Become the Best Version of You

The hustle and bustle of the thing we call life can sometimes be overwhelming, from our first breath all the way to our last. Mark Twain delivered one of my favourite sayings when he said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why”. An interesting thought, isn’t it?

But have we understood our purpose in all of this noise? And if not, how can we? That’s simple: through the art of self reflection. The Oxford dictionary defines it as “Meditation or serious thought about one’s character, actions, and motives”.

I largely agree with this definition but I want to take it one step further. Self reflection also means that we look at our future. Determine what steps you need to take to reach your dreams, once you know what they actually are.

Self reflection is best done in private. First, spend a little time on a weekly basis asking yourself some important questions. Then meditate on your answers to decide on your next steps through life. Here are some questions you can ask when you are auditing yourself:

1.What do I love doing?

The things you love doing can be a good indicator of what you should be doing with your life. Figure out if there is anything in common between these activities and make a note of what skills you used when performing them.

2.What are the things that I’m really good at?

After finding out what we love doing, we need to know what we’re good at. This will help narrow down your focus to the things in your life that truly need it.

3.What are my future goals?

From the previous two questions, you can form a venn diagram. By looking at the intersection of the things you love doing and the things you are good at, you can determine which field you should strive to develop. The next step will be to create achievable goals in that field. A goal is essential to ground you and give you a milestone to work towards.

4.What am I spending my time doing?

Beyond the broader strokes of our lives, we need to understand the microscopic details of what we are doing with our time. Try keeping a simple timetable to get a perception of where your time is going and how you can make better use of it.
Using an app like Smarter Time can be very beneficial in showing you where time is being wasted and to what activities you are not dedicating enough of it. From this you can form a roadmap for achieving your goals.

5.What kind of people do I associate with?

I once heard a saying that we are the combination of the five people we spend the most time with. Take a hard look at the people around you and the people you look up to and see if this aligns with your goals and ambitions.
Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn, said that the fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be. Surround yourself with the right people to help create change for yourself.

In conclusion…

By answering the questions above you can establish an idea of your identity, your end goal, and the journey you will need to undertake to get there. Make sure to write these answers down and be as specific as possible: give yourself some real action points to execute.

Taking out a small amount of time in your week doing this can help you save weeks upon weeks of time in the future. Use your time wisely: as the saying goes, you were born an original, do not die a copy.