steps to an awesome self

I recently unearthed my journal from 2019-ish and, reading my past entries, I discovered that I was such a happy and optimistic person. I often ranted about [redacted] and heavy workload (what’s new?), but in overall, I was in a far better place, mental health-wise, three years ago.

Here’s an entry I wrote on August 18, 2019. It reeks of high self-esteem, fragile simple-mindedness, and an excessive use of exclamation points (!) so why don’t we soak on that while it’s still potent?

steps to an ҉ awesome ҉ self

1. Choose happiness.

Stay away from hobbies or people who do you no good. Happiness is totally free, and there is no legal offense in weeding out the people who don’t deserve to be around you.

2. Respect everyone.

Go beyond appearance, wealth, educational attainment, attitude, posture, fashion, age… everyone deserves some respect—and choosing to respect others saves you from hassle.

Respect is:
-acknowledging their existence
-acknowledging—not necessarily agreeing—with varying opinions

3. Stop pursuing perfection!

Be the best that you can be without needing validation or other people’s approval. You are awesome just the way you are! You don’t need to change or distort yourself just to fit in.

4. Be grateful!

Complain less; compare less. Things and people that come to our lives each hold valuable lessons that we learn from and change us for the better.

Be thankful for everything—and see the positive side of things always.

5. Have a specialization.

Stand out by doing something that you know only you can do excellently. Own yourself—you totally rock!

6. Don’t flatter yourself.

You aren’t the center of attention. You are less important than you think. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.

7. Challenge yourself.

There is growth outside of your comfort zone. Diamonds are formed under lots of pressure.

8. Be genuine.

And sincere. Hypocrisy does not bring you anything good. It’s not your job to please and help everyone… and neither [theirs]. Stop faking yourself.

9. Don’t settle.

If things get dangerously comfortable—you’ll feel the unhealthy stagnation. Don’t settle. Don’t settle for a job under your credentials simply because you hate being challenged. Don’t settle because of fear of failure. Seek growth.

10. Love wholly.

Life is too short to fool around. Be sincere in relationships. Work hard. Love hard.

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I attached below the pages of this 2019 journal entry. Yes, that’s my handwriting and my poor taste in decoration.