You are either getting better or you are getting worse but you are never staying the same.
As I have gotten older in life I have realized that I am self-made. My parents and my family had a lot to do with who I grew into, but at this point in my life my decisions and choices have created who I am.
The past 10 years of my life have been an accumulation of small decisions that have slowly molded me into the person I am right now. In just 5-10 years you can drastically shift yourself from where you are right now, to a significantly higher state.
All of this is possible if you are willing to take a step back and ask yourself, – “Who do I want to become within the next 5 years.”
I’m proud of the person I am today, but it is light years away from where I want to go. I think it is really important to bring awareness to the fact that we are a by-product of the decisions that we have made over time and the standards that we have set for ourselves.
Change requires time, focus and effort. If you are willing to look at these next 5 areas of your life, you can manage with precision who you will become 5 years from now.
Who you will become within the next 5 years largely depends on the following:
1. The People You Spend Your Time With
We are social creatures, we have a need to socialize and interact with other people. We want to be accepted and we yearn for relationships. The relationships that we create within our world has an extreme influence over the person we become as time passes by. It is imperative that you realize this within your own personal life and position yourself around people who are going to make you a better version of yourself.
I cannot stress this one enough. Growing up, I would hear the saying — “show me who your friends are, and that will show me who you are.” The premise behind this saying is a hard truth.
Words hold such value within our existence. It is our primary source of communication. The words we say to one another hold power. They bring life to something that otherwise would not exist if left unspoken. With that power, one must look around at the people that they are surrounded with and ask themselves if those words align with who you really are.
If you consistently find yourself hanging around a group of people and you realize that the words that they are speaking don’t align with your character, then you really need to do yourself and those people a favor and move on.
Carefully, choose who you are surrounding yourself with, because in 5 years you will become what you are exposing yourself to consistently. And a big influence is people.
2. The Books You Read
Reading books is one of the greatest ways to increase your knowledge. We all know that. However, not too many people read books. If you are only reading articles and blogs like this one online, you are shorting yourself. I read a-lot and I can say that there is nothing like opening a book and learning new things while forcing the mind to focus.
I listen to audio books, I watch videos, I read online articles and I learn from others, but there is still nothing like picking out a book and dedicating the time, discipline and focus to reading. There is a reason why a lot of people choose not to read—it’s challenging.
The books you read OR the choice to not read books, will largely dictate the person you become within the next 5 years. If you don’t read currently, give it a shot. Order a book online, swing through the local library and pick out 1 book that really peaks your interest. Then dedicate time to read 10 pages each day. Reading is one of the best investments of time you can make.
3. The Food You Eat
If you don’t know this already, the foods that we put into our body is our primary source of fuel. That being said, we need to prioritize our overall health. The best way we can accomplish this is by monitoring the food that we eat and how much of it.
Monitoring and prioritizing your nutrition does not mean you need to go on some restrictive diet regimen. It just means to be conscious and aware of the fact that what we eat and how much we eat is going to dictate the trajectory our health and our metabolism.
I believe we were blessed with the most incredible machine ever created — our bodies. The beauty is that each and everyone of us was gifted one. How we decided to operate that vehicle and how we choose to take care of it, has everything to do with sound decisions. By educating ourselves on the whole foods that we have available to us, we can vastly improve our health.
Without our health we have nothing. Who wants to have a beautiful family but you cannot experience them? Or who wants to be financially free, but not be able to enjoy the freedom? The only way that we can enjoy life the way it was intended for us, is to prioritize your health. The foods you choose to eat today, will have a huge impact on who you will become in the next 5 years.
4. The Habits You Adopt
Within our day-to-day routine we have time. We all get the same 24 hours. How we choose to go about that time, dictates who you will become. We have the power to choose where we want to put our time. Our time, is greater than money. If you don’t watch how you spend your time, you could be holding yourself back from the person that you need to become in order to achieve your dreams.
Implementing hobbies such as: reading, exercise, sports, classes, practicing a skill; all of these can help you to grow and evolve into the next version of yourself. Let’s face it, we are never staying the same. You are either getting better or you are getting worse but you are never staying the same.
By being extremely critical about where we choose to put our time, we can then control our outcome a bit better. Time is a seed. It grows the more you plant it and the more you cultivate it. By managing our time better and using our time to do more hobbies, we can increase our return on investment.
You can put 1 hour into a hobby such as wood working and become a professional carpenter within due time. Later, you can use that skill to bring you income.
Now, take that same hour that you would have put into a hobby and inject it into, let’s say, watching television. That one hour invested is going to bring you little return. I mean the most you can achieve over time is becoming a professional T.V. watcher. 😂
Which I am sure many of us have already mastered (including myself) 😂
But seriously, instead try to monitor your time and put that time into hobbies that can help you build multiple skills and positive habits. Consistent exercise is a great hobby for example that can provide you a great return on your time. Check out The Power of Consistent Exercise
5. The Conversations We Have
I touched on the influence of people and how who we hang around with will largely impact who you will become in the next 5 years. Just as important are the conversations that you have on a daily basis. As I stated earlier, words hold power and if we are not aware of this we begin to let thoughts and energy into our lives that don’t need to be there.
I have found that paying attention to the people I surround myself with and paying more attention to the conversations that I have, are just as important as any other approach that I take to improve who I am becoming over the years. If you are spending your time having debilitating conversations with people, or having conversations that do not allow for you to demonstrate your true character, then you are doing yourself a disservice.
You will always have to have difficult conversations with people. While they are difficult, they always teach you something if you are paying attention. The conversations you want to control and minimize are the ones you choose to have with people who are not interested in seeing you succeed. Focus your energy into conversations that give you an opportunity to make those around you better and those conversations that help you become better too.
Conclusion
Who you will become in the next 5 years has everything to do with you and very little to do with anyone or anything else.
Accepting the hard truth is the very first step towards improving yourself. Life only becomes harder and more complex. If you are not focusing on improving yourself, then you are going to experience unnecessary struggles. In a world that is filled with struggle already, why would you want to bring upon unnecessary pain? Why not try to improve the quality of your character and control the decisions and choices that in the end, will make you who you are.
5 years flies by like nothing. You may think 5 years is a long time now, but as you reflect back, you’ll quickly realize that 5 years is just the beginning to the rest of your life.
Might as well own it!
