What Would Your Best Version Do?

Many of you know I am an avid Bruce Springsteen fan; I mean who isn’t a fan of good old country and rock and roll?! OK, so we may all have our individual opinions on ‘The Boss’ and tastes in music, but the reason I bring this up is not because I love his music, it’s because of this brilliant quote of his that I think suits us all well for the January lull.

The quote from Bruce Springsteen says; “A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be”.

This is so relevant when we talk about health and achieving our goals, we do so initially through pain of not liking where we are. Be it our fitness levels, our size or our food choices, and the main reason we don’t like it, is through direct comparison of our current state to others.

Now, the conversation of comparison is a deep and meaningful one for another blog, but in short it can be handy to give us the incentive to change, on the other hand it can force us to be drastic, become someone we are not or live in a constant state of pity and self-doubt.

The main reason I bring up the quote from Bruce is to spur you into making a choice, a decision, to do something that the best version of you, “the man you want to be” would choose to do.

Before you do that, I want you to do a little exercise and identify the two ‘yous’. Your best self and your worst self.

Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle, on the left side write all the words that describe the best you (happy, loving, healthy listens etc). And on the right side, write all the words that describe your worst self (lazy, unhealthy, moody, angry, unproductive etc).

Now you have these two lists, I want you to name each one. What name would you give the best you? For me it’s ‘Dr Tom’, when I show up as the best me, this is who I become. And then a name for the worst you, a name that describes the version of you that you don’t like.

Now you have these two people you can self-assess, and when you are not showing up as the best you, you can simply ask yourself, “What would the ‘best me’ do in this situation”?

Do that today!

Would you lace up your shoes and go for a run? Would you say thank you to all the people you meet today? Would you have an extra glass of water and say no to the wine or beer?

Maybe it is time to do something different, for you.

“A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be”. Bruce Springsteen.