A Cliche Post About Being

 I like the above image quite a bit. Partially due to it's creativity and partly because of the words; and also because it looks vintage-esque and I like that kind of stuff. The quote, if you will, reminds me in part of one of my dear friends. I admire her for many reasons, but especially for the way she is her own woman. She expresses herself through fashion and always looks lovely, but has to put up with criticism from others because of it. As surface level as it seems, her ability to overcome expectation and dress in her own style permeates her personality. This beautiful woman dresses in her own mode of fashion (and pulls it off, I might add) and it reflects her unique personality. She isn't swayed (so far as I can tell) by what others may think of her, but she is who she wants to be, not what someone else wants for her.

Isn't that awesome? I think so. 

One thing many seem to struggle with is figuring out who they want to be and following through and actually doing it. 

I'm included in this, don't get me wrong. 

 Of course, we always want to be better. 

(I have an entire other blog post based on that one sentence, stay tuned.)

The thing that distinguishes those who succeed in their personal self improvement related goals and those who don't (from what I've seen, at least) derives primarily from two things: 

1. a positive/negative attitude

2. drive/desire/caring/etc

If you have a negative perception of yourself, it is harder to believe that you're capable of becoming the even more awesome edition of yourself which you totally could be.

And if you don't want it bad enough, you won't get it. Obviously.

I see this in myself especially in two of my weakest areas: in school and in working out. Learning is awesome, reading articles pertaining to psychology, religion, sociology, or ethics could even be considered a hobby, but my educational self esteem has been lower than necessary. Although I am totally capable of more, I've been held back many times by telling myself (and others) that I just don't have it in me when I totally do. Last fall I both over-committed myself socially (as per usual) and took a number of more difficult classes than I'd taken thus far in university, and my parents expressed a lack of confidence in my ability to succeed which reflected the way I used to view myself. However, I sought to overcome these obstacles and did. Looking back, the main changes I made in myself to become successful included a positive attitude about what I'm capable of and a drive to reach my goal.

It's certainly not as easy as it sounds, but it's doable. You can do whatever you want (within reason, let's not break any laws here). Train your mind to think positively (oop, another blog post coming), be empowered, you're way more awesome and lovely and capable than you imagine. Don't care so much what others think. Set goals for yourself. Be what you want to be.

Disclaimer: 

The above image does not mean that unicorns are better than rhinos. 

They're just my personal preference.