How To Be The Best Version of Yourself
This article is inspired by David Gikandi’s ‘A Happy Pocket Full of Money: Infinite Wealth and Abundance in the Here and Now’.
We often hear people talk about self improvement in vague terms such as “Be the best version of yourself”. The question is how do we do that? I believe that there are a couple of things that we need to sort out in our lives before we can even talk about self improvement. Here are some of the issues that I think are important in our journey to be the best version of ourselves
- Truly believe in what you wish or hope for. Have a clear picture of what you want. Set attainable and realistic goals. Be grateful for what you have right now but always strive to better yourself. Pay less attention to material wealth and focus more on what we truly desire (to be happier, feel more connected to people, etc). Focus on growing your self confidence to increase your self worth.
- Put action to plans. By following the law of expectations, if you expect to be happy, wealthy, etc, you are either consciously or subconsciously making changes around you to achieve the goal for your future. Just like in a football game, it is usually better to play on the offense rather than defense. Creating opportunities for yourself is always better than waiting for them to fall on your lap, if they happen at all. If you like / want something but do not go after it, more often than not, you will not get it unless someone hands it to you voluntarily. But if you go after it, you already have a 50–50 chance. The worst thing that can happen is that you don’t get what you want which is not worse off than if you do nothing at all.
- Learn to let go of the past. The past is something that has already happened so beating yourself over it is not going to help. By focusing on the past, you remain steadfast in one place while the world moves on without you. If you live in the now and focus your thoughts and speech into improving yourself today, chances are you’ll experience a positive change in your life. Even if you don’t experience any change today, you have at least set the motion for a better future. Also, it is much more fun to experience life as a joyous occasion in the present rather than holding grudges on things that had happened in the past.
- Be true to yourself. Most of the time, the only thing standing between you and the things you want is yourself. Do you actually like the person that you are today? If you are someone else and you meet yourself, what are your thoughts on you as a person? Be honest to yourself, improve and be a better version of yourself but do not copy others just for the sake of improvement.
- Do not let fear get in the way of self improvement. Fear is a crippling illusion. It stops people in their tracks as they worry about how their current actions will affect the future. Most of our fears for the future is based on what-ifs but nobody knows for sure if what you do today will affect you adversely or not. Most of the time, we regret the things that we did not do rather than the things that we did.
- Give back to society. This is based on the concept of the more you give, the more you get. Do charity work, volunteer and help others in need. As you help others, you are ultimately helping yourself. By giving out positive energy, you are attracting the same energy to yourself. Life is an experience meant to be shared with others after all.
- Avoid being judgmental. Live your life without any preconceived notions that will stop you from living the life you truly deserve. Apply the same concept to others and do not judge others for any perceived wrong / mistakes.
- Learn from past failure. How do we measure success or failure? Who sets the benchmark? Is it about how many zeros we have in our bank accounts or the number of luxury goods that we own? Each of us has a yardstick on how to measure our own success. What does it mean to fail? Is it due to some unaccomplished goals in life? Failure is about acceptance, to learn something about ourselves and to seek ways for self improvement so that in the future, we can avoid making the same decisions that lead to this unfavorable outcome.
- Find your purpose in life. Think of life in the big picture sense. Am I happy now? Am I truly happy? Have I touched the lives of people that I’ve met along this journey called life? Have I made any meaningful connections? Will people think of me fondly in years to come long after my presence is gone from their lives?
- Choose happiness. While it’s true that depression is a medical condition that cannot be switched off, many of us who are unhappy are not dealing with clinical depression. It is futile telling someone to choose happiness if they refuse to (again, this is not about those who are clinically depressed). Telling someone to be happy will not make them want to choose happiness. It has to come from within, often this comes after acceptance of a past trauma or perceived failure. Life goes on for everyone else whether you are happy or not so why not join in the fun while you’re still living.
As we consciously put more efforts to make ourselves better, it will soon become second nature to us. We only have one life after all, so why not live as the best version of ourselves.
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