Owning your glo-up: How to make the poppin’ life you’ve always wanted
Everyone wants more.
It doesn’t really matter who you are, what your status is or how much you have, every single one of us, to some degree, have an innate ticking going on inside of us irking us to evolve.
In fact, I think the kids today call it a “glo-up,” that, per the Urban Dictionary, refers to a person’s incredible transformation. It’s usually based on an increase in style and self-confidence (and potentially one’s squad).
The only issue with this burning desire to be in our best shape, work at our dream job and live our best lives, is that we think it just happens to us. We hope for that one random day and external force to swoop into our lives and just make something happen.
This, unfortunately, is not the case. Not even remotely so and that’s where so many of us get it wrong. We are responsible for our own glo-up. It’s up to us and not a soul-else to make our dreams happen for us.
Blame it on the facade of Instagram and its projection of perfection that too many of us put stock into, keeping up with the Jones or just plain envy. Still, for some reason people assume that everyone who is where they’d like to be got there by some other factor than their own hard work.
It’s sad, because not only is it hating, but it keeps them stuck, running in place, making no progress.
The secret is that we have the keys to our destiny. Not another individual, job, system or entity. It’s just up to us to own it. But first, we have to accept and recognize that we have the ability to do so.
Make it your own glo-up
The first step to owning your glo-up is realizing that it’s possible and accepting that it’s our job to make it possible.
It’s easy to let misfortune and life’s inequalities get us side-tracked or throw us off completely from pursuing our passions. Get dealt a bad hand or have something unfair happen and, in a flash, we’re throwing in the towel and crying for our proverbial workers’ comp.
But there are no compensations for life’s incidents. We can’t let bad times define the rest of our time, or dwell on it too long. We have to be strong-minded enough to know that no matter what happens, we are in sole command of how our life plays out.
No scapegoats, no excuses, but we are the ones who dictate the outcome. If you notice, the people who aren’t going anywhere in life, have every reason in the world why they aren’t going there. Don’t let that person be you.
Strategize your glo-up
After accepting that we’re the ones who are ultimately responsible for making the lives we want for ourselves come into fruition, it doesn’t stop there. We must strategize how to make it happen.
There’s no better way to get a jump on our dreams than being proactive and intentional about how to conquer them.
Every day we should be breaking our goals down to daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Also, we must track our progress and re-evaluate our approach. Instead of waiting around for a handout or a random miracle, find out what, on a day to day basis, can be done to slowly get closer to where you want to be.
Except, people don’t want to do that because it takes work.
You’ll really know how bad someone wants something based on how hard they work to get it. Glo’ing up sounds good and looks great from afar — that’s why everyone wants it for themselves — but that takes strategy and strategy takes work.
Making an outline when you don’t know where to start, brainstorming ideas when you feel stuck, and tracking the progress you make may seem like small insignificant things, but they’re all strategic exercises that keep you in the game — not stalling.
Wait for your glo-up
The last yet most crucial part to you glo-up is the wait.
A lot of us claim we want our next and swear we’re ready for that next level, yet the moment the process takes a second longer than expected we call it quits.
Contrary to popular belief, glo-up’s don’t happen overnight, and the reason why the half of us never end up ascending to that next level we so desperately want for ourselves is that we don’t have to the fortitude of patience to do so.
Think of a caterpillar and a butterfly. If the worm was to rush the process, the wings might not be developed, the color and elegance might not be the same, hell, the butterfly might not even happen. But it’s when the caterpillar undergoes the full duration of the metamorphosis that you get the beauty that is a butterfly.
Short-term success is temporary. If accepting the responsibility of making it happen and putting in the work, we should at least give ourselves a chance to make it come to life.