It’s that time of the year when people are making New Year’s resolutions. They have a bad reputation, but it’s a good practice in general to make goals.
I have been thinking about why self improvement matters to me. I think that if you are not improving as a person, your health and happiness generally deteriorates over a lifetime. There is a certain lifestyle that will keep you at equilibrium for these two metrics.
I am at a point in my life where I am not exactly happy with where I am. I am not necessarily watching myself improve, mentally or physically, either. This means that I can either watch myself become a worse version of myself every year, be this same person I am not proud of for many years, or improve my lifestyle such that I improve for long enough that I have a life that I am happy with, and I will stay that way.
This is the reason that I pursue self improvement. The goal of being “mentally and physically proud of myself” is definitely a bit of a loose definition that’s worth pinning down, but that is generally what drives me. Perhaps I will never be happy with myself.
I hope that reaching peace will mean achieving the mental and physical fortitude that I strive for, and not downgrading my ambitions to come to terms with the reality of my weakness.