It all starts with YOU.

Self Improvement. 

A highly sought after, daunting, and commodified concept that permeates our modern hustle culture driven lives. Promoted by snobby Pilates influencers in matching lulu lemon sets and red faced screaming alpha males, all pushing the same ideals. If you don't get up at 5 am, work out for an hour, journal, eat whole foods, and make 6 figures; then you're failing at life and its all your fault because you are lazy and incapable of putting in the effort. 

Fuck that. 

I am sick of this constant toxic grindset that has social media in a chokehold. It's disingenuous bullshit made to sell courses that are doomed to fail made by people who most likely came from privilege who want to make a quick buck of you. 

Self improvement is a journey. 

A quiet, deeply personal journey that can only be taken by you and you alone. Nobody is going to  have all the answers waiting on a silver platter for when you decide to take charge. It is always going to be on you whether you take the leap of faith or not. The tides of change can't flow if there is only ground. Even the smallest trickle can become a raging sea if given time to grow. 

It all starts with YOU. 

Self improvement is not some rapid life altering overnight shift. It's slow, frustrating, and hurts like a bitch at times but fulfilling and rewarding beyond belief. Cultivating discipline is half the battle, a difficult one, but it's always worth it in the end. 

Make solutions not excuses.

There is almost always a way around challenges and road blocks littering the road to self improvement. I have always struggled with math. Even now in college I am ashamed to admit that I am still operating on a middle school level of mathematics which has really hindered me throughout high school and today. So I made a goal, to get better at math, and here's what I have done to achieve that. I started off with going to my local bookstore and picking out a math workbook that was suited to my needs. I now fill out a page every day to build up my knowledge of math. I will admit I was not consistent at first. In fact I bought the damn book back in may and only just now have picked it up and started putting in the work, but that's ok. I am doing the work now and there is no time like the present. Now for some it might not be that straight forward so here's a good way to approach roadblocks using my situation as an example. A $30 workbook might not be an option for someone living paycheck to paycheck. I would recommend checking our library system as there is tones of free books to learn from. If you can't visit the library in person then check their online resources. If you don't have a personal computer then use the free computers at the library. If you do have a personal device then use Youtube or other free resources like Khan academy. It's about looking for all the options and exhausting those before giving up. "Seek and you shall find" is a quote I live by every single day. If you really look you will find a way and its frustrating but it will give way to something great. So keep pushing. 

Being bad is good.

It's ok to be bad at things! Its ok to fail! You are never gonna be an expert at something you are just starting to learn. Embrace the bad and the ugly learn from it and keep trying. You can't learn and change overnight. It just doesn't work like that. Just laugh it off because tomorrow's results are going to be better. 

Strive for excellence not perfection. 

Perfection doesn't exist so we shouldn't hold ourselves to an impossible standard. Everyday you should be focusing only on doing your best. Your best won't look the same as someone else's and your best may change from day to day. So stay in your lane and take things as they come. It's ok if you can't do as much as you did yesterday. The goal is to put in a good faith effort and show up. Practice makes perfect is a load of bullshit. 

Practice makes Progress and that is what really counts.  

If you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will. Because at the end of the day,

It all starts with YOU. 

-RA