When is the last time you heard—and I mean REALLY heard—a compliment?

It feels as though this society, in its false guise of praising modesty, has turned us blind and deaf to our own accomplishments and to the honest praise that they earn. But if we don’t appreciate our accomplishments, and don’t hear the tributes that they earn, pretty soon we end up wondering what we are working for. We lose our motivation, our desire. All we have left is self-discipline. And discipline without desire gets stale and old very, very quickly. And eventually, it fails.

I challenge you, this week, to open your eyes and ears and heart and soul and mind to compliments. Compliment yourself. Compliment others, and notice whether they are accepted or not. As uncomfortable as it may be, let yourself take it in. Feel how good it is.

The way you react to failure has an impact on how successful you are. People who are afraid of failure, or see it as a terrible, hideous thing, tend not to take on new projects, learn new skills, or take advantage of opportunities. They play it safe, and stagnate.

Successful people, on the other hand, see failure as simply a result of an experiment. Something didn’t work. So, what will? And then they try something else.

The truth is, failure isn’t bad. It’s the messages you send to yourself that can be a problem.

This week, notice how you consider the possibility of failure as you go through your life. Do you accept it, or do you avoid it? What are the messages you’re telling yourself about failure?

As you go through your life, you–and, of course, your priorities–change. Remember back in high school how important some things were? Things like having a date for the prom, making good grades, or going out for a team. Those things don’t matter quite so much any more. In fact, I haven’t worried about being asked to the prom in decades!

So when you worry and fuss about things that feel important now, ask yourself: will they matter in five or ten years? And if they probably won’t, what are you fussing about?

So often we consider our self-worth and self-esteem to be bound up in how much we accomplish each day. And then when we have one of those inevitable, frustrating days where we just can’t get much done, we feel as though we personally are diminished. And this just makes us feel worse.

The truth is, what we are is not bound up in what we do. And our worth is not based on what we do, but on who we are, and on how we show up in the world. (And I don’t mean appearance-wise, either.)

This week, try to do a bit less, and be a bit more. And enjoy!