Every accomplishment in your life—whether it is how well you do in school, what level you hit in your professional life, or how you manage your household—is directly linked to how you feel about yourself, to whether you think you are capable and worthy of living life at the highest level. And what drives your evaluation of your abilities and worth? What you say about yourself when you talk to yourself or, as author Stephen Covey likes to put it, the mental script you operate from.

Your mental script has been developing since the day you were born. It began with what your parents said to you. If your parents made comments that led you to believe you weren’t smart enough, cute enough, or good enough, those hurtful words and the emotions that accompanied them started setting the foundation for how you see yourself. Along the way, friends, teachers, and personal experiences built on that foundation, shaping how you think about yourself and thereby shaping what you think you can do and be in this world. What you believe about yourself determines how you feel about yourself, how you feel about yourself dictates your daily actions, and your daily actions added up over time determine your level of accomplishment in the areas of life that are important to you.

When you wake up to this reality, you can begin to filter the contents of your mental script through the sieve of truth, keeping what is helpful and discarding what is not—a process that is crucial to creating a mental atmosphere that will allow you to operate at the full potential God has put in you. If you don’t, you will end up living out your story based on the incomplete and often inaccurate script that has been handed to you by others. As Stephen Covey wrote:

“These scripts come from people, not principles. And they rise out of our deep vulnerabilities, our deep dependency on others and our needs for acceptance and love, for belonging, for a sense of importance, for a feeling that we matter. Whether we are aware of it or not, whether we are in control of it or not, there is a first creation to every part of our lives. We are either the second creation of our own proactive design, or we are the second creation of other people’s agenda, of circumstances or of past habits.”

Becoming “the second creation of [your] own proactive design” requires that you become aware of how you think about your value, your abilities, your dreams, and your goals; get rid of misinformation that isn’t helping you live as the person you know you can be; and focus instead on your true identity as a new creation in Christ. Consider just a handful of Scripture passages that speak to who you really are:

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Eph. 2:10)

God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them. (Gen. 1:27)

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Ps. 139:13–14 NIV)

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Cor. 3:16 NKJV)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer. 29:11)

When you think negatively about yourself, you are putting down God. You are his child, created in his image. He knit you together with meticulous care, filled you with potential, and has given you everything you need to accomplish the purposes he has for you. Why, then, would you choose to spend precious time operating from a place of self-doubt and pessimism that will do nothing but undermine the level of your life?

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.