I ran across a tweet (are they still tweets?) on X/Twitter that was titled: how to ruin yourself. It had these items, which seem to be coming from a young person. Either a student or in their first job.
- Stay on your phone all day.
- Feel sad for no clear reason.
- Stop eating well and ignore your studies.
- Sleep super late and wake up in the afternoon.
- Let sadness take over everything.
- Always look at others' lives and feel yours isn't enough.
- Keep blaming yourself for the past but never try to let it go.
- Compare your progress with people who started years before you.
- Get stuck imagining outcomes instead of creating them.
- Keep waiting for motivation instead of building discipline.
What was interesting to me is I saw people doing similar things when I was younger. Either adults with careers or fellow students. I'd change "sad" to "anger", which I saw a lot in the 80s. Replace the phone with TV, as I saw lots of people start to invest a lot of time in TV with the growth of cable and 24-hour channels in the early 80s. Eating well was less of a thing, but drinking more was a thing. However, many people stagnated, or maybe ruined, themselves in similar ways.
What things motivate you? What gets you to become better at, well, anything you want. From your career to a new career to a better parent or coach or friend? What gets you away from short-term enjoyment (or wallowing) into action?
I write about working on your career on a regular basis, but I'll summarize my advice for making a better you:
- Be curious about the world
- Dream of something better
- Make a plan to realize a dream
- Give up some leisure time
- Make adult decisions
- Be Kind to Yourself
I'll try to expand on each of these on my blog over time. The list are things I try to do to make changes in my life. Whether at Redgate, while coaching, or even improving a hobby skill. I have to invest a bit of myself to get something back.
Though the journey is by far the most satisfying part.
