Master Yourself, Earn Your Freedom.

You don’t have to master yourself perfectly to earn your freedom, but you do need to start and continue.

I used to think mastering myself was this perfect picture of me looking a certain way.

But over the past five years that I’ve been constantly and intentionally working on myself, I've learned that mastering yourself is accepting your humanity.

At the same time, it’s not allowing your humanity to be an excuse for your poor habits and behaviors.

It’s accepting you’ll never be perfect but also realizing you have immense potential, and it is your job to try to reach that potential in this lifetime.

Because you only have this one chance, this one life.

And it’s better to spend the time you have trying to be the best version of yourself than get to the end of your life and realize you didn’t do any of the things you said you’d do.

When you master yourself (or are in the process of), you can CLEARLY see your weaknesses.

And therefore, have the opportunity to change them.

I used to walk mindlessly not long ago.

I remember going to college in my late teens/early twenties, thinking that my life would change completely after graduation.

I was convinced I needed to get that little piece of paper that everyone kept saying would answer all my prayers.

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

Instead, that little piece of paper set me up for a precarious financial position and lots of stress.

That piece of paper didn’t answer any of my prayers, and it certainly didn’t change my life—I barely had any job offers after graduating (with a master’s degree, by the way).

The few years after graduating were a whirlwind of stress, what felt like endless work, and many disappointments.

But the biggest hurdle that I had yet to encounter was myself.

It wasn’t until I was twenty-three, and when I had my ‘identity crisis,’ that I decided to look in the mirror and wonder, did I do this to myself?

Even if it was unbeknownst to me, even if it all had been unintentional, I still had to recognize that I was the one who made those decisions.

Nobody forced me to go to college. I simply accepted it as my next best move at the time.

Nobody forced me to get a degree in my chosen field (business administration). I thought that was my best chance at success.

I never bothered to ask if this was really the path I wanted to take.

My weaknesses were taking things at face value, not asking more questions, and not taking the time to figure out if that’s what’s really best for me.

Thankfully, I’ve changed.

But I had to go through some pretty rough times to understand this.

Freeing yourself means LETTING GO of all the places, people, things, and bad habits holding you back.

This was another big transition I had to go through to truly grasp how much one’s environment and the people we choose to surround ourselves with affect us.

I lost basically all my friendships, but it’s funny how that happened.

Most of my friendships ended when I tried to hold them accountable for things they did that weren’t fair toward me.

The moment I saw all those people try to brush off their behavior as acceptable or when they tried to explain to me how it was okay for them to do it but not okay for me and that I should be able to overlook it easily, that’s when I knew I needed to let those friendships end.

Looking back, it’s so ironic and unbelievable how letting go of those friendships freed me to change many different areas of my life.

Even though I currently don’t have any friends, I’ve been able to change my life and my habits significantly.

Letting go of the people holding me back allowed me to see that we were wasting our weekends away partying.

Letting go freed me to see that I needed better influences in my life. I’ve yet to find those, but at least I can hold myself accountable and to a higher standard.

Letting go allowed me the time and space to change with little to no criticism or pushback.

I could turn things around (faster and with less resistance) because I let go of the places and people holding me back.

Side note: It doesn’t mean they are bad people or that I’m better than them; it just means we’re looking for different things in life, and it was time for us to go our separate ways.

The only way to FREE yourself for GOOD (so you don’t continue to run on a hamster wheel) is by learning to MASTER yourself.

I was running on a hamster wheel for so long.

I was only able to recognize it at twenty-three.

Imagine that.

I spent twenty-three years unaware that I was running around in circles, thinking I was going somewhere, only to find out I was right where I started.

That frustration led me to think about my actions.

That frustration fueled me to look for other opportunities and actually take them rather than talk myself out of them.

Those opportunities opened up a door for me to look at myself, my life, and my habits and realize what I was doing was not getting me anywhere close to where I wanted to go.

The harsh reality that I had to accept was that I wasn’t doing what I needed to do to make my life what I wanted it to be.

But taking this step is what freed me to begin changing those decisions and, therefore, myself.

When I started changing and learning to master myself, I freed myself.

I was freed to do things differently, think differently, and grow and evolve into the person I’m meant to be.

I’m still a work in progress, but I’ve gotten much closer these past five years.

I’m free, and there’s no greater feeling than letting go of all the shackles that held you back and seeing all the possibilities.

Go on the journey of learning to master yourself, and you’ll earn the freedom to become the person you want.

Trust me on this one thing: you will not regret it.