Loving Yourself is the First Step to Success

 

Until two years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. 诚实. I was at the bottom of all of my classes, 我正在经历我的第一次分手(我知道这听起来很愚蠢，但当时感觉就像世界末日一样), I had no ambitions or goals and I had zero confidence. And this wasn’t anything new, I had been unhappy for a while. 但我也很生气，除了我自己，我不关心别人.

讽刺的是，我意识到我的行为是不安全感和自我厌恶的结果. 一度, I remember sitting in my bed, mascara streaming down my face for the fifth time that week, crying over some boy or some bad grade. I don't know how or what happened, but I distinctly remember a small voice inside my head saying, “够了. 别人不能左右你的情绪，你的成绩不能左右你是谁. You are more than your failures and rejections. Get up, and prove everyone wrong.”

我和自己相处的时间越多，我就越意识到我正在成为自己最好的朋友. And as I was becoming this, 我开始真诚地想要为自己创造绝对最好的现实, and started doing things that served this desire. I began to exercise, read, work and volunteer almost every day. 实际上，我开始忘记证明别人是错的，而只是专注于证明自己是对的.

花时间做我喜欢的事情让我意识到我想从事新闻事业. I love to travel and write, 我的好朋友和老师也会知道我一天能问一百万个问题. I loved all of these things before, but now that I cared about my future, and took the time alone to understand what drove me. I was able to turn those hobbies into goals.

从那时起, every decision I’ve made, both in and outside of school, has been in pursuit of this goal. I worked tirelessly and sacrificed way more than I realized, boosted my average by 30 percent in all of my classes, applied myself in all areas of student life, 最重要的是, I continued to practice self-love. 这很重要, because when you love yourself fully, 你所做的每一件事都将服务于你的最高利益和潜力. You will want to create the best possible reality for yourself, and you will consistently do things that ensure this.

Most of the time, a lack of motivation or drive is fueled by self-doubt. So believe me when I tell you that self-love was what boosted my average, self-love is what got me exercising every day, 自爱是让我把自己放在那里，而不用担心被拒绝或失败.

这就像我们在经济学课上学到的:“如果你想让你的企业成长, you need to invest in it.” You need to show up for yourself and put in the hard work. There will be sweat and there will be tears, 有时候会有那么几天，你觉得自己没有任何成长. 但是有一天, you will look back at your old self, who put in little to no effort in the things you now care so much about, and you will see just how far you’ve come.

I am here today to show you all that there is hope for finding yourself. 我也在这里告诉你，唯一能让自己振作起来的人是你自己. 你要对自己的成长负责，就像你要对自己的失败负责一样. You are in control of your life, 你可以做一些事情来让这个世界变得更美好, 所以别再否认了.

在我结束之前, I’m going to give you some advice: pick your goal, something that really matters to you, something that you care about, more than anyone can realize; something that drives you, 激励你, something that lights even the faintest spark in you. Maybe it’s getting in shape, 获得更好的成绩, being accepted into a university, 提高你的运动水平, 无论. 但从现在开始，为了实现这个目标，你必须做出每一个决定. 调整你的态度和心态，使之与那些已经达到目标的人的行动方式相匹配. Use your time wisely and dedicate it to your progress. Because that is how you practice self love, by believing in and consistently working towards your highest potential.

所以，选择爱自己，投资自己吧，因为没有风险，就没有回报.