Why keep improving yourself?

Because beating yourself is a never-ending commitment. (Phil Knight)

Since birth, we are constantly learning new things. During our studies, we are basically forced to learn something new every day. However, when we graduate, then it’s up to us to decide whether we want to develop further or not. At this point, we can stop and ask ourselves: „Do I want to learn new things over and over again? Maybe I just want to simply relax. After all, constantly working on myself is exhausting and quite unpleasant. Is it even worth it? What does it mean to me to keep working hard on myself and keep pushing for something?“.

However, time will pass anyway. Time seems to play against idleness. Time is relentless in this regard. Time will not stop to pass in favour of our idleness but time will carry us into the new days, where other challenges are awaiting us that we will simply have to face anyway. But the question is whether or not we want to be better prepared for these challenges.

If we decide that we want to continue to learn and try to make our future more meaningful, because the future is waiting for us anyway, we can ask questions: „But what should I do? How should I start? How should I start working on myself? Which first step is the right one?“. All of them and none of them. It doesn’t matter. Just start. As Thomas Alva Edison said: „The best quality is quantity.“. Pablo Picasso himself said: „I am not better than the others. I’ve just made more great works as well as more bad ones. It’s all just because I’ve produced more works in general.“ The advice is simple – just start and every activity leads us to an experience, and every experience, we learn from, moves us forward and creates a better future for us.

By creating we can reach our potential, by creating we can find ourselves. Be creative. Create. Perceive. Discover. To use our own found potential. There is an infinite of possibilities for us. But this fact can frighten us. We can ask: „But what if I decide for the wrong direction? After all, when I choose one single option, I am rejecting all the others.“ There is no path that is not meaningful to us. Every path leads us to knowledge, to be able to see the next piece in the puzzle called life, to knowing ourselves. It’s just about taking in consideration each step, not focusing only on the target.

However, we can also think about making one step back to make two steps ahead. Sometimes we have to move back to get further. After all, constantly working on yourself doesn’t necessarily mean moving ahead. Sometimes, doing nothing is also a step that takes us further. Stopping and looking at what is happening can lead to understanding which is a step that can catapult us when following our dreams.

The most important thing is to keep going, to persist. Not to be afraid to keep going. Obstacles are there to be overcome, not to stop us, and every opportunity, whether we could see it in a positive or a negative light, is an opportunity to grow. Moreover, what we are afraid of is usually not in the outside world, but within ourselves. At such a moment, we can see that perhaps we are afraid for nothing. After all, we already have NO, so we can only get YES, whatever we decide to do. We might ask: „Where does this difficult process begin and end? And what if it is too late to start?“ Where does it begin? I don’t know. With birth, perhaps? Where does it end? At what point in life can we stop and say I know everything? There is no such point. The more knowledge we gain, the more we can approach the famous phrase, „I know that I know nothing.“ (Socrates). And then what? Letting our own intuition guide us and continuing on our way.

Let’s keep in mind that it’s never too late to start. Let’s start today. Let’s take this first step, no matter how big this step is, because every marathon starts with the first step. Let’s think of every step and not just focus on the result. Because no matter how difficult the journey is, when we reach our destination, we can only wish to relive it all over again.

Every step is worth it…

V.