How to Be Your Best Self In 7 Simple Steps

Wondering how to be your best self? This ultimate guide includes 7 simple steps that you can start today to help you on your journey to becoming your best self.

You know that feeling when you’ve spent a little too long scrolling on social media and you start to feel this weird mix of inspiration and frustration?

On one hand, you’re inspired by the people you see and all the cool things they’ve accomplished. On the other hand, you feel this weird sense of frustration from comparing your life to these super glossy images and reels.

Nowadays, a lot of people are making money from selling some version of their “best self” on the internet. And comparing ourselves to these highly curated feeds is generally not helpful.

But maybe there’s a little voice in your head that’s also telling you that you’re capable of more – that there’s a version of you that’s yet to live out her full potential.

If that’s the case, then you’ve come to the right place because today, we’re breaking down 7 simple steps to becoming your best self.

And I don’t mean how to become a carbon copy of the influencer you admire; I mean reflecting on what’s really important to you and making small changes that add up to being the best version of you.

This is about tapping into your unique values, living authentically, and creating a life you genuinely love.

So, if you’re wondering how to be your best self, keep reading for this ultimate 7-step guide filled with practical tips, interactive activities, and manageable steps that you can start today on your journey to becoming your best self.

Woman walking on a sandy beach toward the ocean and pier, symbolizing the journey to becoming your best self.

What Does It Really Mean to Be Your Best Self?
Why Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone Matters
How to Be Your Best Self In 7 Simple Steps
A Little Pep Talk
Final Thoughts on How to Be Your Best Self

What Does It Really Mean to Be Your Best Self?

Before we get into what being your best self means, we need to talk about what it doesn’t mean.

Striving for perfection and comparing yourself to others are not your friends when it comes to living authentically and creating the life of your dreams.

Instead, it means aligning your life (and your actions) with what truly matters to you. It’s all about understanding your unique values, strengths, and weaknesses and making intentional choices to live fully and genuinely every single day.

When you embrace your unique journey of how to become your best self, magical things start to happen: your confidence grows, your relationships improve, and you find a deeper sense of happiness and fulfillment.

Why Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone Matters

Your journey of becoming your best self will require you to step out of your comfort zone. While your comfort zone might feel safe and familiar, it’s keeping you trapped in your current version of you.

The best way to experience significant personal growth is when we get a little bit uncomfortable. By making an effort to challenge ourselves and embrace discomfort, we create space for positive change.

Adopting a growth mindset is critical on this path. We all know that with the right mindset, anything is possible, challenges become opportunities, and setbacks become lessons.

Overcoming a limiting belief around what we’re capable of can propel us forward in this journey and set the stage for becoming our best selves.

How to Become Your Best Self in 7-step s

Step 1: Get Clear on What “Best Self” Means to You

It will probably not come as a surprise that the first step in becoming your best self is reflecting on what “best self” even means to you. After all, you can’t become something you haven’t even defined yet.

This step is all about getting clear on who the best version of you is, how she shows up each day, and what she prioritizes on a day-to-day basis.

We’ll do this in two steps. First, you’ll create a vision board to visually represent this ideal version of you. Then, we’ll look at your life satisfaction in 8 different aspects of your life.

Create a Personal Vision Board

Vision boards have become super trendy recently, but it’s for a good reason. They are a powerful visualization tool that’s proven by science to change the way you think and behave.

When done right, they help you paint a visual picture of your dreams, and because your brain sees this dream, it starts to believe it’s real, and you begin to act in a way that ladders up to that vision.

It’s super simple to do; just gather images and quotes that inspire you and represent different aspects of your dream life. Then, you’ll want to put them together into a single composition. You can do this digitally or print your images out and do it by hand.

In the interactive workbook we’ve put together, there’s a drag-and-drop template that makes it super easy to put together your vision board in just a few clicks.

Reflect on Your Life Satisfaction

A vision board is all about painting the picture of your best self. Now, we want to understand the gap between current you and ideal you. To do so, reflect on your life satisfaction in each core area of your life, from personal relationships to career and finances.

In our “How to Be Your Best Self” workbook, we’ve created a simple chart where you can fill in your satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5. When you connect the dots, it helps you visualize the areas in your life in which you are excelling and the ones that need a little more prioritization. This exercise is meant to clarify where to focus your energy when working toward being your best.

Step 2: Set Actionable and Value-Driven Goals

Now that you have a vision for how to become your best self and you’ve gained clarity into the aspects of your life that need your focus and attention, your next step in becoming your best self is setting clear, actionable goals.

Goal setting is an incredible tool when it comes to accountability and self-improvement. Without goals, we have nothing to strive toward.

However, if we go too big, we can get overwhelmed and burned out. That’s why we’re focusing on small changes.

In this step, you’ll write 5 small goals – each backed with an action you can take on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to stay on track.

For example, if your goal is to cultivate a more positive mindset, reflect on the actions you can take to do so, such as daily gratitude journaling, repeating positive affirmations, or meditation.

In the end, each goal should sound something like “Cultivate a positive mindset through journaling about 10 things I’m grateful for every day.”

a list of best self healthy habits including meditation and journaling among others

Step 3: Build Healthy Habits to Sustain Your Best Self

As mentioned earlier, the enemies of long-term change are overwhelm and burnout.

But do you know what its best friend is? Healthy habits.

Habits are the daily activities we repeat without even thinking about them and they make up the majority of our actions in a day.

In other words, our habits are us, and we are our habits.

Plus, the best thing about them is that once they are formed, they don’t require regular decision-making and constant motivation to sustain them.

In this step, we’re going to dive deep into your morning and evening routines by mapping out your current routines and the ideal versions that you’re best self does on a daily basis.

This will be a starting point for choosing the 5 main focus areas for how to become your best self.

Here are essential habits you can incorporate into your morning and evening routines to get you started:

Practice Gratitude: Write down three things you’re grateful for daily.
Daily Meditation or Mindfulness: Spend just 5 minutes breathing deeply.
Healthy Eating: Incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your meals.
Daily Movement: Walk, stretch, or find a workout you genuinely enjoy.
Journaling or Therapy: Regularly reflect on your thoughts and emotions.
Positive Affirmations: Speak kindly to yourself.
Prioritize Sleep: Aim for at least 7 hours nightly.
Read Daily: Dedicate time to learning and personal growth.
Speak Your Truth: Be honest and authentic with others.
Hobbies and Passions: Make regular time for activities you love.

Step 4: Recognize Trade-offs: Every “Yes” is Also a “No”

There are only so many hours a day, and that means that everything you say yes to is also a no to something else on your journey to becoming your best self.

When we fail to make the changes we’ve set out to, it’s often because we haven’t acknowledged and made peace with the sacrifices they require.

In this activity, you will choose the top 5 changes you want to make in your life in order to become your best self. Then, you will reflect on what you need to give up in order to do them.

You’ll also go one layer deeper and acknowledge any underlying fear behind making that sacrifice.

It might look something like this:

Goal: Wake up at 6 am every day.
Means saying no to: Staying up to watch an extra episode.
Which brings up fears of: Not having enough time to relax and do the things I want to do.

On your journey of being the best version of you, you’re going to run up against all kinds of buried fears and doubts and the first step in conquering them is simply acknowledging they are there.

Step 5: Track Your Progress & Check In With Yourself

Keeping track of your progress is key to staying accountable and motivated. It gives you the tangible evidence you need to feel a sense of accomplishment, which also helps to boost your confidence and keep you focused.

In our “How to Be Your Best Self” workbook, we’ve included a habit tracker that you can use to log your daily habits over the course of a month. It’s a powerful way to visualize your consistency and maintain accountability and motivation.

Though you don’t need to strive for perfection, it will help keep you on the right path by keeping track of little efforts and small steps on your journey to being the best version of you.

\If you’re interested in making habit tracking a part of your daily routine, we have a complete bundle of daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly habit trackers for just $5.

After reviewing your progress and consistency, it’s important to take a moment to check in with yourself.

Becoming your best self is a dynamic journey and reflecting on your goal on a regular basis is crucial. Take a moment to ponder these questions:

Do your goals still feel meaningful?
Have your priorities shifted?
Is there anything you’ve outgrown or want to change?

Being open to adjustments ensures your journey remains authentic and fulfilling. It’s all about learning and growing, not being rigid and unforgiving.

Step 6: Be Gentle & Kind

For many of us, we can be our own harshest critics. And it actually comes from a place of self-protection. We subconsciously believe that if we criticize ourselves first, the judgment of others will sting less.

However, this doesn’t work as intended, and instead, we develop negative associations with positive behaviors. Every time you “punish” yourself for failing, you create a link between that behavior and the punishment.

To counterbalance this behavior, we can instead repeat positive affirmations of self-acceptance and positivity. In this step, you will create three of your own affirmations to use along your journey of becoming your best self.

When you find yourself being particularly harsh or negative, simply repeat one of your affirmations to reframe your internal narrative.

Step 7: Celebrate Yourself Often

Change is difficult, and it’s easy to become really hard on yourself. The process can feel heavy and emotional and maybe even lonely.

Affirmations are a tool you can use every day to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. However, it’s also important to take time to celebrate our wins with others.

Once you’ve completed one month of making progress toward your 5 small changes, it’s time to plan a little celebration.

This can take on so many different shapes and sizes, so let your imagination run free and brainstorm some ideas to acknowledge your hard work.

Choose one, turn it into a reality, and soak up all the acknowledgement and praise to fuel your continued journey toward becoming your best self.

A Little Pep Talk

There’s lots of talk about living your best life, but the truth is, it takes intentional action. Learning a new skill, maintaining a positive attitude, and continuously reconnecting with your sense of self can have profound effects on your everyday life.

But one of the most important thing to keep in mind is progress, not perfection. You need to fall in love with the journey, or you will never realize the result.

Final Thoughts

Becoming your best self is not about chasing perfection. It’s all about embracing growth and authenticity and living in alignment with your unique values.

Being the best you can means acknowledging that your journey is totally your own; it’s beautiful, messy, and perfectly imperfect.

So give yourself some much-needed grace, stay open to change, and keep showing up for yourself.

The good news is that every conscious effort you make takes you in the right direction toward a better life.

Remember to celebrate each small success no matter if it’s the last time you bit your nails or just embracing a growth mindset in everyday life.

A win is a win, and on a journey toward being your best self, it’s all worth celebrating!

Sending love,

A small note to my readers – Over here at VLHhealth, we occasionally include affiliate links in our posts. This means that if you purchase using our links, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.