If I ask you what it would take to become the very best version of yourself, I can guess with about 95 percent accuracy that you’d list of all the things you need to do and become.

There’d probably be a pinch of much needed productivity, an assault of to-dos, and a deep concern with being something more than you already are.

How do I know? Because in the past I would have likely answered the same way. To be a better version of myself I should make more time for family and friends. I should put more focus on women with less opportunities. I should give that homeless guy on Polk street money even though the last time I did I was told, “Thanks. Now you’re gunna die.” I should be on my phone less. And there’s likely an opportunity for more vegetables. 

In reality, none of us need to do anything more. The very best version of ourself is always there, we simply need to peel away all the layers of crap that we’ve let weigh us down. We need to knock down the emotional barriers we thought we needed. We need to forget the limits that someone put on us. We need to undo the patterns of beliefs that we created from past experiences and cast them all aside. Because the more we shed the more we become. 

Shedding is our own personal revival.

We don’t have to be the woman that fixes everything. Or the sister that always says yes. We don’t have to keep a smile on our face. And we sure as hell don’t have to buy into the belief that we’re less than any other person.

Your becoming is a direct reflection of how willing you are to un-become.

Can you throw away the identity that falsely fed your self-esteem?

Can you let go of beliefs in anything other than yourself?

Can you walk the perimeter of your own self-love and know that nothing beyond you can ever put a price tag on your worthiness?

Shedding will require you to ask questions. It’ll require you to rediscover. To let go. To undo. To rewind. But like the butterfly, you can exit the chrysalis of your own limits where you’ll discover that the very best version of yourself exists in shedding.