Self-Improvement: Being The BEST Version of Ourselves We Can Be!

There was a time in my life when I spent a lot of time and energy on so-called "self-improvement."

Part of it was the result of having had a wildly dysfunctional upbringing, and having a rather limited sense of self when I left home at age 18. I pretty much re-invented myself from scratch.

It took a while, though.

It wasn't really until my late 20's that I paused to question the path family, friends and greater society had charted for me. Well, they hadn't exactly charted it for me... but let's just say that it was pretty clear what path "one" should follow to become part of the "right" set of society.

The only problem with that is that it never felt quite right to me.

Between my late 20's and early 40's I became a voracious consumer of not only self-improvement books, but also workshops and retreats... often centered around the premise of "self-enquiry" or being aware of the toxic or undesirable aspects of the "I," including the fact that we so often fall into a collective "trance" that has little to do with what we really want.

Along the way, I learned the essential fallacy in the statement that we should do what we are best at. That works, as long as what we are best at also happens to be something we really enjoy doing. If it isn't, we're basically consigning ourselves to a life of laboring away at something that might soon enough start feeling like drudgery.

For example, I could have been an excellent accountant because I have a natural talent with numbers, organization and patterns. But just because I am really good at it doesn't mean I like doing it.

Although I have a University degree in Finance and Business Marketing, I never really pursued that area. It was what I was trained to do, but not what I wanted to do.

It's easy to argue that we don't have the "luxury" to choose what we want to do... we need to get by in life and work at whatever we can make the most income and success from.

Actually, we do have the luxury of that choice!

The problem is that most people don't like the potential consequences. I chose to do things I liked, and the "price" was that I was never as financially successful as most of my peers who followed the supposedly "proper" path.

Which brings us back to the title of this post... what IS the "best" version of any one person?

Are we "best" when we excel at something we're passionate about and love doing? Or are we "best" when we pursue our "highest and best use" even IF we don't really like that use? Who do we really owe our excellence to? Ourselves... or the greater world?

These days, I am the best version of myself as a writer — which I love — and as a book editor (which I really like), both of which are far removed from the world of Finance and Marketing.

In fairness, though... that Marketing degree has come in useful in terms of "marketing myself" sometimes...!

Thanks for reading, and have a great week ahead!

How about YOU? Are you being the BEST version of yourself? Are you pursuing your passions/dreams? Is that also what you do BEST? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210322 01:38 PDT
x133