If you ask anyone if they want better - be better, do better, or achieve more compared to where they are presently - most people would answer in the affirmative. Wouldn’t you?
I don’t think anyone would eagerly decide that they want to live their life in the backroads of low achievement. No sane person would make such a decision consciously. That’s one of the main reasons many of us work very hard in life.
On arrival on earth, we spend our first few years of life acclimatizing to this planet with the help of our parents or guardians. Then, almost all of us spend the next 12 to 14 years in various stages of schooling. Some of us take that further as we attend college to earn degrees.
What’s more? After we start working, we continue our education and development through all kinds of learning and development activities such as trainings, conferences, and obtaining certifications. We do all these so that we can ensure and guarantee that we have better footings for success in life.
We take all these conscious steps to be better and to achieve more. However, some of our unconscious behaviors tend to take us down paths that are completely opposed to this.
One of those behaviors is turning a blind ear to people who can make us better, which is why I’m asking you the question:
Who makes you better?
I have discovered that one of the greatest treasures in life is having someone who makes you better. They speak the truth in love even when it hurts. They tell you when you’re wrong and humbly helps you get it right. But the typical human ego in us doesn’t want this. It doesn’t like it.
Most of us prefer to hang around only the kinds of people who validate us. While that is good and should be encouraged, you also need a few people in your life who will challenge you with the truth even when it’s uncomfortable.
Your ego may be may bruised in the moment when they point out your blind spots. But knowing what others see and you don’t, makes you better in the long run. This is especially true when you know that they love you and want the best for you.
So, I ask again: Who makes you better? Are you running away from them or towards them?
Other times, we discount the importance of bad experiences. We distance ourselves from the person who can make us better because they may not be manifesting the type of results we’re looking for.
Maybe they’ve made awful and damaging choices in the past and they’re still reeling from the effects. As a result, you don’t think their advice or guidance is valuable to you. That would be a great mistake.
Don’t let their current state in life prevent you from gleaning wisdom from the harsh lessons they have learned. Their past losses could be your future gain if you choose to stay close; if you allow them to make you better.
Once again, I ask: Who makes you better? How are you eagerly and actively learning from their failures so you don’t repeat the same mistakes they made?