Being the best you possible

Every single day, millions of people around the world get caught up with the great competition that is called life. I guess I can only speak for myself on this one, but I assume you do too. For some reason, we continuously compare our lives to others. We don’t give ourselves the credit that we deserve, and instead, we demoralize ourselves if we don’t portray ourselves in a certain image. Well, I have news for you. Despite what other people may say and despite what you may think, you truly are an amazing and beautiful person. That is how you and every one of us need to look at our lives. Life is not about being the best athlete or the best author, life is about being the best you that you can be and loving yourself for who you are.

Speaking from personal experience, I have always felt that I was never good enough. Whether it was with sports, academics, or relationships/dating, I never had an overgrowing sense of self-confidence. To be completely honest, this has only impacted my life in a negative way. The reason that I never felt good enough, was because I was constantly comparing myself to others. If others were better than me at anything, I would stress. If others told me that I was not good enough, I would become upset, because I would listen to them. Instead of living for me, I was living for the opinion of others.

When you live your life based on the opinion of others, you forget who you truly are. You forget what you are capable of, and all of the enjoyment in life is sucked away. Comparing myself to others had made me question everything that I did. The way I dressed, the way I looked, the way I acted, it was all based on how I wanted others to look at me. If I was not up to par with these imaginary standards that were in my head, I would become upset with myself. Day after day, I was killing my self-confidence. I was living a life trying to be the best for others instead of being the best that I can be.

If you truly want to be happy and successful, you need to embrace your differences. Use your differences to help build creativity and let them lead to your success. The successful people in the world got to where they are by focusing on themselves and allowing their differences to become their greatest strengths. The people who are the happiest (that’s how I define success) don’t get to where they are by following in someone else’s footsteps, they live to impress themselves instead of others. They were simply being the best that they can be and nothing more.

If you are trying to become the best you that you can be, here are three tips to help you.

1. Know what you want in life and focus

Think about what you want in your life by the time you are 30, 40, 50, or even 60 years old. Write it down and put it somewhere where you can easily see it everyday. Each morning before you leave the house, look and think about that end goal. Let that serve as your daily motivation to pursue your dreams and give them your undivided attention. It seems cliche, but it works. When you see your goals written out, you are more likely to pursue them. It will help you to get that little extra boost of motivation, which is something that much of the world lacks. See that goal, achieve that goal, and continue to grow.

2. Surround yourself with positive and motivated individuals

Let me ask you a question. Who would you rather spend your time with, an outgoing person who loves life, or a depressed person who thinks that life is miserable?  The answer is obvious. When we are positive about life, we attract good things and we attract good people. It isn’t always easy to stay positive, but that is why you need to surround yourself with it. Personally, I spend about three hours a day listening to inspirational podcasts. Not only do they make me happier, but they also give me a boost of motivation to pursue my dreams and help to set the tone for the day.

3. Last and final tip. Live for yourself and love your life

Do I really need to explain this one? If you want to be the best that you can be, you need to learn to love yourself. You need to learn to live for yourself and ignore the opinions of others. If I would have focused on myself more instead of focusing on others, do you know how much misery I would have saved myself from? Once I learned to love myself for my differences, only then was I able to become truly happy with my life.

Life is not about money, and life is not about fame. Life is about being the best person that you can be and making a positive impact on as many lives as you can touch. In order to touch the lives of others, you first need to live for yourself, take care of yourself, and love yourself. Once you learn to do good for you, then you will be able to do good for others. Be the best that you can be so that you can help others become the best that they can be.

Michael Bonnell

7/4/2018

 

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