People who are constantly striving to improve themselves will tell you one thing for sure, one thing they all have in common is having a good role models in their lives.
This is maybe one of the most crucial aspects on the path of self-improvement. As creatures of comfort oftentimes we refuse to abandon our comfort zone, lacking the motivation, not having or not feeling that strong urge within us.
But being also example driven, we come to realize that all of that can sometimes be found among others, or to be more precise, driven from others, your best role models.
Positive role models fill that position quite nicely, and having one or more in our lives more often than not acts as an indicator that we are about to score big in the game of self-improvement.
“People seldom improve when they have no other role model but themselves to copy.” – Oliver Goldsmith.
Our positive role models motivate us, teach us in a specific way to an extent where we uncover our true potentials, and overcome our barriers. They leave us with the opportunity to develop not only fairly innocuous with regards to our personality, but rather alongside with it in the most natural of ways.
We get to witness our traits, see beyond the faults right into their solution. In other words, we are rendered from what could have been our mediocre, and left to develop our greatness in every aspect of life.
And while all of this sounds overpromising, the truth of the matter is that we know the power behind it. We felt it in some instance in our lives, and are now able to recognize the motive, the inspiration and the drive within us once we have someone to direct us, or better yet show us the example by which we will change for better.
The experience is cathartic, and by that the results are great too. And that is the importance of having a good role models in our life.
5 reasons for having a good role models
1. Listening to your role model or witnessing his success may indeed give you a different perspective when trying to solve your problems or the things you are currently dealing with. Good role models may change your outlook on certain issues, and by that change you entirely.
2. If you chose a good role model who struggled with your problems, or had similar obstacles in his life, then chances are he will provide you with the answers to those problems. Or if nothing else give you a different approach to look at.
3. You will try to copy his qualities, and mimic them as much as you can. You may come to pick up things as dedication, discipline, positive outlook on things, courage, self-confidence, compassion, and many others.
4. You will adopt many of his habits too. Take me for example, I personally admire people like Robin Sharma or Steve Jobs. And when I started reading about them more and more, I found out that one of the things they found out to be useful when pursuing self-improvement was getting up early.
I try to make this my habit ever since. You see, you will recognize many habits as being good, and adopt them as your own. And if you have the habits of your positive role models, it’s more likely that you will have the same results in many areas they did.
5. They will act as your coach, and motivate you on daily basis. Great people know to do this. Like succeeding was not enough for them, they now try and influence others to ignite the same passion towards life.
And more often than not they succeed in doing so too. I remember reading one of the books Bear Grylls wrote, titled “The kid who climbed Everest”. Since then I see Bear as some sort of a coach who reminds me to push as harder as I can, and to never give up. That’s the kind of motivation and inspiration great people can give you.
So who can be your good role model?
This is the interesting question now. We are doubtful in many occasions, therefore quite picky. And that is actually good. Because you see, not being reluctant about who we let into our lives to have influence on us is very important. As in many cases the example or the lead can be wrong and misleading.
So how do we choose, being sure that we made the right decision?
People usually know when they see the person who can serve as an example. The feeling is one of profound inspiration, motivation, and finding oneself.
But there are many things you can do, or questions you can ask yourself, that will help you know for sure whether you choose the best role models for you.
- You can look for the people who achieved similar results as the ones you are going after.
- You can look for people who struggled with the same problems as you do in their past, and try to find how they did it.
- You can find someone whose life story is so fascinating, that it simply uplifts you and motivates you tremendously.
- Sometimes we have trouble staying motivated or inspired, so you can look for someone who by his own actions inspires you in a specific way.
- If you are lacking discipline you can look for a good role models that have plenty of it, and teach others how to mimic their discipline and dedication.
It is really up to you. You should first know exactly what are you looking for. You know the one- “When the person is ready, the teacher appears himself”. Or was it “when the student is ready”? Anyway… My point is that you have to know first of all what are you after, and in what aspect do you need empowerment, guidance, direction, inspiration.
After that you can more easily find your good role models.
You can try these questions too:
- What kind of person I want to be ?
- What do I want to achieve and is there someone who achieved that ?
- Is there anyone that empowers me with his/her words, vision, qualities?
After playing with these thoughts, you will have a better picture about who you like to learn from, who you will take inspiration and direction from.
Having more than one good role model
If you read all the way here, then you noticed me saying good role models, instead of good role model couple of times. It’s not a mistake, the “s” was deliberately added. So what does it mean to have more than one? And how is that going to work?
Well, you see, our lives nowadays are more diverse than ever. We are expected to perform our best in many aspects of life, whether we are talking about career, family, and relationships with others.
We are expected to be well read, look good, differentiate from the crowd. And with so much versatile life, and things expected from us, it’s quite logical to find more positive role models to lead us in this hectic lifestyle.
You can look up to someone that succeeded in his career, someone that adopted views and understandings on the world that fascinate you, someone who you want to look like, someone that represents an example when talking about personal life and taking care of the family.
There are plenty of good role models in every aspect of life. You just have to find them.
Having good role models in your life can change you forever. You can become your true self, and then maybe inspire others the way you’ve been inspired. Look for your best role models, your influencers.
Never stop looking, they can be great people who left much behind them, they can be the person behind the corner, or you can find them in your father or mother, or close friend. Good role models are crucial to your self-improvement path.
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