Without this, nothing you do will improve your life

I was walking around my hood today like I was like Vince McMahon.

Strolling around like I was the man and enjoying my music before some ideas started popping up in my head.

These ideas were related to why my self-improvement journey didn’t really take off until I did this one thing.

And then it got me thinking of the countless people out there in the world running in a hamster wheel of self-improvement, but not getting real tangible results.

I realized without this one thing, you can never truly improve yourself and be happy with your accomplishments.

So what is this one thing?

It’s accepting and loving yourself 100%.

You see, until I went to therapy, I never really felt internally happy. Even though I worked out and gained mass. Even though I read books and gained wisdom. Even though I was social and made friends easily.

I never felt complete inside.

I always felt I was missing something. So I would keep changing my workout plans to get some imaginary perfect body. I would keep reading more books, thinking it would help me discover some random wisdom I thought I needed to exist.

I couldn’t sit down and address why I didn’t accept and love myself. And this made all my self-improvement tactics fruitless.

It also made me blind in many ways.

I couldn’t see the joys of life.

I couldn’t see when girls were interested in me.

I couldn’t see my accomplishments.

I just never felt like I was good enough and was always missing something. The thing I was missing this whole time was loving and accepting myself for who I was, with all my flaws, quirkiness, and whimsical traits.

When I went to therapy to deal with all my deep-rooted issues, is when I started to love and accept myself. Mind you, it wasn’t an easy process, but I was able to come out much better.

Being able to love and accept me makes life more enjoyable. I can enjoy my emotions and all the roller coasters life has to offer.

Photo by Bart LaRue on Unsplash

All the books I read now have more meaning.

All the people I meet now have more meaning.

All the work I do now have more meaning.

Life is just more meaningful now.

And this all started with loving and accepting myself.

Too many people are chasing their tales thinking they need to do X to feel better about themselves.

All the solutions to your problems are inside of you.

If you’re a person who doesn’t feel like you’re progressing for whatever reason, I implore you to really see if you love and accept yourself 100%.

Go see a therapist.

Even if you can only afford to see one once per month, do it. Or maybe get an extra part-time job to cover its cost. I know this sounds like a lot, but when I see parents work two jobs to support their family, I ask myself why some people can’t put that same effort for themselves.

We only have one life to live and it’s our responsibility to make the most of the limited time we have on this rock.

So go out there and do what needs to be done.

Go out there and get on your journey of self-love and self-acceptance.

(If you enjoyed this short article, then click here to join my email list where you get a daily boost of confidence every morning plus the free Self-Improvement Cheat Sheet for Nerds.)