A letter to myself (the priority)

 

Hello future Dan,

This is present Dan writing to send you some much needed inspiration and motivation to KEEP GOING!

We are going to start with a little reminder of why life is good right now, and what we had to sacrifice and build to get to this point.

First and foremost, we hit subscribe on the theory that “you have to do hard things to make life easy.”

When you were diagnosed with Cancer, when your sister unexpectantly passed, when some of your closest friends called the cops on you for getting angry and sending some regrettable texts (which was all on you for not controlling your emotions), and your best friends trashed your yard on your 40^th bday and then blacklisted you from their lives after bringing it up… you could have easily threw in the towel. Even one of those things could potentially send someone into an un-recoverable tailspin.

But you used it for good in your life instead of the other way around, you went to work on yourself and you eliminated the negative people, influences and situations from your life in almost totality. The people from the past that you kept, you defined boundaries and changed how those relationships affected you. You understood that the only person that can truly affect you and truly initiate change is YOU. That is no small feat, as you read this please recognize that you put in the work to make this life better.

You focussed on the good things in life; you went to the gym hard and now look in the mirror (you are getting jacked!) Look at your emotional control (you can handle situations and relationships in a much healthier way). You cut out the constant drinking and partying (and added some healthier diet factors) that was making you tired and hungover most weekends. This all allowed you to focus on the things that matter (your family and the healthier relationships in your life).

The last thing I should mention, which is more a symptom of the change than the change itself, is you started loving yourself. You haven’t felt that in a long time (if ever) and that is absolutely huge for you. You should be proud of how far you’ve come and how you’ve committed to all these changes in life and mentality. I want to both thank you and encourage you to keep loving yourself. You always had this inside, it just took some drastic events to pull it out of you, thank you for taking the path that allowed that to happen.

You are doing it, so KEEP GOING Dan. Keep the change, don’t look back, keep fighting hard for the good life. It’s worth it in every sense.

Love,

Present Dan