings and why they are a part of your life is a major step toward conquering them for good.
Tip 10: Get comfortable with saying the word “no.”
Saying “no” is a big part of being self-sufficient. If you constantly say “yes” to what other people want from you, it can be a challenge to control how you are spending your time. Protect yourself by setting boundaries and telling people “no” when you need to do it.
