Today I'm Growing
Hey I’m Anna and I’m here to help you grow into the best version of yourself. Physically, mentally and in all areas of life. Growth is powerful because it makes us feel stronger, more confident, healthier, and happier. I want to find out all the tips, tricks, habits, and routines - everything we need to know to GROW. I want to do this together with you in this podcast.
New episodes the first Tuesday of each month.
Today I'm Growing
How to be yourself
Hey team, welcome back to my podcast Today I'm growing! Ever felt like you're trying to live up to an impossible standard, one shaped by what everyone else thinks and your own tough self-criticism? Let me share my journey with you, from a small town in Austria all the way to buzzing Berlin. I found self-love and how be myself in a world full of social media pressure .
I'll talk about how hard it is trying to keep up with everyone else, from following trends to meeting beauty standards. But it's not all tough—there's good stuff too, like finding true friends and learning to love your own path.
To wrap up, I want to share what I've learned about loving your flaws and growing every day. Every day is a chance to be more you, without worrying about what others think. Let's start a chat about being ourselves, celebrating our wins, and finding happiness in being unique. This is just the start of us growing together.
Hey, team, welcome back to my podcast Today. I'm growing. I'm so excited to have you here. I'm so excited to talk about today's topic. We're going to talk about how to be yourself and before we start this podcast episode, let me share with you that in the last couple of years, I feel like I couldn't be truly myself, and maybe you can relate and maybe you know that feeling of not feeling really free to just be yourself, like you constantly try to fit in, you constantly try to get accepted, get loved, and maybe you can relate and maybe you feel like the exact same when you go to school or when you go to work or within your family or friend circle. It's a really, really weird feeling and it just feels like you are in this cage. You are in this cage and you're trying so hard, trying so hard to fit in. And that's the first thing I actually want to talk about today with you. Like, just the last couple of years, that's how I felt. I really felt that I really tried. I tried really, really hard. I tried hard to fit in. I tried hard to get accepted and, at the end of the day, get loved by everyone, by everyone around me, online and offline.
Speaker 1:So the last couple of years where to start Like, I was really reflecting and I was thinking why do we try to be someone else? Why do we try so hard to not be ourselves? Like, why do we think that? And to me, I think I had many different kind of thoughts. I had many different things that I thought of myself, and I think the number one thing that I struggled the most with was I constantly felt like I am not good enough. Like I'm this girl from this small little village in Austria. What do I think Like? What do I think who I am? And the craziest to me is now when I think back.
Speaker 1:I moved to Berlin, I moved to Germany and, coming from Austria, I found this little small village. It felt pretty overwhelming and it felt like everyone else is just so much better than me. Everyone is just so much better dressed than me and so much cooler than me. I felt so small and I just felt not being good enough, which is so stupid because I don't know why I felt that way, but that's just how I felt when I came to Berlin, for example, I also started working in the social media industry and we all know that social media can have such a negative impact on us when it comes to not feeling good enough, not feeling pretty enough, not feeling skinny enough or just like in general, like we constantly compare ourselves or our lives to someone else.
Speaker 1:So starting to work in the social media industry also made me feel like so many times. It made me feel like I'm just not good enough. And all the other creators that I was checking out and that I saw I constantly compared myself and I always felt like, wow, they're doing such a better job than me. They have something to say, something meaningful to say. I don't have something to say. That's how I felt all the time. So I was comparing myself to all the other creators on social media, to other fitness creators, especially in the fitness bubble and the fitness industry.
Speaker 1:I don't know how many times I felt like this might sound crazy to you now, but I had so many times when I felt like my body isn't good enough. I think that's something really dangerous in the fitness industry, not just as a viewer, as a consumer of this content. Also, working in the fitness industry, working in the fitness social media bubble. It's crazy, actually, because I constantly felt like my body is just not good enough. And, yeah, there is a lot of pressure. Honestly, there is so much pressure to look a certain way, but it's just this pressure because you think of yourself that you have to look a certain way. I felt like I always have to be super lean and I have to show my abs and I have to have these arms and these legs and this booty, and I was so judgmental on myself and on my body and I'm so sorry, actually, when I say that I'm so sorry for myself and what I did to my body and what I was so thinking about my body and that it was just constantly not good enough. And there were so many other things, there were so many moments when I felt like posting on social media, but at the same time, I thought, as I said before, others post better content than me. And why should I even post? Because my life is so boring. I'm really just this normal girl and I thought constantly that everything that I share, everything that I have to share, it's just too boring. My outfits aren't interesting enough, my look isn't interesting enough. I'm just boring, I'm just not good enough.
Speaker 1:If you can relate to any of these things that I said, or if you can relate to not feeling good enough and you feel like you have to change because others are just better than you or more beautiful than you, or faster than you, or whatever. I really hope I can open your eyes and I can show you that this is just the way you think about yourself. You made these things up for yourself, nobody else. You are also the only person who can change the way you think about yourself. It's just you. It's your thoughts, it's your mind, it's you, and if you want to feel better and if you want to feel free, I think that's a feeling that I want to talk about today and that I want to describe today Feeling free. If that's what you want, you have to change something. Nobody else can do this for you. And there are more things why I felt like I have to change myself. I have to change the way I walk, the way I talk, the way I do things, especially when I had been with the wrong people.
Speaker 1:Being with the wrong people can have a huge impact on you and the way you behave, the way you just do things, and I remember a couple of situations. For example, that, to me, is one of the most present things. It still happens to me if I'm with the wrong people, when they keep asking me, like I told you in previous podcast episodes, I'm single since more than eight years now. I feel like I don't even count the years anymore. I don't know, but I told you I'm single since here. So there are these friend circles. I don't want to say friend circles because these are not my real friends. These are not the friends that accept me the way I am. The real friends. Honestly, they love me, no matter what and no matter what I do, what I say. They just love the true and not.
Speaker 1:But being with the wrong people, being with the wrong circle, I keep getting these questions of like, wow, you're still single. Oh, my God, you're still single. You don't want to go out on dates? Do you never feel lonely? You must feel lonely, right? So I keep getting these questions and I mean they can ask me these questions, I don't care, but I feel like they expect something from me and what annoys me is that I'm changing. Sometimes I'm changing into a different kind of person and instead of standing up for myself and being like, yeah, I'm single since years and I'm loving it, I'm loving my life right now I change and I suddenly act like a person that that is just truly not me and I'm like, yeah, I go on dates, and the crazy thing is sometimes I go on dates, then just that I have to share a story for them Like, why am I doing this? This is not what I want, this is not what I'm feeling right now, so why am I changing for them? But that's because I'm with the wrong people and I try to fit in and I try to get accepted by them. I'm scared that's the only thing. I'm scared that they will judge me. I'm scared that they will talk something bad about me, but why do I care? These are not my friends. I don't know. That's just one of the situations.
Speaker 1:And another situation when it comes to being with the wrong people, for example, is this again when it comes to clothes. Like I have this other circle where we meet, we go out for eat, we go out for dinner, we go out for lunch and everyone's coming with their designer clothes on and with their designer bags. And of course, I also love designer fashion, designer pieces. I don't have many. I think I might have one blazer or one item that I'm really obsessed with that I really love. But I'm not really into designer clothes Not at all.
Speaker 1:But this circle when I'm with them, I really feel like I have to have these designer clothes. I really feel like they put pressure on me that I also wear something that's super expensive, that's super trending. Usually that's not me, but when I'm with these people, when I'm with the circle, I really try to be like them and I'm kind of scared to wear a normal sweater or to wear normal pants or the shoes that I wear every single day, because I feel like they judge me for that. But that's just me. I like wearing normal, comfortable, sporty fitness clothes all the time. Just let me be me. And I also think, yeah, there might be one person who would judge me, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:We don't have to be on the same line or on the same I don't know how to say it. We don't have to be, or we don't have to think the exact same way. You do, you and I do whatever I want. But that's what being yourself means you have to be true to yourself. You have to do the things that you want, that you like.
Speaker 1:Talking about the circle with the designer clothes another thing that's really popular in the circle is plastic surgery or getting beauty things done, for example, lip fillers, for example Botox and that's a huge topic. I feel like that needs another podcast episode. Let me know if you want to hear my thoughts on that. But plastic surgery so in the circle, yeah, these girls or these women, they have things done and they make me feel like I also have to do it. But, to be completely honest, something that I really appreciate about myself and something that I really like about myself is that I am natural and I accept myself. I accept my face. I somehow also started to accept the little wrinkles that I get with getting older. But every single time when I'm with the circle, I feel like, yeah, I also have to get things done. I also need more lip fillers or Botox, because my face is just not how it should be. It could be so much better.
Speaker 1:And it's again kind of like I'm just not feeling good enough because I'm with the wrong people and because they make me feel this way. It's funny. On the other hand, when I'm with my really close friends, the friends that I have since years, they never make me feel that way If I talk about plastic surgery or Botox or lip fillers. With them, they be like, wow, you live in such a different reality. Like, hold on, take a breath and chill girl. That's what they say to me and that also shows me. They make me feel so comfortable. They just accept me for who I am and if I would have hundreds of wrinkles in my face, they would still tell me that I look beautiful or that I'm a beautiful soul, and I just really appreciate that right now. And if these friends are listening right now, I love you, I really love you and I'm so grateful that I have you. You know what I also did, especially when it comes to creating content. Okay, let's start somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Being a content creator, you have to be really brave if you want to be truly yourself, because you put yourself out there online, in the online world. You put yourself out there. You constantly get judged. People constantly tell you you look good or you don't look good, or what you do is wrong or what you do is right. So it's constantly you get judged. So it's really hard to be yourself, to be completely honest, and I also think sometimes it feels like what you put out there is also like not good enough, like you are boring. It's what I said before. You constantly feel like your life is not exciting enough, or you feel like you're not pretty enough, your body isn't crazy enough because Instagram just wants to see crazy, amazing bodies. So, being a creator, you constantly feel like you have to be extreme, you have to be crazy and outstanding. You just can't be yourself.
Speaker 1:So what I did in the last couple of years I've had some hard moments. I've had some hard times where I just couldn't be myself. I thought it's just simply not strong, not fast, not whatever enough. So I tried to find people that inspire me and copy them, and I don't know why I did that. Now, when I think back, I'm a little bit mad about myself, because there's a difference between getting inspired by someone, getting inspired by something, versus copying someone, copying another creator, another video format, and I did that many, many times and I'm all the way for like try different things, experiment. I'm all the way for that, no matter if you're a content creator or you have a completely different job. I feel like in life, it's important to try many, many different things and to also get inspired. But by getting a little bit too much inspired and copying someone. You definitely change who you are as a person and I tried that in the last couple of years. I tried to be like someone else. I tried to copy people, especially successful people, when I was like, oh yeah, this person is successful because of that, I tried to copy it. The crazy thing is it never really worked.
Speaker 1:So, also, being a creator and you copy someone, maybe the first video that you put out there, it works. But let me tell you, after months, after maybe a year, like people notice, and people notice that this is not you. So it's not really working. To just copy someone and ignore your feelings, your thoughts and just trying to be someone else, like so hard it doesn't work. Maybe you can relate with that. Maybe you tried in the past. You saw someone doing things and you tried to copy exactly what this person was doing, but it didn't really work for you. Then that just shows that you got inspired first. But then you try to copy someone and it doesn't really work for you because you are so unique, you are so special in your own way, in your own body, with your own mind. You can't just copy someone else or someone else's life. It's just not you.
Speaker 1:So next time, team, when you feel not good enough, when you feel like you don't fit in or when others put pressure on you to change, then I really want you to sit down and think of this podcast episode and think about what I just said. There's nothing wrong with you. You are unique. You're really unique and you are beautiful the way you are. You are special the way you are and I hope you remember these words because it's really important that you think that of yourself. That makes the biggest change, that has the biggest impact on you.
Speaker 1:So sitting here right now and talking about this topic so open, so honest, it feels really really good and I think I'm on the right path. I think I'm on the right way to be more myself than ever. But it feels really really good to just also share the struggles with you, because I have struggled so much in the past and it's not that I don't struggle anymore. There are still days when I feel like I compare myself, but it gets less and less and I wonder if it's something that comes with getting older. So the older you get, the more acceptance you have and the more okay you are with just the person that you are, and it feels pretty pretty good. It feels really really free and I really hope you all experienced that feeling one day of just feeling free and just being yourself. And, of course, you also know it from the previous podcast episodes. I always try to give you tips, so of course, today as well, I want to give you some tips on how to be yourself. These are things that helped me to feel better about myself and I hope they inspire and help you too.
Speaker 1:So the first thing, one of the things that actually helped me the most to be more myself is spending a lot of time on my own. I live alone, I travel a lot on my own. I love spending time on my own. It is really powerful and it feels really strong, like really independent. I don't know why I enjoy spending time on my own so much. But I'm also thinking of my mom. Maybe she is my biggest inspiration, maybe she's my biggest motivation. She does a lot of things on her own and when I grew up as a child, she was taking care of me. She was my main parent part, so she raised me up and I don't know seeing her doing all these things and just being so strong with it and being so independent and really inspired me and still, to that day, she has a boyfriend. Now she's in a relationship, but she still has her own apartment and she does her own things. She travels on her own and I really look up to her. I think that's really cool and maybe that's why I've learned or why I started to love spending time on my own so much.
Speaker 1:It's really a great way to learn more about yourself. It's an amazing way to figure out what you want in life, what your goals are, what your values are. The way I do it most of the time is by writing. I'm always you will always see me with a pen and a piece of paper, always, or a little book where I write all my things down, all my thoughts, all my feelings, all my dreams, all my goals, all my wishes. Like I have to write. Really, I love writing. I love writing so much, and if I don't have a piece of paper and if I don't have a pen, I grab my notebook and write things down in my notes, no matter if it's writing down just feelings, like journaling, or if it's more setting goals and setting tasks and setting to-dos to accomplish my dreams that I have, or setting up new dreams and new goals. It really really helps me to figure out who I am and what I want in life. It really helps me.
Speaker 1:The crazy thing here is a couple of years ago that, to me, felt so hard, like sitting down and thinking about what you want. That is hard, especially with all the influence that you have around you. It's so much easier to type in and I did that. I really did that. I typed in on YouTube goals goals to have in 2022, for example, or in 2023 or whenever Goals to have. I constantly checked what others goals are or what kind of dreams they have or how their days look like. I didn't even know how to sit down on my own and thinking about these things. I didn't know how it works and I felt like it was just empty. My brain was empty. I didn't know what I want and who I am, and it's actually crazy when I think about it now, but I think it needs a lot of me time. So you really have to spend time on your own, without distractions, so without your phone, without inspiration, like constantly getting inspired by other things and other influencers, other creators. It's tough because your brain is just trying to analyze everything and trying to I don't know how to say it but constantly getting all this input from others stops you sitting down and reflecting like your own life and working on your own dreams and goals. So spend more time on your own, without distractions, without other opinions, without other influences. That can really really help you finding who you are and finding your path and your journey.
Speaker 1:I also don't want to put pressure on you. So if you sit down right now after listening to this podcast episode and you sit down and you're like, okay, now I want to figure out what I want and it's just not coming, then don't put pressure on you, because it took me years to figure things out, and that's okay. It took me years and years and years to learn more about myself, and that is so okay. And now I'm close to 30 and I still haven't figured everything out, and that is okay. So don't put pressure on yourself.
Speaker 1:I also want to point out one thing that I think really, really important to understand and to also accept, because when I say be yourself, that doesn't necessarily mean be someone or be something for the rest of your life, because we all know that we are constantly changing, like we move somewhere else. We are changing, we travel, we change, we learn something new, we change and change is good. Change is something really really good and you shouldn't be afraid to change. I talk so much about change because I think we are afraid sometimes to change. So we would rather prefer our comfort zones and don't step out of our comfort zones because we don't want to change. We don't want to grow like deep inside we want, but we are just afraid to do the things that we have to do in order to grow. But I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you to allow yourself to change and grow. So don't be afraid of that. But yeah, you will change.
Speaker 1:So it's also really hard for me to say now, be yourself and be this version of yourself for the rest of your life. But what I want to say is be true to yourself. I think that would be a better description of what I mean. When I say be yourself, I truly mean be true to yourself. That means listen in words. Listen in words and do the things that you want to do, that you believe in, that you really really feel. That to me means more be yourself and try to be the best version of yourself. So it's okay to change, it's okay to grow, because you try to always be the best version of yourself. And in order to be the best version of yourself for the rest of your life for now, for your future, for, as I said, the rest of your life you have to learn new things. You have to travel, you have to step out of your comfort zone and do the things that feel really, really uncomfortable. You have to challenge yourself I think that's the best way to describe it and allow yourself to improve, improve all the time, as many times as you can and for the rest of your whole entire life. And you know what the best version of yourself means.
Speaker 1:It doesn't mean to be perfect, to be the best perfect version that you can be. You don't have to be perfect, because the best doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be perfect or you have to be enough. You have to be the strongest, the fittest, whatever, like it's more, you are working on to become the best version of yourself. You will never be there, because when you are there, I think your life is gonna be over. Then you have accomplished everything, but while you are living, while you're waking up every single day. You should be excited to just work towards that, like work towards becoming better a tiny little bit every single day, and you don't have to be perfect, like I'm sitting here right now and the way I think about myself, like who am I?
Speaker 1:How would I describe myself right now? I would say I'm not perfect at all, but I also don't wanna be perfect. I don't have to be perfect. My life is not perfect, but I don't have to be. But I'm willing to work on becoming a little bit better every single day. And I see my strengths. I see the strengths that I have and I'm willing to work on them and become even stronger in those areas of life. And I Also think of myself that I know a lot, but I don't know anything and I will never know anything. But I'm so willing to learn more about life, more about different kind of tasks, more about different kind of things in life. I'm so willing to learn and I'm so willing to work, to work hard, as hard as I can, to become the best version of myself. And by saying all those things, damn.
Speaker 1:I hope you also feel inspired now to become better every single day, a tiny little bit, and even if it's just one percent. There's this amazing book I don't know how exactly it's called, but it's something we have one percent better every single day and I love it so much because we expect so much from ourselves. We expect that we do a workout one time and then our whole lives will change and our whole bodies will change. But that's not how it works. It's honestly. It's one percent every single day, sometimes less, sometimes more, but we have to make tiny little steps in order to grow, in order to become better version of ourselves. So we are almost at the end of this podcast episode.
Speaker 1:I hope it helped you. I hope it helped you reflect, reflect on yourself, reflect on your thoughts. I hope it made you think, like who are you? Ask yourself questions, ask yourself who you are, ask yourself what you like, what your goals are, what your dreams are, ask yourself and I really think you deserve this feeling, this feeling that I try to describe in this podcast episode of just letting go and letting go of all the expectations, letting go of what other people might think of you. We don't have to care. Don't care. They can think whatever they want. They should think about their own lives a little bit more. That's what I think, but let go of it. Let's just go shake it off.
Speaker 1:If your friend circle right now makes you feel like you are in a cage, you can't be yourself, you can't be free, just check out another friend circle. I'm sorry to say that, but I really think the people you surround yourself with. It is so important that you choose the right people because they will change the way you think about yourself, and it's really important that you surround yourself with the right people. I've seen a really, really nice quote and it was stop trying, start living. And it's so powerful because life shouldn't be about trying so hard, trying to fit in and trying to be like anyone else. You don't want to be like anyone else. I told you before that you are really special, you're really powerful, you are so unique and you should stay like that. Please, please, please, stay like that. Don't let anyone talk you down or don't let anyone tell you that you can't do this or you can't be that, because you can. You can be yourself in this crazy world with all the influences. Please be yourself, because that will make you stand out and that will make you be special.
Speaker 1:I feel so good now, after this short podcast episode, to be honest, and I want to thank you. I want to thank you for listening, I want to thank you for being here, for all your reviews. I have seen those. The podcast is growing and the podcast is growing just because of you, so I want to thank you for that. Yeah, thank you so much. I just really really enjoy it. I enjoy it hanging out with you here Today.
Speaker 1:I'm sitting in this closet because we're still in LA. I don't have a podcast studio here. I don't have a fancy podcast room or anything. It's just me here in this little room and it's not perfect at all. But you know what that makes it perfect to me? That makes it cozy, that makes it fun, that makes it like just cool and I really really like it. Maybe that also inspires you too, if you ever want to start a podcast channel and you always felt like, but I don't have the perfect equipment, but I don't have the perfect room. And when you look up to all these amazing creators who have all this equipment and the perfect light on their faces, think of me. Right now, I'm also just sitting here in this room and I also somehow can do it.
Speaker 1:I'm not at this level where others are, but I started and I started this podcast. I started at this level where others are, but I started and I just did it. So I hope that also motivates you. No matter what you want to do, you don't start out perfect. You don't start out with all the fancy equipment or with all the skills, and that's okay because you will learn with every single podcast episode. I'm learning really and it's fun. Learning and trying and failing and growing is fun. All right, thank you so much, team. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know. Send me a DM on Instagram. I always love to read those about the podcast. Send me a DM and I cannot wait to read from you. Thank you so much. We chat soon. We talk soon. Bye.