There is a version of you that currently exists only in potential. You are who you are today based on the habits and decisions you've made over the course of life you've lived. Yes, you can also include the part of life when your parents guided and took care of you - you can even blame them for the parts of you that are undesirable, but blame doesn't get you anywhere in life.
Regardless, you are here now - and, God willing, there is a version of you that will exist in the future, however long that may be. This potential version has (nearly) endless opportunities to become someone who is a better version of you - perhaps even the best version of you. At the same time, this future potential you could become progressively worse - depending on which habits you choose to start, stop, or continue.
This is one of the most fascinating and intriguing things about human beings - it's the ability to have an influence on the future version of ourselves. You certainly cannot control the future, but based on what you choose to do today, you can influence who you could be tomorrow. Even if it is only one thing - you have the ability to decide on improving at least one aspect - a singular habit that can be aimed toward a better version of yourself.
•You can choose gratitude for getting another opportunity to live another day today
•You can choose to expand your knowledge in some way that will help you become one step closer in becoming an expert in your field - or at least learn something that helps you take one step closer in figuring out who it is you want to become
•You could choose to be more active - physically, so tomorrow's version of you is a little stronger and a little healthier
•You can choose to avoid foods/drinks that aren't helping your body thrive and replace them with something a little healthier and more useful to what your body needs
•You can choose to start, stop, or mend a relationship with someone who will help you, support you, hold you accountable, or at least cease one that is of a toxic nature (provided you have attempted to take 100% responsibility for your portion of the relationship)
You can choose any one of these things - or something else that puts you one step closer toward becoming a slightly better version of who you are today. There isn't a single thing you or anyone else can do to change what's been said or done with the past version of you - so let that part go and take action today on something that will change the trajectory of the person you could be.
It's not going to be easy. The parts of you that have been wired (in some cases - deeply wired) will not want you to change, much less improve - because it takes work and most of the parts of you that don't want to change know that work is harder than just remaining the same and keeping your non-growth habits intact. It will require discipline, it will require (in many cases) going against the grain of what the majority of people (including the old or even current version of you) are doing, it might even require a different environment, set of relationships, or a major career change - none of which are easy to deal with, but this is the ONLY LIFE YOU HAVE - there won't be a do-over unless you decide there needs to be one.
You might not exactly know the requirements initially, but if you take the first step today, then another tomorrow, and keep staking steps day after day - it will start to become clear what is required in order for you to continue down the path you should take in order to unleash the potential you that already exists within you. The alternative is much easier. Once you become comfortable with something, why would you want to change that? It might seem fine - everything may be going great and there might not be any signs of needing to make waves to change that, but life has a funny way of teaching lessons - especially if you are not prepared. Either way, habits will compound - and that means they will continue to grow and become more difficult to unwind...whether they are good habits or bad habits.
The potential you is waiting to be discovered. When you arrive to meet that version of you and you look back - will you be proud that the current you chose to take steps toward unleashing the full potential, best version of you, living the life you were meant to and supposed to live - or will you be looking at the life you could have lived and wishing you could go back, knowing you had opportunities to do it differently?
You have choices today with which habits you will start, which habits you can stop, and which habits you must continue. Choose wisely.
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