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The Difference Between Self Worth and Self Esteem - The Demartini Show
Episode 1093rd December 2021 • The Demartini Show • Dr John Demartini
00:00:00 00:23:00

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If you want to grow your self-worth, you’d be wise to understand that it is about calming down the extremes of the fluctuating polarities of self-esteem. Learn what fluctuating emotions have to do with self-esteem and the steps you can take to integrate the two polarities of self-esteem that make your self-worth grow and expand.

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Transcripts

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A lot of times you're not appreciating yourself because you're comparing

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yourself to other people. You're not here to compare yourself to others.

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You're here to compare yourself to your own dreams and values.

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The topic today is the difference between self-worth and self-esteem.

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And many times those words are used interchangeably,

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but I'd like to make some distinctions that will be very helpful.

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So if you have something to write with and write on, that'd be great.

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And some practical things I'd like to give with that.

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If you automatically run into to somebody in a mall or at a social

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event,

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and you admire them and you look up to them,

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maybe infatuate with them if they're somebody that might be a potential partner

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in your mind,

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the moment you look up to them in turn,

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you will minimize yourself.

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And this minimization of self

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will be sort of a humbling mechanism to them and intimidating factor looking up

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to them.

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We've all had a situation where we've seen ourselves compare ourselves to other

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people and thought, wow,

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they're more intelligent or they're more business savvy,

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or they're more financially well off,

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or they may be more stable in their relationship,

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or maybe they're more socially connected or physically fit or attractive,

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or maybe inspired or spiritually aware. The moment we compare ourselves to them,

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we put them above equilibrium, we'll tend to put ourselves below equilibrium.

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When we do, we tend to minimize ourselves.

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And that is a lowered self-esteem. We'll feel self depreciated.

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It's not our authentic self, it's a persona,

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mask or facade that we wear when we're comparing ourselves to others and

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exaggerating them and minimizing ourselves. So that's a lowered moment,

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a moment of lowered self-esteem.

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And what's interesting is we can actually walk in the same mall,

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and then see somebody that we think that we have more intelligence or we're

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more successful than, or we have more wealth than them,

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or more social stability or connections or more stable relationship or

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more physically fit or more spiritually aware, and we look down on them.

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And the moment we look down on them and minimize them to some degree and puff

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ourselves up and pride ourselves,

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we then to have elevated self-esteem.

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And so anytime we judge somebody,

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we will end up putting them on a pedestal or pit and in turn,

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put ourselves in the pit or pedestal. So anytime we judge,

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we polarize and subjectively bias our

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interpretation instead of having reflective awareness where the seer,

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you, the seeing, the process, and the seen, them, are the same.

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If we put them in our hearts and don't put them on pedestals and pits,

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we tend to have a authentic state.

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Our self-worth is a reflection of that authenticity.

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So I want you to maybe draw a diagram in yourself.

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And I want you to imagine up in the top, you have elevated self-esteem,

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and then kind of draw a line that goes in and then true self-worth,

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that's the center.

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And then another line that goes down that has lowered self-esteem.

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So you got elevated self-esteem,

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lowered self-esteem and in the middle of true self-worth.

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The true self worth is the authentic you that's not puffed up or deflated.

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Over inflated or deflated. When you're inflated with pride,

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you have a false facade. When you're deflated with shame,

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you have a false facade. Or when you exaggerate or minimize yourself.

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And those are the personas,

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the momentary elation, depression kind of personas that we put on,

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because, that's fickle, it changes,

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it can change with the wind the second we compare ourselves to somebody else.

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And the moment we do, we lose our authenticity.

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Now I'm sure you've had a moment when you've been really, really,

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really infatuated with somebody. And you were so infatuated,

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you feared their loss. And you tend to,

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instead of living by your own highest values,

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you sacrifice what was important to you to fit in with what was important to

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them, because you didn't want to lose them,

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because you're so infatuated you didn't want to lose them.

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You feared their loss.

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So you ended up sacrificing what was important to you temporarily to be with

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them.

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And then you ended up beating yourself up because you're kind of minimizing

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yourself to them and they don't want somebody minimized. They want a match.

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So the moment you do that, you're actually undermining the relationship,

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and you're end up going to build up,

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you're going to build up resentment that you're having to be somebody you're not

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in order to be with them. You want to be loved and appreciated for who you are.

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And whenever you put them on a pedestal and minimize yourself,

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you're not able to be who you are. You know,

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if you want to be loved for who you are,

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how are you going to be loved for who you are when you're not even being who you

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are?

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And many times people are in that situation where they're exaggerating other

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people, putting them on pedestals, minimizing themselves,

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trying to sacrifice themselves altruistically to fit

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for fear of loss of them. And then we ended up minimizing ourselves.

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I always say that anytime you put somebody on a pedestal,

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you'll tend to inject their values into your life. Try to live by their values,

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cloud the clarity of your own highest value,

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your own most important thing in your own life,

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and then you'll end up devaluing yourself. And that's a lowered self-esteem.

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And anytime we compare ourselves to others, we've admired,

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we go through and lower our self-esteem. You know in women sometimes will do,

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particularly women, but men do it too,

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they can go and see a woman that's very beautiful and has certain character

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traits that they admire and then compare themselves and then not appreciate

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their own beauty. And that's, I've seen it. I've watched it happen.

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Somebody's got thicker hair, they've got nicer boobs,

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or they've got nicer figure or something. And then they minimize themselves.

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And then they feel intimidated and introverted. Instead of coming out,

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being who they are around them. Well, this occurs in all areas of life. Again,

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intellectually you could meet somebody you think is more intelligent.

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You can minimize your intelligence and have low self-esteem in your

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intelligence. You could exaggerate business savvy,

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minimize your business accomplishments or their wealth.

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I've seen people that have come in when somebody has got a billion dollars and

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somebody comes in and they got a thousand dollars saved.

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And then they just sit there and quiet, introverted,

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they don't speak up and they're lowering their self-esteem because they're

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comparing themselves to finances.

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Or they can same thing in stability in relationships,

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any of those areas or social influence.

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There's a body dysmorphia when you do it with a physical body,

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but in any area of your life, you have this dysmorphia kind of response.

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And a lot of times you're not appreciating yourself because you comparing

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yourself to other people. You're not here to compare yourself to others.

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You're here to compare yourself to your own dreams and values.

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Compare your actions to your own values. Not somebody else's.

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Anytime we put people on pedestals or pits,

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we don't put them in our heart and we don't live in our heart and we are not

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authentic. And our self-esteem is fluctuating because of that.

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Instead of our self worth.

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Our true self worth is a summation of all our self-esteems.

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What's interesting in the program I do the Breakthrough Experience,

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which is my signature program, which I've done 1,134 times,

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where Introduce people to the Demartini Method,

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which is a profound method on transforming these vacillating

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emotional personas that we wear and facades,

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these vacillating self-esteems, and turning it back into true self worth,

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where you're centered, you're authentic, you're present.

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That's why I want people to come and experience that because they,

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because when you're wobbling around who you are, and you're not who you are,

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you're not certain in life. You're not present in life.

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You're not grateful for life.

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You're not enthused and inspired and loving your life when you're not

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centered like that.

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So as long as you have sitting there and judging other people,

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you're not going to have the real true self-worth. And it's your true self,

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every time you get actually bring those into balance and don't put people on

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pedestals or pits, which is what the Demartini Method does,

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and if let's say you're a coach or whatever,

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and you've got clients that are involved in that kind of fluctuating

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perceptions, it's a tool on how to transform that and dissolve that

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so people can go and do something amazing with their life and have true

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self-worth. But the moment you put people on pedestals or pits,

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you lose yourself. And when you do, you create these polarities,

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these personas.

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And what's interesting is the moment you exaggerate yourself and look down on

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somebody, you also minimize yourself to their opposite.

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So anytime you infatuate with a trait, the opposite you resent.

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So you're basically creating a bipolar state in your life and

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de-stabilizing yourself with emotional volatility, every time you judge.

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And we've all heard about, you know, we won't be able to love,

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judgements leaves yourself empty.

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Because whenever you put somebody on a pedestal,

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and you're too humble to admit what you see in them is inside you,

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you have a disowned part,

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it's a void and it's an emptiness and it's a disempowerment.

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And every time you put somebody down in a pit and exaggerate yourself with that

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persona, that highered so-called self image and state, esteem,

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then what happens is you now,

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you're too proud to admit what you see in them is inside you,

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and you have another disowned part. And as long as you're disowning parts.

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You're creating emptiness inside.

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That's why judgment feels empty and love is fulfilling.

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But every time you actually equilibrate that and see that whatever you see in

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them, you see in you, level the playing field, you have appreciation and love,

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which is what true self-worth is about.

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That's why I want people to come to the Breakthrough Experience,

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come and learn the Demartini Method,

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to know the science of how to take those self-esteem

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volatilities and personas and how to integrate them,

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empower themselves and own the traits,

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and see that nothing's missing in their life. In the process of doing that,

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you'll liberate yourself from the baggage of the

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self-esteem game. You know, when I studied self-esteem many years ago,

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I saw that it was fickle and it changes, you know,

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the wind can blow and you mess up your hair and it could throw you off like that

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cause now you're comparing yourself, 'oh my God,

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I don't look good in front of that person', it's fickle.

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And I'm a firm believer that you want to basically be able to be stabilized.

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See, it's not what happens on the outside.

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It's what you decide to do with what's out there.

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And if you know the questions to be able to take whatever you're perceiving on

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the outside that you think is above or below,

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and bring them into equilibrium and liberate yourself

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yourself back into true self-worth you empower yourself,

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nothing's missing in you, you feel fulfilled,

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and now you're on track and being empowered in your life again.

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The Demartini Method is asking questions to make you aware of the unconscious

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information that you're not seeing. For instance,

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if you're seeing somebody you admire,

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the only reason you admire somebody and put them on a pedestal and minimize

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yourself,

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is because you're too humble to admit what you see in them is inside you.

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But in fact,

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you can't even see that in them if you don't have it inside you.

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And it's because you're too humble to admit that you have it,

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that's stopping you from honoring it and therefore you got them on a pedestal.

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Once you realize it, by asking the questions in the Demartini Method,

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where do you have it and when do you have it and who you demonstrating it to and

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make yourself aware of it? You no longer put them on a pedestal.

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You no longer minimize yourself. You level the playing field.

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You get to love them for revealing to you the magnificence of who you are,

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which is where your true self worth shines. And the same thing on resentment.

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If you see something you resent in somebody and you exaggerate yourself,

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and you're too proud to admit it. It's not that you don't have that behavior.

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The only reason you're upset with them is because they remind you of a behavior

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you feel ashamed of, but you're covering it up with pride.

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And you're too proud to admit you got it, but they're bringing it out of you.

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That's why you're reacting to them.

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When you actually do the Demartini Method and actually go in and ask,

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where do you do it? When you do it? Who do you do it to and where it is?

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And you become aware of it.

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You realize that the person that you're resenting is actually your teacher

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waking you up to something you've got in your subconscious mind stored there

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that's not loved. And it gives you the chance to love that, liberate that,

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so you can be yourself. We all want to be loved and appreciated for who we are,

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but we're not going to be who we are as long as we're too proud or too humble to

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admit what we see in other people inside us.

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That's why judgment is letting you know what you haven't loved in yourself.

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The things you're judging in other people.

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Life's a reflection and pure reflective awareness,

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where things are in equilibrium,

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is the one that allows you to reflect in a sense and realize that, you know,

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nothing's missing in you.

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I was in Nepal and I was chatting with the Bonpo Lama there in Nepal at his

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temple there, and we had a conversation about that very thing.

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He says 'Nothing missing,

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all present.' Mindfulness is a realization that whatever

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you see in the world around you is a reflection of what you're, inside you,

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reflection of what you're projecting. And so that's why self-esteem is fickle,

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but self-worth is something stable. And by the way,

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you cannot exaggerate yourself without minimizing.

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I have people come up to me and say, 'Well, I keep

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'Okay, where are you building yourself up?'

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As long as you keep being addicted to building yourself up with pride,

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you have to compensate to do the opposite.

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Your brain automatically is a homeostat, trying to get you into authenticity.

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Your brain, if you go in and build up yourself with pride,

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because you're looking down on somebody and you get enamored with that and

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addicted to that,

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then your brain has to in order to bring you back into authenticity,

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has to come in and show you the things that you're not,

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it's called the licensing effect.

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The license effect is also shown in your physiology with health.

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If you go and do something that is really healthy,

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like you go out and work out or something,

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and then you're given your brain and you go, 'Well,

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now I could go out and eat more chocolate,

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or now I can go and over eat.' And so what happens is anything you get proud of

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and you get a facade of that and you elevate your

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of everything,

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then automatically you've given yourself permission to do the opposite,

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to bring yourself back into true self worth. We're not here for pride.

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We're not here for shame. We're here for authenticity.

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And the magnificence of who you are as an authentic individual is far greater

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than any of those facades that you wear.

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So if you're tired of putting yourself down or exaggerating yourself,

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being addicted to that, then come to the Breakthrough Experience.

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Let me teach you the Demartini Method.

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And if you have clients that are like that, come and do that also.

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So you can learn how to do that for your clients. Because there's,

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I guarantee you,

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people are sitting there wandering around and waffling around in their life

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instead of being centered and present and empowered in their life and stable.

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A stable mind is where self-worth lives, a stable mind.

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And the summation of all those personas,

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if you take all those judgments you have,

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and you've got lots of them probably in your life,

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all those judgements are waffling you around with all these instabilities in

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these personas in your life, these self-esteem fluctuations,

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and if you take them one by one methodically,

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which I show you in the Breakthrough Experience methodically on how to do it,

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you can stabilize each one of them to be poised, present, powerful, prioritized,

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productive, and purposeful individual.

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Because the true you has amazing self-worth.

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The true you is empowered and inspired.

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In almost every seminar I do, I also talk about values.

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When you're living by your highest value,

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and you're filling your day with a very highest priority,

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you tend to be have the most objectivity,

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the most balanced mind and most neutral awareness and the least amount of

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judgment. We've all been doing something at work or doing something that's very

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meaningful, very inspiring, it's highest in priority,

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and we're really getting something done and feeling productive.

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And then we can handle almost anything when we get home that day.

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But if we're doing and putting out fires and doing lower priority things and

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really feeling like, woah,

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the world was on top of me instead of me on top of the world,

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then we're a bear and we're more volatile and our emotions are going all over

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the place and self-esteem fluctuating.

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So if you fill your day with high priority actions that inspire you and become

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really objective and neutral and follow things that are really meaningful to

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you, the mean is the pair of opposites.

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It was Aristotle in his golden mean principles of the virtues,

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he said the virtue was between the two vices and the vices where the

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extremes, same thing, I'm teaching the same thing.

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What he called the golden mean of virtue is the true self-worth.

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And when he's talking about the vices and what I'm talking about the lowered

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self-esteem and elevated self-esteem,

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the exaggerated and minimized you as he called it.

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That was knowledgeable then. It's still knowledgeable now.

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The words may be changed, but the same principles are there.

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We're not here to put people on pedestals or pits.

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We're here to put them in our heart. And whatever we see in others,

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we have inside ourselves.

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And when we're masters of our life and learn how to ask the question,

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which the Demartini Method does, it teaches you the

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to liberate yourself from the baggage of all those volatilities and stabilizes

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you and give yourself permission to be authentic.

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That's why I want people to come to the Breakthrough Experience,

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so they can experience it so they can do it right there on the spot,

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feel the difference,

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watch the experience and notice how to love themselves and love other people.

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If you want to be loved for who you are,

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you're not going to do it by fluctuating self-esteem issues.

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You're going to do it by being true in your self worth.

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And every time you live by your highest values, your self worth goes up.

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Every time you're living by lower values, your self-worth goes into volatility.

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That's why it's so important to live with foresight and planning and master plan

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your life and live by priority in life and start to love people and be grateful

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for people, than it is the other way around. As Empedocles said many,

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2000 something 500 years ago, he said, there's love and strife,

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the two levels of consciousness.

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If you're doing something you love and you're loving the people around you,

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and you're loving yourself, you're mastering your life. If not,

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you're living in strife. And the strife is between the parts of you,

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the parts of others, you have no equanimity within you,

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no equity between you and others and you have living with inequity.

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And inequity is the volatilities of the self-esteem instead of the stability at

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the true self-worth.

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So I just want to share with you a few tidbits today on the importance

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of self-esteem, self-worth over self-esteem,

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and how to know what they are and how they're generated.

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Please consider coming to the Breakthrough Experience so I can teach you the

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Demartini Method. It's a tool that can help you integrate that,

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so you're stable, so you know yourself and be yourself and love yourself.

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Just as the Delphic Oracle said. There's no reason why you can't do that.

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I've developed a science, I've worked on it for 49 years to help people do that.

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I've seen thousands of people doing it,

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and I want you to be able to do that for your own life. In addition to that,

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I want to give you a message about a free master class called Increasing Your

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Deserve Level And Finally Get What You Want in life. And this will help you,

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this process will help you in the self-worth arena

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and allow you to integrate the pairs of opposites that you have inside yourself.

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You're not your most magnificent self if you're vacillating all over the place,

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I want you to be stable. I want you to be inspired. I want you to be grateful.

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I want you to love your life.

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I want you to be enthused about what your mission is in life,

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focus on what's really in high priority, be more certain,

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more present and not get distracted by the illusions of other

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people and putting people on pedestals or pits, put them in your heart.

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That's where you want to be. That's where they want to be.

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I just wanted to share that for this morning to well, it's my morning,

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but whatever time it is where you are.

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And I look forward to seeing you next week. Please sign up for the masterclass,

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take advantage of the Breakthrough Experience and learn the Demartini Method.

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It's a tool that will have a thousand applications in your life to help you

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master your life.

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You're here to deserve to do something extraordinary with your life.

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