Stay yourself despite the circumstances

Be happy who you are and stick to your goals

In life we prefer to satisfy the needs of the people around us and accomplish what their dreams are for us. However at some point you will arrive at a goal that doesn’t line up with the people around you. Despite the situation you should focus on the goals that are important for you.

Our world needs people that think differently and people who refuse to accept what is thought to be possible. Without people trying to push themselves through existing barriers there would never be progress in our world on certain areas. For example athletes push through obstacles that are supposed to be unsurpassable. If Usain Bolt wouldn’t have pushed himself so hard for years after years and sacrificing many daily pleasures, we would have never deemed it possible what he achieved. Now that everyone knows it’s possible we might see similar performances in the future.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people. – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Growing up we have friends that have similar environments and situations as ourselves. If we would all think the same and perform the actions there would be no difference between us and we would all reach the same goals. However despite growing up in a same way some dare to think differently and keep on challenging themselves. Force yourself to try out new activities and to have the courage to experiment new areas of life to achieve different results. The world needs people who are willing to be different and to find a new path to walk.

At a young age the world is our playground. Being young allows you to have time, lots of people expect you to not have found your passion yet, you have time to recover from failure and sometimes we have family that still support us. This is the perfect time to get out of your comfortzone, try new things and build on your skills. Being young often means not having a family of your own to take care of, still renting a place and not spending all your time to improve your own home. Take this time to experiment and to find what your goals should be later in life. The more new things you try out now the easier you can stay through to yourself in the long run.

Enjoyment over perfection

Enjoy your time while being healthy

When we aim for a certain goal we often forget why we are going for it. Trying to achieve a healthy lifestyle isn’t a reason to scare us from enjoying life. If we think we are perfect we aim for always being on point and refusing anything that isn’t in line with our goals.

Allthough picking the healthy option all the time may bring you faster to your goal, your enjoyment will decrease and the possibility of achieving your end goal may be at risk. In a perfect world you would never take a step back. However taking two steps forward, one backwards is still progress. No one is perfect and aiming for it is impossible. You are allowed to refuse that one ice cream, but what about the next one? If you still enjoy life this way it’s fine, however if you are sacrificing your enjoyment you might want to rethink what to refuse and how often.

Without the element of enjoyment, it is not worth trying to excel at anything. – Magnus Carlsen

Like world’s best chest player Magnus Carlsen claims trying to be your best in something is only feasable if you enjoy it. The same thing goes for becoming healthy. If you want to become healthy the best way to achieve is to enjoy the path you are taking. Agreed if you are just starting out and have to come from far you might not enjoy the start. The art is to experiment with activities and posibilities to start implementing joy on the way. This can be to search for food you enjoy, a pleasant sport or finding someone to join you on your path. If you choose the last option remember to not solely focus on them. If they quit there should be some motivation left to continue.

When people say it’s very hard to impossible to become healthy the reasoning behind this is that they, or their peers, try to force them to take a different path. For becoming healthy you have to be ready to do what is needed, yet without forgetting to live and to enjoy life. To enjoy life doesn’t mean to eat fast food 5 times a week, neither does it mean to sit in front of the television every day for 6 hours at a time. Enjoying life means to not sacrifice that much that you are no longer willing to continue your path. Find something that is enjoyable for you, yet will start to bring you to your goal.