Learning to Love Yourself & The Process...

Hey friends! Coming at you all with another blog post, I'm on a role :). I wanna talk a little bit about loving yourself, the process, and learning to appreciate your own individual journey. I see a lot of things on social media like...

"Omg you are such goals"

"Can I be you"

"Teach me how to get your body"

"Why can't I look like you"

"You make me look bad"

The list goes on.

These type of comments don't settle well with me honestly. It sort of sets you up to fail. I am an advocate for encouraging, empowering, and showing all my followers love! I love love love hyping people up, showing them that what they're doing is important, and pushing them to keep going. I love that. I think it's awesome. I think it can go a little too far though. I think people start to compare their individual journeys to others a little too much. I think they start to think they aren't doing enough, their body isn't nice enough, or just simply don't feel adequate enough to show off their progress that they work SO dang hard for because it doesn't "measure up" to the people they idolize. That's whats wrong. That's why these comments don't settle well with me. 

I think that it's awesome to have role models, idols, mentors, to empower and encourage other men/women. All of those things are okay. But they are just those things. They're people you can look up to, they're people you can encourage and empower, but they're not someone you should wish to be or wish you looked like. They are human. 500K followers, 50K followers, 5K followers, 500 followers... they're still just another person. They still struggle, they still have insecurities, and they have made mistakes along the way just like anyone else. I know it's hard to believe sometimes. It's easy to think that they have everything all figured out and they live a perfect life. That's just not true though. That's not reality. Social media is a lot of highlight reel stuff. 

I want you all to understand and know that you are just as worthy, capable, and important as the people you idolize and look up to. You are unique. You are writing your own journey. You are working on a better you each and every day. That's something to be proud of, in and of itself. Do not degrade your own personal progress, journey, or accomplishments because someone else is doing it faster or differently than you. It's also important to note that you have completely different genetics and factors that play a role in YOUR personal journey. Stop comparing yourself to someone who has a completely different body type, workout regimen, goals,  just stop comparing yourself to anyone that is NOT you. 

Work on yourself. Work on loving yourself everyday. Start loving yourself from the very beginning. Appreciate each and every step you take. It's awesome to have goals, to work towards them, and accomplish them. But, I think it's most important to really love yourself at every stage and make it a point to recognize, love, and appreciate your body for all that it can do. Its freaking awesome that you can set goals to lose weight, gain weight, lift heavy, run fast, do headstands, etc. You can set goals and make plans to do almost anything you want your body to do. That's amazing honestly. You are never stuck being one thing or the other. There is always room to change and improve. It's also completely okay to be perfectly content with where you are at and that's just as amazing. 

Goals take time. Everyone progresses differently and reaches their goals at different rates. Consistency is key. Staying passionate is essential. Not giving up on yourself correlates to long term success. You are writing your own journey. Keep in mind that tough days will occur, you will probably make mistakes, you will most likely have some setbacks, but you WILL get where you want to be with hard work and dedication. Strive to be better, strive to become stronger, have that hungry for success mentality. All of those things make us better. However it is just as important to love yourself at your leanest, love yourself at your heaviest, love yourself through your bad workouts, your mistakes, your ups and downs, your good days, and the days you feel like giving up. Never stop loving yourself no matter what. Each part of your journey is a creation of who you are, where you've been, and where you are meant to be. If you can learn to appreciate yourself and whole heartedly love all of those things, your journey becomes so much more fun and amazing. You are a unique soul. There isn't another person like you. You are the only YOU. Write your journey and enjoy the ride. Have some fun. 

I love ya'll & want you to realize how special each and every one of you are in your own way. You all have something unique, new, and exciting to bring to the table. Embrace it. Love it. Cherish it. Cheers to loving yourself!!

-Mik