Every single one of us is always striving to be better, to improve, to be the best version we can possibly be. We have so many different selves. There’s our self at work, self at home, self with friends, and even different selves with different friends. Which one do we strive to improve? A single one or all of ourselves. A good question to ask yourself is why do we strive to be the best? Is it our perfectionism? Is it that we’re not satisfied with our current self? Nonetheless, there’s always room for improvement and let’s get into it.
What does the best version of ourselves imply?
It’s important to realize that each one of us has a different idea of what our best self looks like. For example, for me, it would be when I’m calm and am able to do things right by myself, authentically and live a life basking in the sun. For my friend, it would be to have a successful live, to have sufficient money to live a life nearing luxury. Some people might have versions of themselves living both lives. There’s no one right version. I’ll say it again. Read carefully. THERE IS NO ONE BEST VERSION OF YOU. And importantly, no one, and I mean no one else can tell you what the best version of you looks like.
Identify the best version of yourself
The most important task here is to identify the kind of person you want to be. Close your eyes and imagine you’re living your best life. You are exactly who you have always wanted to be. Who do you see? What do you see? Write down the exact details. The way you interact with others. The way you behave and carry yourself. The way you talk to yourself. Habits you partake in. Everything you do and you are. The values and beliefs you have. The wya you spend your mornings and evenings. What matters the most to you. Once you have everything written down, it’ll help to sort those into habits, behaviors and general things.
Becoming the best version of yourself
Now merely writing who you want to be doesn’t make you start acting like that. Being the best version of yourself means waking up every single day and making the choice to be that person, knowing it’s not convenient and it’s not easy. It’s important first to have some motivation of what being the best version of yourself would mean for you. Will it mean you’ll be living more authentically? Or you’ll be feeling more fulfilled and with more energy than you have right now. Some important things to keep in mind are:
- - Let go of limiting beliefs. If you keep telling yourself you can’t be the person you want to be, that’s all your brain will know and will start to believe it. Tell yourself that you’re in control and you can be whoever you want to be. Prove to yourself you can do everything you set your mind to. There should be no ‘I can’t do it’, but more ‘I can do it if I put my mind to it’.
- - Don’t overwhelm yourself. If you take a plunge into all the things you wrote down, you’ll get overwhelmed and not want to continue the habits and go into a rut. Take things slow and one habit at a time. Start with one habit and practice it for two weeks, once you think you can consistently follow it, incorporate the next habit from the third week and so on. This way, your brain is given time to adjust to the one new habit before the second one is started.
- - Practice your strengths Think of things you’re already good at and practice them often. By doing so, you’re reinforcing the belief that you’re capable of doing things. Take one thing you stopped doing that you were good at and start it again. You can build on yourself instead of completely scrapping your older version. You’re already good as it is. You don’t need to completely revamp yourself.
- - Get to know yourself. When you’re not even sure of who you are, how will you become your better version? When you get to know yourself, your beliefs and question them and reinforce them, you become more confident. You become sure of yourself and your self-esteem rises. Become confident in who you are. Ask yourself difficult questions about yourself. Date yourself like you would someone else. When you know who you are, you radiate confidence, you already feel like you’re winning.
- - Build discipline, instead of motivation. Most times, you won’t have the motivation to get up and do the things that prosper you mentally and physically. If you let your feelings guide you, there will be rare times when you’ll actually get up and do something. Having a growth and disciplined mindset will get you up on those days when you don’t feel like it and push yourself to just do it.
- - Face your worst fears. Whatever brings you anxiety, it is a protective mechanism but it’s also keeping you in your comfort zone. Staying in our comfort zone means being scared to experience new things which brings about growth. Being a better version would mean getting out of your comfort zone and experiencing new things.
Some ideas for becoming the best version of yourself
Remember that everyone’s best version looks different from theirs, but here are some general ideas you can implement in your day-to-day life which are going to make your life better.
- - Getting up early
- - Get into a habit of journaling
- - Be more physical
- - Be kind to yourself and to others
- - Look at the positives rather than negatives
Yes, I know, everyone must have told you this, but getting up early in the morning does give you more time and energy to get everything done. Have you noticed that if you sleep till post-noon, even when you’ve got 10 hours of sleep, you still feel groggy? That’s because waking up as the sun balances our circadian rhythm and gives us more energy as opposed to spending half the day sleeping.
Again something very obvious, but, but, but, journaling works as a sort of a brain dump and helps lighten the load where instead of letting things out, you’ll usually stew on them and let it bother you for a long time.
Now, being physical doesn’t require you to hit the gym or do those chloe ting workouts, it’s moving your body in any way YOU like. This can be dancing for someone, or doing yoga for someone else. Don’t focus on how many calories you burn but how much fun you’re having. When you have fun doing things, you’ll want to return to them more.
You know how when someone shows you random kindness you’re taken aback, but also feel warm. Well, what if i tell you you can feel like that all the time? The answer is in being kind to yourself. I know it’s hard to throw that self critic out of our brains, so that’s not what I’m telling you to do. Instead be kind to that critic as well. Doing so, you’ll be able to soothe and regulate yourself.
Again it’s so easy to fall into the negative hole we dug ourselves, but where does that take us? Just more into the darkness. But what if we see the positive in any situation? What if we look at the lessons learned and reasons why the things happened to us? We’ll be much more content in ourselves and in our environment.
Conclusion
I’d like to end by reiterating what your best version looks like is unique to you and the only one standing in your way to achieve that life is you. Think over the changes you’d like to make and stick to them. Remind yourself that the only way out is through and there is a better world on the other side.
