10 Ways to Be Your Best Self and Live a Better Life
Being your best self doesn’t just take into account what you do every day. It also means thinking about how you act, speak and present yourself to the world. And these are not just surface behaviors. They are a reflection of who you are, who you want to be, and the kind of impact you want to have on the world around you. The good news is you can start making changes today that will make you a happier, more confident version of yourself. Here are 10 ways you can be a better version of yourself.
How To Be Your Best Self
- Lifestyle Design
- Write Down Your Vision
- Speak Your Truth
- Cultivate Gratitude
- Be Present
- Learn Something New
- Stack Positive Habits
- Don’t Be A Perfectionist
- Make Time For Exercise
- Control Your Inputs
Lifestyle Design
“Live by design, not by default”
One of the first changes you can make is to your lifestyle design. This includes how you spend your time, how you spend your money, and what kind of relationships you have with the world around you.
Start thinking about yourself as a Self Creating Architect. You are in charge of the world you design & build. Write down what you love to do (or want to do more of), what your non-negotiables are (aka the things you absolutely want to do every day), as well what your perfect day looks like.
Once you have those on paper, now you’ve got a blueprint you can start building with. From there start scheduling more of the things you want to do and taking action.
As you start living your design, you’ll naturally start spending money in areas you enjoy and serve you. You’ll also create more relationships with people who have similar interests and values as you. By being a little more intentional about designing it for success, it will become more enjoyable both now and in the future!
Write Down Your Vision
It all starts with you. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want your life to look like? If you could have anything in the world, what would it be? Dream big!
Write down what your ideal life looks like. You can visualize 1 year, 5 years, or 50 years down the road (whatever timeframe you want). I want you to make that vision crystal clear. Where you can see and feel specific details of it in your mind. With this picture, you now have the ability to bring it to life.
From there set aside time every morning and evening to visualize your dreams. This can be done in as little as a few minutes. Doing this twice a day becomes the power of consistency. Your mind will become familiar with your vision and start working on plans to get you there.
Rinse and repeat daily while taking intentional action and watch as momentum starts to build.
Speak Your Truth
As a way to live a better life, one of the most important things you can do is learn to speak your truth. Your language and the stories you tell yourself creates who you are. Who you are creates the actions you take. The actions you take creates your results.
Therefore, if you want to make your vision happen, speak into existence the most powerful version of yourself. The one you know to be true. From there feel into those words. Make them emotional. Create a connection with them.
Life is always going to throw challenges at you. The best way you can stay focused on being your best self is by having your truth as an anchor. It’s a place you can always come back to that declares who you actually are.
As an action item, write down 10 powerful statements that declare who you are. Start with I AM _______ (and then fill in the blank). For example: I am abundantly generous, I am a force of attraction, I am fearless.
Cultivate Gratitude
You don’t have to have a perfect life or a perfect body or a perfect relationship for you to be happy. Just appreciate where you are now and think about how far you’ve come. Be thankful for the things you have in life.
By cultivating gratitude you give yourself a drip of positivity. Not only does this make you feel good, but it also is a deposit in your mindset bank to overcome negativity. It can be easy to slip into victim mode when things don’t go the way you want or something bad happens. Instead of feeling “woah is me”, your ability to give thanks helps you see that you have a lot to be grateful for.
A simple thing you can do to cultivate gratitude is to say three things you are grateful for every time you brush your teeth. Your toothbrush becomes a trigger and becomes an easy reminder to do the practice.
Be Present
Think about your day. How many times did you pull out your phone? Probably more than you would like to admit. It’s hard to be present when you’re constantly checking social media, texting friends or being distracted with notifications.
It might seem harmless, but every time you stop doing what it is you are taking action on, the harder it becomes to start back up again. That can create a feeling of stagnation and carry a negative weight with it. That’s the opposite of where we want to be. We’d much rather be in flow.
When it comes to relationships with people, every time you look away from a conversation to glance at your phone it disrespects the person you are talking to. It creates an energy of “this conversation isn’t important to me” and as a result your relationships can start to suffer.
If you find yourself tempted to check your phone, put it away and focus on what’s happening in front of you instead of what is going on behind a screen. You will have a much better time (and probably make some new memories) if you are fully present with those around you.
Learn Something New
Learning something new is a sure way to change who you are. It will not only make you smarter and more knowledgeable, but more confident in your abilities. This is part of having a growth mindset.
The steps for adding learning into your daily routine are simple.
Step 1: Commit to learning something new every day. Make it a non-negotiable.
Step 2: Write down a menu of what “learning something new” means to you. This can be reading books, podcasts, courses, etc. By defining your choices ahead of time, you don’t have to think about it. You just execute.
Step 3: Pick a time in which you are going to learn something new every day. That way it becomes part of your routine. Tip: the earlier in the day you do it the greater the chances of it happening. That is why the first thing I do as part of my morning routine is read for 30 minutes.
Step 4: Rinse and repeat daily.
By committing to learn something new every day you are constantly leveling yourself up. This will build momentum in your life, have you feel better about yourself, and ultimately be happier.
Stack Positive Habits
If you’re looking for a way to be your best self, start stacking positive habits. These are habits that will help you become the person you want to be. They include things like exercising, eating healthy, being outdoors, practicing gratitude, meditating, journaling, visualization, and so on.
The key to stacking positive habits is to open up your awareness to opportunities where you can do more than one thing at a time. For example, if you are going for a run you could also listen to a personal development podcast. If you are walking your dog outside, you could use that as an opportunity to visualize.
By stacking positive habits you multiply your power and growth. Best of all, it takes very little additional effort. All you need to do is be intentional. The key is starting with one habit at a time. Once it becomes part of your routine, add another habit and another until you have the right balance of behaviors for a happier life.
Don’t Be A Perfectionist
“Done is better than Perfect”
“Perfect is the enemy of Greatness”
Being your best self is not about being perfect. Perfection is a limiting belief that who you are and what you create is not enough. It often stops people from completing their work, and brings with it a negative mindset.
To avoid becoming a perfectionist, try to find the balance between being patient with yourself and pushing yourself hard to grow. There will always be room for improvement in your work and in your life, but that doesn’t mean you need to fix everything at once. If you do more of the things that make you happy first and foremost, then the things that are “wrong” about yourself will be less important.
Plus, as you continue to level up you’ll start to see your imperfections are something you can be thankful for, because they are an opportunity for you to grow.
Tip: If you find yourself saying “I am a perfectionist” please throw that language in the trash. It is not serving you and is not a badge of honor.
Make Time For Exercise
“If you don’t have your health you don’t have anything”
One of the best ways to be your best self is to make time for exercise and have it part of your daily routine. If you say “I don’t have enough time” stop lying to yourself. This should be a non-negotiable. It is that important.
You don’t have to lift weights for an hour or run 10 miles a day. Even if it’s just 30 minutes of walking, shooting basketball, or taking a spin class, you will feel better and have more energy. This will also have you looking better, which will give you more confidence, and create more of what you want in your life.
Remember: Something is always better than nothing. 1 is always greater than 0.
Often times it’s easy to be comfortable and not think there are consequences to not making time for exercise. While you might not notice it today, or a week from now, I guarantee you that it’ll catch up with you at some point down the road. When it does, you probably aren’t going to like what happens.
Do your future self a favor by treating your body like the temple it deserves to be.
Control Your Inputs
“Good In, Good Out. Bad In, Bad Out.”
To be your best self you want to control your inputs. What you consume will dictate your mood, your energy, and your actions.
Ask yourself if what it is you are consuming serves you and helps you get closer to where you want to go? Does it put you in a good mood or does it cause anxiety and fear? If something isn’t adding to your life then it is taking away from it.
You want to be strategic about your inputs. When you stack positive inputs first thing in the morning it primes your mind for a successful day. It also starts building momentum, which puts you on the fast track for success.
It’s why I love to read early in the morning as well as listen to personal growth podcasts when I am working out. It builds my growth mindset and happiness, and gets me hungry to live another amazing day.
I encourage you to audit your inputs. Look at the shows, social media accounts, websites, and things you consume the most. What is the value they are creating for you? For the ones that aren’t serving you, get rid of them.
Conclusion
The key to living a better life and being your best self is to have the right mindset. It’s not about what you have or what you don’t have, it’s about how you approach life. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you’ll start living in a way that will make your life better. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to live a better life.
If you want to be your best self and are committed to making it happen, I invite you to sign up for a Free Coaching Session. I’d love to be a champion for you!