Life Tip #2 Being Your Best Self

It has come to my attention that a lot of people are throwing out the term "be yourself" pretty liberally. That and "never change." I'd like to address that.

Now, I'm very much for being you, hopefully you can see that if you look at my other blog, but we're hitting some disparities here.

You should always strive to be your BEST SELF. Not just yourself.

And, you should change. You will change. Change is the nature of all living things. Only the dead are unchanged. Don't give up the choice of what about you will change to the forces of time and nature.

I read a "secret" (you know, that post secret thing) where a young guy says "everyone thinks I'm an asshole, but I'm not going to change, because an asshole is who I am."

Well...that sucks.

This is where our society (and apparently our teens) have gotten so confused.

Remember when you were six and you were still eating your boogies or you wouldn't let anyone clean your face or you always wet your bed? Remember? If "not changing" was the best thing you'd still have a dirty face, and still be picking your nose and licking your fingers, and still be peeing your bed. Why did you have to change? It was "natural," right? It was "you," right?

But it wasn't your best you.

You know the kid at the daycare who bites? And the one who steals the other kids' snacks? The kid who screams for hours after his mom leaves? Do we let them do this? Do we encourage little Johnny to keep biting and the kids who scream or slap him when he does to keep screaming and slapping? No, we don't. Why? Just like this self-described "asshole" in the post secret, he's just being "himself." Why then, do we tell him to apologize or encourage pro-social behavior? Why do we stop the other kids from screaming and hitting him?

Because he's not being his best self.

It's a tragedy when someone looks at themselves, and believes that by being stagnate, by holding on to qualities that hurt themselves and others, they're somehow being "true" to themselves.

When I was younger I used to have panic attacks- they sucked. I also didn't trust men. I corrected everyone's grammar. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? But I realized that though having panic attacks might be natural, it wasn't best. And while I had good reasons not to trust men, it wasn't conducive to my happiness or to that of others. And while the language was falling down around me, correcting everyone only made other people feel stupid and resentful and it didn't stop bad grammar from happening.

So, I change. I learned to be better. And it was a good thing.

So, how about this;

Don't be yourself, be your best self.