Why You Should Never Stop Improving Yourself (Regardless of What People Say!)
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Do people in your life make you feel guilty for wanting to grow? Maybe they say things like “You are perfect just as you are,” or, “You shouldn’t change a thing, I love you for who you are now.” Or maybe the say “you’ve changed” like it’s a bad thing. Can you relate?
I know many of us get pressure from others to not grow. They make it seem like us wanting to change means we don’t love ourselves. But the truth is, wanting to improve, grow, and develop ourselves is a part of loving ourselves.
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I dive into why it’s completely okay to change, regardless of what others may say, and why we should always focus on our personal development.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned, if you're ready to embrace a real, let's get it. Let's go.
How many times have you been told you are perfect, just the way you are. Don't change a thing. I love you for who you are now. It feels good, right? Who wouldn't want to hear this kind of compliment? In this episode, I'm going to chat with you about the pressure we get from others to not grow and why it's completely okay to change regardless of what others say. But before I dive into today's episode, I want to read you one of the amazing reviews that I have been getting on the podcast.
This is from Annalliam. She says, "Her podcasts inspire me. I started following Julie on Instagram one day. I don't remember how I found her, but I remember that I loved her energy for life. On Instagram, she promotes loving herself and tips and tricks that have helped her move forward. Now she has done that, but in a podcast format. I love starting out my mornings listening to this, because it helps determine the kind of day I want to have. And I want to have the kind of day where I honor my body and soul every day. Her podcasts are just that. Honor yourself and show up for yourself. I recommend them to every single woman out there, even if you feel like you have it all figured out. We all have off days and Julie's real about those days as well."
Thank you so much Annalliam for the review. If you haven't already rated and reviewed the podcast, it would mean the absolute world to me. All you got to do is just rate it, review it, screenshot it, and then send it to me in a DM. I will personally send you a voice memo back just thanking you, because it really does help the podcast.
No matter how great it feels when someone tells us we are perfect the way we are, we should never become complacent with who we are as a person, because the reality is we should constantly be growing, evolving, developing, improving. Not because we don't think we're good enough right now, but because we have infinite potential within ourselves and we deserve to explore that potential.
Now, we often fall into a place of contentment and comfort, and if we do that, we'll never truly learn what we're capable of, and who we really are as a person and what we really want. Especially because every day life is going to throw us things and it's up to us what we do with them. If we just constantly stay in this state of complacency and we refuse to grow, we're never going to be able to live up to our true fullest potential, right?
Oftentimes when we set out on our personal growth journey, many people, this could be family, previous people in your life, people that have known you for a very long time. They'll try and hold you back and say things like, "But you should be proud of things you've accomplished up until now. Isn't that good enough?" Or if you're really on a health and wellness journey, and maybe this has been something that you've been wanting to do for a while, but you've been kind of fearful about what people say, or even scared about what they think, and then they do say something like, "But your body's beautiful the way that it is. Why do you need to start doing this?"
These words can convince us that wanting to challenge ourselves into wanting more, whatever that means, it means that we aren't practicing self-love and acceptance. I need to share this with you. You absolutely can love yourself and improve yourself at the same time. You can accept yourself and develop yourself at the same time and you can embrace yourself and change yourself at the same time. You don't have to choose. You can absolutely be both and do both.
A great example of this is the body positivity movement. Yes, yes, yes, you know I am the biggest advocate for loving your body, but I am also the biggest advocate for honoring your body with movement and nourishing your body. And I think that you should love your body, yes, at any size. But I don't think that that should be an excuse to not honor and nourish your body. I don't think you should say, "I love my body no matter what, so because of that, I'm just going to eat Skittles all day, every day."
That's not loving your body, that's not nourishing your body, because honestly, nourishing it is a part of loving it. And I think it's super, super important to accept and embrace your body for exactly what it is right now. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't also strive to change your body and grow your body and see what your body's capable of. You don't have to choose one, or the other. You can do both. You can apply this same mentality to any aspect of your life, whether that be your career, your relationships, your hobby, whatever that is for you. Growth and self-love actually work better together. It's harder to accept yourself when you aren't improving yourself. It's hard to improve yourself when you aren't accepting yourself. Am I right?
So never, never, never let anyone make you feel bad for wanting to grow, because growth doesn't mean you don't love who you are right now. It means you do love yourself and that's why you aren't going to deprive yourself from reaching your fullest potential. Those who truly love you won't hold you back from wanting to grow, develop, and improve. If you loved this episode, I know you'll also love episode 14, How I Stopped Feeling Like a Failure. So be sure to go back and listen to that one if you haven't already, or if you have, go back and listen to it again.
In this episode I share three important things that I know will help change your perspective and I've linked that episode 14 in the show notes for you to easily tune in. That is all that I have for you today. Remember this, you can love and improve yourself at the same time. You can accept and develop yourself at the same time, and you can embrace and change yourself at the same time. You don't have to choose. You can do both and you can have both. All right. I love you. Be sure to share this episode with someone that you feel would benefit from it. Be sure to screenshot it, post up on your story. Tag me, Julia Ledbetter so I can see who's tuning in. I love you guys and I will talk to you guys in the next episode.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the Gram, be sure to do so Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily, post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface, so go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.