Hemingway said, “There is nothing noble about being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self,” and it’s hard not to agree, especially when there’s so much evidence around us in the beauty of people consistently stepping up to improve themselves and therefore those around them.

Should we be doing more?

Right now with all this social distancing, some of us have a massive opportunity to give back to ourselves. I’m going to go out on a limb and say something broadly optimistic: The more you look within to embrace what’s there instead of work against it, the better the future will be.

And isn’t that what scares us most about not being able to lead the lives we took for granted just a few months ago? When do we get our future back?

The answer is right now.

Reality Check:

We can only control ourselves, and if we have the privilege of our health, a roof over our heads and food in our belly, we have a responsibility to look within at the parts of us we’ve been avoiding because our pace of life allowed it. If we, collectively, all were brave enough to do just that, the world we get back to will be vastly improved from the one we used to know.

As a wellness coach, one thing that is universally clear is that human beings get stuck in cycles that sometimes don’t serve us. I’m not just talking about eating food you think you shouldn’t eat. It’s the constant need for productivity or the nagging thought that we’re not enough or any of the hundreds of other limiting beliefs we’ve told ourselves are true. This is our chance to really look in the mirror and get honest about what we need to let go.

There’s major shift on the horizon, and it’s still not clear if that shift will be for better or worse, but I firmly believe that if we all take responsibility to do the inner work, we will heal not only from the trauma of COVID-19, but of the perfectionism we have been hellbent on achieving at all cost even though we already know it does not exist.

Start Small, But Take Action

To get going on your personal revolution, start small, and stop being afraid of reflection.

When was the last time you let your imagination run wild and pictured what your life could look like in a few years? Set aside your rational mind and dream of your best self. Are your values present in this dream version of your life? Are they truly your values? How do you know, and how will you act on them in a way that makes you feel proud? Big changes always start with small actions.

Once you’ve answered these tough questions for yourself, consider your self-care accomplished for the day. You are now, ever so slightly, a better person today than you were yesterday. It’s definitely a delicate dance this looking within stuff, but it’s a dance we all can do. Keep dancing…

Sending a little extra love to each of you today. Stay well, fam!