It is not easy to understand how to become the best version of yourself. However, if we are to live a life at the top of our potential, it is a good idea to try and understand the answer to the question. So, how to be the best version of yourself?

Don’t you want to be the best version of you? Yes, I do! But, how the hell do we do that?That’s exactly what we will together try to find out here.

We are born and we have a limited number of days to live over here. There is no reason that we should not make the effort to be the best, the finest version of ourselves. It is a question worth thinking about and doing something about.

Let us figure out what we can do to be the best version of ourselves. What does best mean to start with? What does it even mean to be the best version of yourself?

The best version of you would be someone you could be proud to be with, someone who creates the maximum value in the world and is inspiring for the rest of the world. As the best version of yourself, you would do work that creates impact and touches life, and is not a boring routine. When you are at your best, you feel that you are at your best. Emotions don’t lie.

Having established that it is a worthwhile effort to make, let us start understanding how to be the best version of ourselves. How can you become the best version, the best avatar, if you will, of yourself?

1. Read great books

Some of the greatest people in the world are readers. I am currently reading the biography of Elon Musk and it says that he has been a heavy reader right from his childhood. Wish I could say that for myself. I picked up reading only in my 20’s and after that, life took over and reading became a difficult habit to consistently maintain. The point is that reading can make you the best version of yourself. You learn about other people’s lives, and that of great people who are the best version of themselves and then you can try and replicate some of what they have done in your own life.

2. Write down your thoughts to understand what is it like to be the best version of yourself

Write down your thoughts frequently. Writing helps in bringing clarity of thought and helps you in understanding yourself. If you are to understand yourself better and be better personally and professionally, make writing down your thoughts a part of your life. Choose a schedule for writing and stick to it.

When you write down your thoughts, you find yourself more self-aware than you otherwise would be.    

3. Create goals and plans

Goals and plans give you direction. It may not turn out exactly the way you envision because life takes over, but it will give you the direction in which you need to concentrate your efforts. Goals, they say, are dreams with deadlines.

Napoleon Hill – A goal is a dream with a deadline.

4. Stay in top physical shape

Work hard to stay fit. You can’t be the best version of yourself if you don’t have the best version of your body. Keeping your body fit takes effort to exercise, eat healthy and sleep. If you ignore your body, you will find that obesity and hypertension will take over, which are common lifestyle diseases and you would find it even more difficult to fight your way through them.

5. Discipline

Discipline is one virtue that separates the high achievers from the mediocre. People who live disciplined lives are able to allot time to every important area in their life. Everybody has 24 hours. But, it takes discipline to be able to make time for health, sleep, family, friends and work.

All areas of our life demand work and commitment. There is no way you would be able to give time to things that matter without discipline.

6. Lifelong learning

Learning doesn’t end with school and college. It is a lifelong process. Keep studying and acquiring new skills. It is a fast changing world and people who are always learning would constantly stay at the top of the game.

7. A positive mental attitude

A positive attitude always wins over a negative attitude. Believe that things will work out for the best and work in that direction. Always look for something positive in whatever happens, you would be the optimist in a sea of negativity. We need more people to think positive and believe in happiness. In order to be the best version of yourself, you need a positive outlook to life.

8. Be open to possibilities

Do not limit your future to your past. Think what’s possible and what you may be able to create. Look to apply what you have learnt to new things and be open to new possibilities. Only when you seek to be the best version of yourself, you will take steps in that direction.

9. Between love and fear, choose love

Love or fear are the 2 key motivations in life for most people. Either they are driven by fear and insecurity, or they are driven by love and possibility. People who are driven by fear do not take big risks in life because they are scared to fail, while people who are driven by love and passion wonder what kind of life they would be able to live if they win.

What if you fly?

10. Take risks

Frankly, it is not easy to take risks. Most people live safe and comfortable lives suppressing their deepest desires because they are scared to take risks. They cannot bear the risk of failure and the difficulties that will come with it.

However, some of the greatest inventions have happened in the world because somebody went out and took risks, to make them happen. They put their lives at risk because they cared about something. What do you care about so much to put everything on the line?

11. Persist

Hey, we didn’t say this is easy.

It is not easy to be the best version of you. You will have to go through a lot physically, mentally and emotionally. Sometimes, you will feel that you must give up because it got quite tough. You will be tempted to give up several times on the journey and people who do not believe in you will entice you to give up and live a normal life. You will need to persist. It will take character and you would know if you have it in you.

12. Make the world a better place

Seek to make the world a better place with what you do. When you seek to make the world a better place, you would have to figure out what’s the best you can do to achieve this objective. You will be forced to find the best in you and it is a worthy objective to achieve.

13. Create a routine around your goals

Yes, this is a part of discipline and deserves to be a separate point. You need a routine that reflects what you are trying to achieve. We need to get into the habit of doing things that carve our best reality and find the best is us. Create that schedule and stick to it.

14. Define what your best means to you

Now there is no standard definition for your best. Nobody can really tell you that you are living your best. You need to define it for yourself. Define what living your best life or the best version of yourself means to you. Once you know what it is, then start by working on making it possible.

15. Do not let age be a barrier

There is a quote in Hindi, when translates to English as It is morning when you wake up. Sometimes, a lot of us realize who we really want to be at a later point in our lives, and then we need to take tough decisions to make that happen. Do not let age be a barrier. There are a lot of people who found their happiness later in life and you can do it as well. You can find the best in you, once you start looking for the best in you.

16. Make friends who reflect your reality

You need to make friends who reflect who you are trying to become. It may feel good to show superiority to people who are below you in awareness in life, but you learn nothing. The only way to really grow is to make friends who are smarter, intelligent and better than you. They have what you want to have. So, you can learn from them.

17. Keep experimenting

It is quite likely that you will not succeed at once and you will have to make a series of experiments before you realize if you are shooting at your best. You need to experiment. You wouldn’t know otherwise.

There is no playbook for a life worth living. We all need to figure out for ourselves.

18.  Seek a coach

It is great to have someone give you feedback on the process. In fact, have a series of people you look forward to, for guidance and support. They are people who believe in you, and your process and they want to help you achieve your goals. Find them, and hold on to them for dear life.

19. Failure will be your friend

You will fail on the way, but just remember that failure is only giving up. When you fail on the way, they are milestones of learning. You need to fail to learn what failure has to teach you.

Consider it as your friend in your journey of growth and finding the best in you. A lot of people give up when they fail. Do not give up, no matter what happens. You are on the most important journey of your life.

20. Push yourself to be the best version of yourself

You cannot be the best version of yourself without getting dusted. Push yourself, sometimes to the extremes. You will be required to test what you are capable of. Why do you think people run marathons? There is hardly a monetary reward to run marathons but people put themselves through excruciating physical pains to finish a marathon. That’s because they are trying to really see what they and their bodies are capable of. You will need to push yourself mentally, physically and emotionally to figure out what you are truly capable of.

As we have mentioned here, it is not easy to become the best version of ourselves. It is a tough and grilling process.

It takes discipline, experimentation, pushing ourselves and testing our comfort zones. Not many people try and become the best version of themselves and that’s why they live cloned lives which look similar to those of most people. If you want to be the best version of yourself, you will have to walk away from the comfort of majority and stand alone. You will have to seek out the best and learn from them. You will have to embrace failure and pain on your journey to understand who you should be to make the finest contribution that your life can make. Can you do that? If yes, please go ahead and embark on the journey.

Thank you for reading.

The purpose of this blog to help you find your happiness. Please read the other posts on the blog, and follow so that you get updates when new posts are published. Please share any posts you like with your friends so that they can also find their happiness. If you have any feedback for me, please leave it in the comments and I would be happy to work on it. If you would like to support my writing and this blog, you may please send a donation through PayPal here.

I appreciate the time you spent in reading the blog and wish you happiness.

Love,

Amarvani