We’ve all heard this quote, “it’s all about perspective.” Unfortunately, the perspective we are ingrained to take isn’t of our own but rather of others. We end up comparing everything we say & do to others’ views & standards. We often live for people’s approval and acceptance, and such perspective is so common in the health & fitness industry.
More often than not, the actual reason behind why people seek change is derived from others rather than ourselves. Think about it. When someone wants to lose weight, he or she wants to be fitter and/or more beautiful…judged by the eyes of others. Men desire to be muscular to impress women or other men. Athletes want to jump higher or run faster so that the scouts will be impressed. This is such a screwed up way of thinking yet we were taught to do so ever since we were little.
Guess what? In my opinion, it’s only getting worse. Social media has been detrimental to such way of thinking because well, that’s its main function. I know it was a well-intentioned creation in order to connect people. However, it “connects” people by comparing people’s social life to others, and we provide our approval by “liking” other people’s posts.
I wish I could say I am not a part of this type of thinking. Sadly, the reality is that I am absolutely guilty of this, and as a result, it seems to take me to this place of uncertainty, doubt, and inadequacy. When I start comparing myself, as a coach/trainer, to the other coaches I can go down this spiral of negative thinking like inadequacy because there are and always will be coaches that are way more knowledgeable and skilled. When I compare myself, as a friend & family, to others, I feel disappointed by the lack of effort and the relationship statuses or lack thereof. I come up short of many things and it can lead me to a hopeless place.
The thing I realized is that I need to change the way I think. Without changing the way I compare myself to others or certain “ideas”, I’ll always end up in this same place.
That leads me to the main point of this blog post: It must start with loving yourself. As cliche as that may sound, by find love for myself, I am able to accept who I am, the good and the bad. By loving myself, I am able to see my self-worth and I can begin to seek for the things I want & deserve. With this self-love, I can begin to figure out the life I want. When all the motivational speakers and self-improvement books talk about “self-awareness” I learned what they mean is finding love for yourself. When you become self-aware you can love yourself, and vice versa, by loving yourself you can become aware of yourself.
I’ve been sharing the importance of fundamentals in my previous posts. With that said, maybe, the fundamental of it all is finding love for yourself.
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