No matter what sort of self-improvement you're going to do for yourself, your family and friends are going to try to stop you when they see you making legitimate progress.

Hitting the gym? Sure, they'll stay quiet for a few weeks. Maybe they'll stay quiet for a few months. But once they start seeing your shoulders widen, your posture straighten, your biceps bulge, your confidence rising, they'll start flinging all sorts of slick-deprecrating statements towards you.

"You're lifting heavy? Don't do that. The human body has limits. Don't push yourself." "Ew, protein is nasty. That stuff is basically steroids. Do you want a small dick? lol" "You don't know how to have fun. You could spend time with your friends instead of the gym!"

Taking up a combat sport (like MMA, Muay Thai, etc.)? I'm willing to bet the same thing will happen. A month or so into your combat training, you'll be able to look more people in the eye with the confidence that you have (a higher percentage chance) to kick their asses.

"Why do you need to fight? Do you have anger management?" "Fighting is such a brutish thing. Focus your time on studying!"

These are just two of many potential examples of things people around you will try to shame you out of doing. It could be meditating, taking up an awesome new hobby (playing an instrument, learning art, etc.), traveling, and many other things. I wanted to keep this post short and sweet. Don't let the negative influences around you push you away from improving yourself. Take your time, do your research, and progress intelligently.

Tl;dr: Your family and friends will try to subtly shame you off of improving yourself to keep your Beta levels at max. Fuck that.

Note: This doesn't mean push forward at full steam the entire time. You don't go into a weightlifting gym and automatically bench 255lb. You don't go into a fighting gym and take down the coach. Learn and apply. With time, you'll get better.

Note 2: For reference, I'm a 21 year old Pakistani guy.