There is a lot of emphasis in the personal development and psychology fields on changing yourself to become a different person. This message can be easily interpreted as an instruction that you should strive to transform yourself into the ideal human being as described by the practitioner.
There is a fine line between self-improvement and self-transformation. To improve yourself is to become a better version of you! To transform yourself into someone else is trying to become a different person than you are or could ever possibly be.
A person’s greatest strength is in growing, enhancing, and improving the core person they already are. There is no personal power that comes from attempting to become a hybrid version of yourself based on components of people you admire or idolize either. Your chance of successfully imitating them with your power in tack is zero. Use your heroes for inspiration and not imitation.
The more you accept, appreciate, and love yourself, the more power you’ll have. You’ll have more power in accomplishing what you want to get out of your life and in your relationships.
Self-acceptance is the first step. Self-acceptance followed by self-appreciation and self-love is liberating and extremely empowering. Once you do this, there will be less or zero: self-doubt, attempts to be like someone else, and efforts to try to change an imperfect part of you that’s just you. Consider your imperfects part of your uniqueness that might possibly give you extraordinary talents in other areas. In this sense, they become perks! 🙂
Once I learned that the founder of Walmart, Sam Walton, often lost his briefcase, I no longer reprimanded myself for missing unimportant details like overlooking an item on my grocery shopping list. I simply accepted this part of me and now I laugh about it instead of scolding myself.
Strive to be the best you. Eliminate trying to be some version that a self-help book author, psychologist, significant other, parent, sibling, or friend wants you to be. Take a stand in being you! That’s where your power is.