Becoming the best version of yourself
The world has a very narrow view of what a hero looks like. Red spandex pants and a cape seem to fit this narrative. However, this story does not end with the Marvel and DC franchises. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be someone’s hero? Imagine becoming your own!
Matthew McConaughey once gave insight into his hero: him ten years in the future. Watch that video here. If we apply the become your own hero theory to ourselves, we always have someone to look up to.
You may never actually meet this hero, but you can make your younger self proud by following some simple tips.
Maintaining good habits, setting goals, tracking progress with journaling, staying healthy, visualizing success, portraying confidence, conquering your fears, overcoming your inner critic, and maintaining a positive mindset will help you become a hero to yourself.
What does it mean to be a hero? Webster’s dictionary defines a hero as “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.” But what does that really mean for you and your life? How can you become your hero and achieve success?
In this article, we will discuss tips on becoming your own hero. Everyone has the potential to be a hero; it just takes a little bit of courage and determination! Please feel free to click through to your most needed categories here: Journaling, Habits, Goal Setting, Reacting to your Emotions, Conquering your Fears, Your Inner Critic, Health, Visualizing, Confidence, and Positive Mindset.
Many things compose a hero. Heroes have a cause they stand for; they are genuine, kind, inspiring, brave, selfless, positive, action-oriented, etc. Everyone has their own image of what a hero looks like, and if they don’t… they can build one.
Journaling
“How will journaling every day land me a role in the next superhero movie?” one might wonder. While you might not end up starring as the next Peter Parker, journaling is and always will be the first place to start when it comes to personal development, and there’s a good reason for that. Your head is no place to store ideas, track growth, work out life problems, remember questions, etc. You and I both know that leaving things up to memory alone is not the best idea.
Journaling can be used in many different ways, but the most helpful, in my personal opinion, is by documenting all that happens throughout the day/week/etc.
This way, you have something to physically look at and say, “wow, I had no idea I used to be this way,” or “I can’t believe it’s been a month since stopping that bad habit,” or whatever.
Plus, it might help you remember the last radioactive spider that bit you when you start wondering why webs are shooting out of your wrists.
Habits
Becoming your own hero is in part achieved by creating healthy habits. If you don’t have any good habits, now would be an excellent time to develop some! Take action. Like anything good in life, it takes time (21 days, to be exact) to form a habit. So pick something small that you want to work on and go for it!
Some examples of good habits are:
- Waking up early
- Exercising
- Eating healthy
- Meditating
- Reading
- Journaling
- Spending time outdoors
- Doing something creative
- Practicing gratitude
- Maintaining a positive mindset
There are endless possibilities for developing good habits, so find what works for you and stick with it! Becoming your vision of success takes time and discipline, and sticking with good habits is a great way to build self-esteem. Trust me; your future self will thank you.
Goal Setting
If you don’t have any goals, now would be the time to start setting some! Setting goals help you take responsibility for your actions. Hitting goals that you set makes you more reliable to yourself and can push you past your comfort zone to achieve more considerable accomplishments.
Some small goals that you can achieve today are:
- Go for a walk
- Make your bed
- Do a load of laundry
- Pick up groceries
- Write a list of things you’re grateful for
- Call a friend or family member
- Meditate for five minutes
- Organize your desk
You could also set some harder to accomplish goals.
Some of these goals might look like this:
- Going back to school
- Starting your own business
- Saving up for a down payment on a house
- Losing weight
- Running a marathon
The sky is the limit, and anything you set your mind to is possible! Setting challenging goals might push you past your comfort zone, but achieving them will build your personal reliability and self-esteem and create a better life for yourself and your family. Don’t be waiting for someone else to help you hit your goals when you are fully capable yourself!
Setting small goals that are stepping stones to help you reach a larger goal is a great way to work toward becoming your hero because you are forging a path to accomplish more significant leaps and bounds than the younger you could have dreamed of achieving.
Try starting with small, daily goals or tasks that are easy to check off and working towards more meaningful, lengthier goals. Eat an apple today, save the world tomorrow!
Emotions
Your emotions are like the weather- they’re constantly changing. And just like the weather, you can’t control them. What you CAN control is how you react to them. Responding negatively to your emotions will harm your self-esteem in the long run. Heroes have self-control because they can maintain their calm in challenging situations.
“I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” -Superman.
Even if they feel anxiety inside, they can control their reaction to the situation by acting with an action-oriented mindset.
If you’re ever feeling anxious, try telling yourself these affirmations to strengthen your self-esteem and mindset:
- I am capable of anything I set my mind to.
- I am strong.
- I am happy and content with who I am.
- I love myself unconditionally.
- I approve of myself.
Remember, your emotions are constantly changing. Just let them be and focus on how you will react to them. Becoming your own hero can be an emotional experience, but if we dare to take action and deal with these emotions, we can find happiness in ourselves.
Inner Critic
We all have that little voice in the back of our heads telling us we’re not good enough, that we can’t do it, or that we’re not worthy of love and happiness. This inner critic is often what’s holding us back from becoming our own heroes.
The first step to silencing your inner critic is identifying the negative thoughts about yourself. Once you identify them, you can start to challenge and reframe them.
For example, if your inner critic tells you “you’re not good enough,” try reframing it to “I am doing my best.” If your inner critic says “you can’t do it,” try reframing it to “I will figure out a way to do it”. Reframing the way your mind thinks will help you become the person that you strive to be.
Conquering Fears
Everybody has fears. It’s normal. What separates a superhero from the rest of us is that they face their fears head-on. If you want to become your own hero, identify your fears and work on conquering them.
Some people are afraid of failure, so they never try anything new. Others are afraid of success because they think it will be too much work. And some people are fearful of change because it’s unfamiliar territory.
Identify your fear and find a way to work through it. One way to do this is by looking at your fear logically and rationally. For example, if you’re afraid of failing, remind yourself that everyone fails at some point in their lives. It’s part of life. Writing down your fear in a journal and listing ways to overcome it is one way you can beat these obstacles.
Health And Wellbeing
Your health is essential! You only get one body, so you need to take care of it. Bad habits can negatively impact your health and well-being. Doing things such as smoking cigarettes, drinking excess alcohol, and eating fast food may significantly shorten your lifespan. You don’t need to give them up completely (unless you want to), but limiting your intake will improve your health and make you feel better.
Some benefits of quitting bad habits are:
- You’ll save money
- Your skin will look better
- Your sense of smell and taste will improve
- You’ll have more energy
- You become more disciplined
So if you’re looking to be your own hero, start by taking care of the one body you get! Don’t let someone else achieve your dreams because you aren’t physically capable of doing so. You have the opportunity to change and work every day to become a better leader.
Visualize
Another tip to becoming your own hero is visualizing yourself as a success. Doing this exercise will help you understand your definition of success. See yourself as the person you want to be. What do you look like? How do you act? What are your habits?
One way to get started visualizing yourself as a hero is by closing your eye and picturing your favorite characteristics of people you look up to. Now imagine yourself with those characteristics. Take some time each day to close your eyes and visualize yourself in the future. Understanding exactly where you want to be and visualizing what that will look like will manifest that vision into reality.
Remember, it takes time and effort to build these habits, but they are worth it! Stay positive and keep visualizing yourself as the success you want to be. Strive to be the best version of yourself and visualize it to make it happen!
Confidence
One of the most important things you need to work on is confidence. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will. Being confident doesn’t just happen overnight, so start practicing self-love and see how your life changes for the better. Watch how your self-esteem grows and see how you change as a person. Confidence gives you the inner strength to take risks. A confident person sees risk-taking as a means to an end to realizing their dreams.
Having confidence starts with baby steps and is accomplished by doing what makes you happy without worrying about judgment from others. Why should you care about what someone else thinks about making YOU happy? It’s your life! You deserve to believe in yourself and become your hero.
Having confidence will also help you in social situations. When you’re confident, people are drawn to you. They can see that you’re comfortable in your own skin and know who you are. Being confident makes it easy for people to trust you and feel like they can rely on you. So if you want to be a hero, start by working on your confidence!
Mindset
Lastly, let’s talk about the importance of a positive mindset. Maintaining a positive attitude will help make your journey more productive. A positive mindset can make the difference between the happiest and most tortured person in the world.
“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” -Willie Nelson.
You could choose to go through life being annoyed, frustrated, or irritated with little minuscule things that won’t help you in the long run, or you could save your frustrations and become your own hero by fostering positive thinking. Happiness begins with yourself. If you always rely on waiting for someone else to make you happy, you face disappointment.
You should not go through life with disappointment if you have the power to become your own hero; why would you? At the end of the day, you’re the only one who can decide your mindset.
To End this Article,
Personal development is a lifelong journey, and it is no easy feat to become your own hero, but following these tips will make you push past your comfort zone and become the hero your younger self deserves. Following these tips may also give you life-long results and help you have more self-confidence. Now you have enough information to get started on becoming your hero. Just strive for greatness and you will succeed!
Remember, it takes time and effort to build these habits, but they are worth it! Stay positive and keep visualizing yourself as the success you want to be. Be sure to like and share so we can continue helping others on their journey to becoming their own hero. 🙂
Thanks for reading, and good luck!