I had someone reaching out to me pretty recently asking me if I could still run the way I used to when I played football. They were asking about my physical shape. I started to think about his questions a lot and I realized something after all of it. I realized that I may not be able to run as fast as I used to or jump as high as I used to but I can tell you one thing I will always be able to do. I will always be able to work on being the best me I can possibly be. That will never change.

There will always be transitional phases when you feel like less than because people will judge you for not being as good as someone else. Maybe you just started running every day and someone asks if you can run a seven-minute mile. Well, you probably can't run a seven-minute mile when you first start because you just started! Why would you be able to run so fast without practicing? If you ever want to have hope of getting to that seven-minute mile then you certainly can't let those people discourage you because you are not there yet. You will be! If you live to please then you will always feel behind, but you are not behind. You are under construction right now. You are building yourself, improving yourself, and getting better and better as we speak.

Start being proud of yourself for the fact that you are trying. Start acknowledging the work that you have done and the work that you are continuing to put into being the best version of yourself. Some of us will look at our friends on social media or we will look at famous people and only see the ways that we aren't them. We can look back at our past and we start to feel bad about ourselves. I will be really honest with you guys right now. Sometimes I look back at my past and I remember the shape that I used to be in back when I was playing football and I start to feel bad about myself and where I am now.

Well, let me tell you something: The only person that is keeping me from being the best version of me is myself. I am the only one holding myself back because of fear of failure or embarrassment that I am not who I could be or who I was. All of that is stupid because the only person I should be comparing myself to is myself from yesterday. All I need to do to be better is be just a little bit better than I was yesterday, and that is not really so hard when you start to think about it and put it into practice. So if you want to be the best version of yourself then stop living to please everyone else, stop comparing yourself over and over again, and start putting in the work.

It all starts with you.