With the craze for Wonder Woman lately, do you ever think about who your heroes are? Think about it–who is the first person that comes to mind as your hero? Is it Wonder Woman? Is it Superman? Is it Spiderman, or Wolverine, or any of the other Marvel or DC superheroes?

Did you seriously just answer some fictional superhero character? Think about the answer to “Who is your hero?” again. Who do you look up to? Who encourages you to be better every day? Who do you aspire to be? Still a fictional superhero?

Your hero should be YOU! While having others around you to encourage you is truly a blessing, you are lucky to have them. You might have them today and you might not have them tomorrow. You need to learn again to be your own biggest cheerleader. There is nothing like watching a child who is proud of themselves making sure EVERYONE is aware of how awesome they are. When do we lose that? Why is it we decide to downplay our successes and find ways to come up with excuses that the success happened with no thanks to us. Have you ever responded to someone who tells you your outfit looks nice with some comment about how little you paid for it, how old it is, or the lower end store where you got it instead of thanking them and saying nothing more? Just stop it!

You are and have always had the opportunity to be your biggest cheerleader. There is a difference between being proud of yourself and being arrogant about it. Don’t be that arrogant person. But you should be proud of yourself for all the hard work you’ve done to make that particular event happen. When someone comments, just say “thank you.” Don’t give excuses or try to justify why it was successful that have nothing to do with you. If you did it, you worked hard on it, and it was successful, take the damn credit. And then fist pumps and a very loud “YES!” are totally in order. And maybe pompoms, or fireworks, or . . .