One of my all-time favorite speeches took place in 2018 when Snoop Dogg received his star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.

In his speech, he did what most people do in that moment by thanking the people who helped him along the way. His acknowledgments extended to his family, friends, collaborators, mentors, God and so on.

And then, at the very end of his speech, he did something you rarely (if ever) see or hear.

He thanked himself (see around the 3:41 mark in the clip below).

His words weren’t intended to be arrogant or self-inflating, but it was a shoutout to the person in the mirror who made his dreams a reality.

In a culture and society that is built on deflecting credit, he did something rare. He owned his role in the journey.

For most of my life, I’ve been conditioned to be humble. It’s a quality I saw modeled by many of the people I admire the most. And for a long time, one of my biggest fears was coming across as self-centered or overly proud.

And to be clear, there’s value in this. There’s a reason for the saying, “There are those who are humble and there are those that are about to be humbled.” Life has a way of keeping us grounded whenever our sense of ourselves gets inflated.

As a byproduct, we’re often taught to recognize others and extend gratitude outward to those who play a vital role in shaping our personal journeys.

But somewhere along the way, many of us take that lesson a little too far. Because while we’ve gotten really good at thanking everyone else, we’ve gotten really uncomfortable acknowledging ourselves.

Think about it.

How often do you downplay a compliment? How often do you brush off recognition? How often do you redirect praise to someone else as quickly as you can?

Again, all of this can be well-intentioned, but it’s also incomplete. No matter how much support you’ve had, you are still the one who has to do the work.

None of this is easy. Pursuing excellence in anything is not a casual pursuit. It’s demanding and loaded with discomfort. It requires a level of consistency and resilience that most people aren’t willing to sustain.

Which is exactly why it matters to acknowledge it.

When you fail to recognize your own effort, you start outsourcing your sense of progress to the outside world. But when that validation isn’t there (which it often isn’t), you’re left questioning whether you’re moving forward at all.

When you acknowledge how you’ve shown up and when you give yourself credit for the things that don’t show up on a scoreboard, you reinforce the person you are becoming.

If this is something most people overlook, then the opportunity is simple:

Start acknowledging yourself on purpose.

Here are a few ways to develop your ability to reflect gratitude inward.

You didn’t get here alone, but you also didn’t get here without you.

And if you want to keep growing and performing at a high level, you can’t afford to overlook the one person who’s been there through all of it.

So yes, thank the people who have helped you along the way. But also don’t forget to thank the person in the mirror.

The goal isn’t to think more of yourself. It’s to stop thinking less of what you’ve accomplished.

For those interested in checking out my podcast, you’ll find a compilation of my most recent episodes below.

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