If You Want To Be A Better Person, You Have To Be A Better Person – Follow Up
In my post from this morning, I decided to try an experiment. My goal coming into the day was to be the ideal person that I want to be so that at the end of the day I could analyze it. Making no compromises, I stepped into the day knowing that it was just a single day. Every decision I made, every action I took, I asked myself “Does this action represent the person you desire to be?”
I learned 2 things:
1. It aint easy. This wasn’t an exercise to be the perfect person, or to be like someone else that I admire, both of those would be feeble attempts at something unmanagable in the long run. No, this was an attempt to be a better version of myself. The person I should be if I don’t let negative influences and weak will-power take me down.
The day started off simple enough, I woke up at 6am like usual. After writing this post, I went outside for a workout in the back yard. I took in some fresh air and got my blood pumping. Soon my son woke up, and I made him some breakfast, we sang songs and we danced in the living room. Exactly the dad I want to be (at least while he’s an innocent 18-month old). I cleaned and did laundry so that when my wife comes home from her out-0f-town trip to Vegas, she doesn’t have to worry about cleaning. Exactly the kind of husband I want to be. By noon I had eaten well, exercised, taken good care of my kid, and did chores to help out my wife. All was good.
When I put MJ down for a nap, I logged on and did some work for my family business. By 3 o’clock when my son woke up, I was worn down but had accomplished a lot. The rest of the day I kelpt at my goal, but it got tougher. I lost some of my will and made some mistakes. As a long distance runner, I would compare this journey to running 100 miles. You don’t just go run it, you train and build up. You finish your first marathon and think that’s the longest distance you can ever do. Yesterday was that marathon, and I limped to the finish line. Now I start my training for longer distances.
2. It’s totally worth it. I love my family and myself, and I want the best for us. I want to make their lives better, I want to be a role model to my son and dependaable to my wife. Too many of us live in a selfish world. And we think that when we do something for someone it’s a big deal, and we deserve a reward. My grand experiment showed me that (cliche alert!) the journey is the reward.
Spend the next few minutes thinking about the person that you want to be. Then go out and be it. Every opportunity, go out and ask yourself what the ideal you would do, then do it. Try it out for 24 hours and let me know what you find!
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If You Want To Be A Better Person, You Have To Be A Better Person
mental health, physical health, social health
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emotional health, mental health, physical health, Self Improvement, social health
[...] Update: Here’s the follow-up article [...]