My Perfect Self

     Happy Self Improvement Month

By: Nina Borja

    It is the middle of September, which means we are in the middle of Self-Improvement Month! No one is perfect, so there is no exception for focusing on self-improvement every now and then, including myself. There are a lot of departments where I need to self-improve, but one of the main things that come to mind are my sleeping habits and self-expectations. I have always been a night owl since I was a little kid. It goes without saying that I blame my phone for the lack of sleep I have, and I'm sure I am not alone in that struggle. 

    Regardless, my lack of self-control with social media consumption always leaves me groggy and half-rested when I wake up the next day. Over the years, as I got older, the lack of sleep I have contributes to a lot of stress in my life which can include school, work, and other responsibilities I'm sure every other college student shares. In terms of self-improvement, I started keeping a sleep journal app where it tracks the amount of time I'm on doing a specific thing on my phone and at what time. It also tracks the amount of sleep I am getting depending on the amount of time I am on my phone at night. Over the course of one week alone, I was able to gain back one or two hours of sleep now. It's not a lot of improvement so far, but productive self-improvement shouldn't be overnight. Improving yourself takes time and effort, so the small amount of progress I've made so far really means a lot to me. 

    This also leads to another way I'm trying to self-improve. Self-expectations for myself tend to be romanticized at times, or unrealistic. By this I mean I can tend to be a little too hard on myself or take my mistakes too seriously. I've been trying to catch myself when I beat myself down, and replace them with positive affirmations with what I am doing well. Mental health has always been a struggle for me, but journaling has always been a great outlet for me, especially when I don't feel comfortable talking out loud about things. Overall, like I said before, self-improvement can be hard. When you have certain habits from years of doing them, it can take a while to break them down and reconstruct them. However, that doesn't mean it's not possible. Nothing in life is easy, but nothing in life is impossible, you just have to believe in yourself.