The Better You

TheGunslinger

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Growing up, a lot of us construct dreams for ourselves. I'm not just talking about dream jobs, dream women or dream houses. I'm talking about that fantasy you've always had.

You know the one I'm talking about.

You're the knight in the shining armour. The cowboy in his dusty hat, drawing a weathered pistol from a leather holster, his grizzled chin dark and manly. The astronaut, the fireman, the air pilot - men who cast out into the deep, foreboding unknown and into environments none but the insane and the brave would dare navigate. The scientist who invents the cure for cancer or perhaps, more simply, the hero who saves the day.

The better you.

Sure, that list was corny. Some of the listed might even be true. The thing is, we all have that 'better you', trapped deep down inside of us, whether we know it or not. When you look at something you've thought of doing, but never have, be it asking a woman out or going sky diving and you get a feeling, deep down in your gut or scratching at the back of your head. When you're doing something you know you shouldn't, for whatever the reason, be it drinking excessively or being AFC. When you feel incomplete, feel you should be doing better, but just can't get that promotion due to the costs of time and energy you're not willing to sacrifice.

That's your better you, fighting to get out, desperate for you to embrace and become him.

He is in you. And if he's in there, he must have come from you, right?

That dream you've had since childhood, that fantasy of a man you were sure you'd never become; wealthy, strong, attractive, confident, intelligent, sociable... whatever his qualities may have been or are, it is all attainable.

But you've been lazy, haven't you? You've been too timid to risk what you have, the security you possess, to attain a better future. The pleasure of imagining that better you, of imagining the better house, the beautiful woman and the stylish car, promising yourself, however empty, that you'd achieve and attain all of these grand things tomorrow, the next day or the week after, was, is and will always be enough, right?

I'm telling you, right here, right now, that it is not enough.

It isn't.

Throw those fantasies out of the window. Throw them out, cast them aside and never think about them again. Now you know you can attain the better you, because he's always been inside of you, waiting to jump out, you don't need those fantasies to comfort and console you during your long, lonely nights.

You are a man. You do not spend your time dreaming the days away. You do not spend time oggling over those things, those women you do not have. You do not lead a pointless life, a directionless life.

You take the lead, you take action and you do what you have to do to become the better you.

Knuckle down. Work hard. Break down all of the things you've wanted to be and set yourself goals and targets that will eventually lead you to gain those attributes or possessions.

So many of us nowadays are enthralled and entrapped by our comforting fantasies rather than living them, becoming them.

Our society doesn't help this.

We could go out and live the life we've always wanted to, if only we exert the effort, break the sweat and risk the security of our directionless lives, but the TV's in front of us, the computer monitors on our desks, they show us those lives. Show other people leading them, taking those risks we'd never dream of taking. Why should we become those people if we can watch them, dream of ourselves in their position?

You and I both know that it's not enough. That's why you're here. That's why I'm still here and still working hard, always working to attain a better future.

Cast off your chains, come back to reality and forget your fantasies. Work hard and never give up. You'll never need those fantasies in your head once you become the king of your castle, the lord of the land and the alpha you've always dreamed of being.

The better you.

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Tl;dr: Stop procrastinating, get off your ass and go live your life.
 
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Korrupt

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In complete seriousness, it was touching.

+1 rep
 

Iron

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TheGunslinger said:
Our society doesn't help this.

But why should anyone feel the need to improve? We can just push for more acceptance programs in the gov't and schools and force people to spoon feed us whatever we demand. /Sarcasm

Especially for younger guys, I think the biggest threat to self improvement are video games. Sure they can be fun, especially together with friends, but for every casual player between age 18-25, I find a dozen serious "gamers" who lose so many hours in a week immersing themselves in their simulation reality whilst other guys are out improving skills, getting exercise, meeting girls, and gaining experiences/stories to tell to others. I can't begin to describe the number of people who have so little non-XBOX related stories to tell because they never put down the controller long enough to have a few.
 

CaptainJ

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Damn that was a good read, and it really hit home because I can really relate to everything you said.
 
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