How do you know what you need to improve on if you never face adversity? If life never tests you, you’ll never grow.
Self improvement isn’t just a matter of conceptualizing a change. It isn’t just telling yourself that you’re going to be different. Improvement comes when you’re tested and you act differently.
It’s not enough to say you’re going to be healthier. If you still choose the cookie over the apple, you haven’t improved.
If you tell yourself you won’t let someone upset you when they disagree, but then get in a fight with them when they do, you haven’t improved.
You have to both internalize the change and also act on it. The only way to act on it is to face adversity. The only way to know you’ve improved is to be tested.
So read your philosophy, listen to motivational speakers, practice mindfulness in your free time. Determine who you want to be. Conceptualize what you have to do in order to be a good person.
Then, when adversity appears, be excited! You have the opportunity to practice what you’ve been learning. You know how you should respond and how the person you’re trying to be would act in this scenario. Now you have to do it.
You’ll fail along the way. You’ll slip up, sometimes you’ll catch yourself and sometimes you won’t. It’s all a part of improving yourself.
When you fail, realize it and figure out what you can do differently next time, then do it.
If you want to improve, conceptualize the changes you want to make then go out and face adversity. Face the challenges until your desired response is habitual.
December 20, 2021
