42 Practical Ways To
Improve Yourself
Are you someone who likes to grow? Do you constantly seek to improve
yourself and become better?
If
you do, then we have something in common. I’m very passionate about personal
growth. It was just 4 years ago when I discovered my passion for growing and
helping others grow. At that time, I was 22 and in my final year of university.
As I thought about the meaning of life, I realized there was nothing more
meaningful than to pursue a life of development and betterment. It is through
improving ourselves that we get the most out of life.
After
1.5 years of actively pursuing growth and helping others to grow through my
personal development blog, I realize there is never an end to the journey of self
improvement. The more I grow, the more I realize there is so much out
there I don’t know, so much that I have to learn. For sure, there is
always something about ourselves we can improve on. The human potential is
limitless, so it’s impossible to reach a point of no growth. Whenever we think
we are good, we can be even better.
As
a passionate advocate of growth, I’m continuously looking for ways to
self-improve. I’ve compiled 42 of my best tips which might be helpful in your
personal growth journey. Some of them are simple steps which you can engage in
immediately. Some are bigger steps which takes conscious effort to act
on. Here they are:
1. Read a book every day.
Books are concentrated
sources of wisdom. The more books you read, the more wisdom you expose yourself
to. What are some books you can start reading to enrich yourself? Some books
I’ve read and found useful are Think and Grow Rich, Who Moved My Cheese, 7
Habits, The Science of Getting Rich and Living the 80/20 Way. I’ve heard
positive reviews for The Tipping Point, Outliers and The Difference Maker, so
I’ll be checking them out soon.
2. Learn a new language.
As a Singaporean
Chinese, my main languages are English, Mandarin and Hokkien (a Chinese
dialect). Out of interest, I took up language courses in the past few years
such as Japanese and Bahasa Indonesian. I realized learning a language is a
whole new skill altogether and the process of acquainting with a new language
and culture is a totally a mind-opening experience.
3. Pick up a new hobby.
Beyond just your usual favorite hobbies, is
there something new you can pick up? Any new sport you can learn? Examples are
fencing, golf, rock climbing, football, canoeing, or ice skating. Your new
hobby can also be a recreational hobby. For example, pottery, Italian cooking,
dancing, wine appreciation, web design, etc. Learning something new
requires you to stretch yourself in different aspects, whether physically,
mentally or emotionally.
4. Take up a new course.
Is there any new course
you can join? Courses are a great way to gain new knowledge and skills. It
doesn’t have to be a long-term course – seminars or workshops serve their
purpose too. I’ve been to a few workshops and they have helped me gain new
insights which I had not considered before.
5. Create an inspirational room.
Your environment sets the
mood and tone for you. If you are living in an inspirational environment, you
are going to be inspired every day. In the past, I didn’t like my room at all
because I thought it was messy and dull. A few years ago, I decided this was
the end of it – I started on a “Mega Room Revamp” project and overhauled my
room. The end result? A room I totally relish being in and inspires me to be at
my peak every day.
6. Overcome your fears.
All of us have fears. Fear
of uncertainty, fear of public speaking, fear of risk… All our fears keep
us in the same position and prevent us from growing. Recognize that your fears
reflect areas where you can grow. I always think of fears as the compass for
growth. If I have a fear about something, it represents something I’ve yet to
address, and addressing it helps me to grow.
7. Level up your skills.
If you have played video
games before especially RPGs, you’ll know the concept of leveling up – gaining
experience so you can be better and stronger. As a blogger, I’m constantly
leveling up my writing skills. As a speaker, I’m constantly leveling up my
public engagement abilities. What skills can you level up?
8. Wake up early.
Waking up early (say,
5-6am) has been acknowledged by many (Anthony Robbins, Robin Sharma, among
other self-help gurus) to improve your productivity and your quality of life. I
feel it’s because when you wake up early, your mindset is already set to
continue the momentum and proactively live out the day. Seth recently wrote a
waking up early series which you should check out to help cultivate this habit.
9. Have a weekly exercise routine.
A better you starts with
being in better physical shape. I personally make it a point to jog at least 3
times a week, at least 30 minutes each time. You may want to mix it up with
jogging, gym lessons and swimming for variation.
10.
Start your life handbook.
A life handbook is an idea I
started 3 years ago. Basically, it’s a book which contains the essentials on
how you can live your life to the fullest, such as your purpose, your values
and goals. Sort of like your manual for your life. I started my life handbook
since 2007 and it’s been a crucial enabler in my progress.
11.
Write a letter to
your future self.
What do you see yourself as 5 years from now? Will you be the same?
Different? What kind of person will you be? Write a letter to your future
self – 1 year from now will be a good start – and seal it. Make a date in your
calendar to open it 1 year from now. Then start working to become the person
you want to open that letter.
12.
Get out of your comfort zone.
Real growth comes with hard
work and sweat. Being too comfortable doesn’t help us grow – it makes us
stagnate. What is your comfort zone? Do you stay in most of the time? Do you
keep to your own space when out with other people? Shake your routine up. Do
something different. By exposing yourself to a new context, you’re literally
growing as you learn to act in new circumstances.
13.
Put someone up to a challenge.
Competition is one of the best ways to grow. Set a challenge
(weight loss, exercise, financial challenge, etc) and compete with an
interested friend to see who achieves the target first. Through the process,
both of you will gain more than if you were to set off on the target alone.
14.
Identify your blind spots.
Scientifically, blind
spots refer to areas our eyes are not capable of seeing. In personal
development terms, blind spots are things about ourselves we are unaware of.
Discovering our blind spots help us discover our areas of improvement. One
exercise I use to discover my blind spots is to identify all the
things/events/people that trigger me in a day – trigger meaning making me feel
annoyed/weird/affected. These represent my blind spots. It’s always fun to do
the exercise because I discover new things about myself, even if I may already
think I know my own blind spots (but then they wouldn’t be blind spots would
they?). After that, I work on steps to address them.
15.
Ask for feedback.
As much as we try to improve, we will always
have blind spots. Asking for feedback gives us an additional perspective. Some
people to approach will be friends, family, colleagues, boss, or even
acquaintances, since they will have no preset bias and can give their feedback objectively.
16.
Stay focused with to-do lists.
I start my day with a list
of tasks I want to complete and this helps make me stay focused. In comparison,
the days when I don’t do this end up being extremely unproductive. For example,
part of my to-do list for today is to write a guest post at LifeHack.Org,
and this is why I’m writing this now! Since my work requires me to use my
computer all the time, I use Free Sticky Notes to manage my to-do lists. It’s really
simple to use and it’s a freeware, so I recommend you check it out.
17.
Set Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs).
I’m a big fan of setting
BHAGs. BHAGs stretch you beyond your normal capacity since they are big and
audacious – you wouldn’t think of attempting them normally. What are BHAGs you
can embark on, which you’ll feel absolutely on top of the world once you
complete them? Set them and start working on them.
18.
Acknowledge your flaws. Everyone has flaws. What’s most important is
to understand them, acknowledge them, and address them. What do you think are
your flaws? What are the flaws you can work on now? How do you want to address
them?
19.
Get into action.
The best way to learn and improve is to take action. What is
something you have been meaning to do? How can you take action on it immediately?
Waiting doesn’t get anything done. Taking action gives you immediate results to
learn from.
20.
Learn from people who inspire you.
Think about people you admire. People who
inspire you. These people reflect certain qualities you want to have for
yourself too. What are the qualities in them you want to have for yourself? How
can you acquire these qualities?
21.
Quit a bad habit.
Are there any bad habits you can lose?
Oversleeping? Not exercising? Being late? Slouching? Nail biting? Smoking?
Here’s some help on how you can quit a bad habit.
22.
Cultivate a new habit.
Some good new habits to
cultivate include reading books (#1), waking up early (#8), exercising (#9),
reading a new personal development article a day (#40) and meditating. Is there
any other new habit you can cultivate to improve yourself?
23.
Avoid negative
people.
As
Jim Rohn says, “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time
with”. Wherever we go, there are bound to be negative people. Don’t spend too
much of your time around them if you feel they drag you down.
24.
Learn to deal with
difficult people.
There
are times when there are difficult people you can’t avoid, such as at your
workplace, or when the person is part of your inner circle of contacts. Learn
how to deal with them. These people management skills will go a long way in
working with people in the future.
25.
Learn from your friends.
Everyone has amazing
qualities in them. It’s up to how we want to tap into them. With all the
friends who surround you, they are going to have things you can learn from. Try
thinking of a good friend right now. Think about just one quality they have
which you want to adopt. How can you learn from them and adopt this skill for
yourself? Speak to them if you need to – for sure, they will be more than happy
to help!
26.
Start a journal. Journaling is a great way to gain better self-awareness. It’s a
self-reflection process. As you write, clarify your thought process and read
what you wrote from a third person’s perspective, you gain more insights about
yourself. Your journal can be private or an online blog. I use my personal
development blog as a personal journal too and I’ve learned a lot about myself
through the past year of blogging.
27.
Start a blog about personal development.
To help others grow, you
need to first be walking the talk. There are expectations of you, both from
yourself and from others, which you have to uphold. I run The Personal
Excellence Blog, where I share my personal journey and insights on how to live
a better life. Readers look toward my articles to improve themselves, which
enforces to me that I need to keep improving, for myself and for the people I’m
reaching out to.
28.
Get a mentor or coach.
There’s no faster way to improve than to
have someone work with you on your goals. Many of my clients approach me to
coach them in their goals and they achieve significantly more results than if
they had worked alone.
29.
Reduce the time you spend on chat programs.
I realized having chat
programs open at default result in a lot of wasted time. This time can be much
better spent on other activities. The days when I don’t get on chat, I get a
lot more done. I usually disable the auto start-up option in the chat programs
and launch them when I do want to chat and really have the time for it.
30.
Learn chess (or any strategy game).
I found chess is a
terrific game to learn strategy and hone your brainpower. Not only do you have
fun, you also get to exercise your analytical skills. You can also learn
strategy from other board games or computer games, such as Othello, Chinese
Chess, WarCraft, and so on.
31.
Stop watching TV.
I’ve not been watching TV for
pretty much 4 years and it’s been a very liberating experience. I realized most
of the programs and advertisements on mainstream TV are usually of a lower
consciousness and not very empowering. In return, the time I’ve freed up from
not watching TV is now constructively used for other purposes, such as
connecting with close friends, doing work I enjoy, exercising, etc.
32.
Start a 30-day challenge.
Set a goal and give yourself 30 days to
achieve this. Your goal can be to stick with a new habit or something you’ve
always wanted to do but have not. 30 days is just enough time to strategize,
plan, get into action, review and nail the goal.
33.
Meditate.
Meditation helps to calm you and be more
conscious. I also realized that during the nights when I meditate (before I
sleep), I need lesser sleep. The clutter clearing process is very liberating.
34.
Join Toastmasters (Learn public speaking).
Interestingly, public speaking is the #1 fear in the world, with #2
being death. After I started public speaking as a personal development
speaker/trainer, I’ve learned a lot about how to communicate better, present
myself and engage people. Toastmasters is an international organization that
trains people in public speaking.
35.
Befriend top people in their fields.
These people have achieved
their results because they have the right attitudes, skill sets and know-how.
How better to learn than from the people who have been there and done that?
Gain new insights from them on how you can improve and achieve the same results
for yourself.
36.
Let go of the past.
Is there any grievance
or unhappiness from the past which you have been holding on? If so, it’s time
to let it go. Holding on to them prevents you from moving on and becoming a
better person. Break away from the past, forgive yourself, and move on. Just
recently, I finally moved on from a past heartbreak of 5 years ago. The effect
was liberating and very empowering, and I have never been happier.
37.
Start a business venture. Is there anything you have an
interest in? Why not turn it into a venture and make money while learning at
the same time? Starting a new venture requires you to be learn business
management skills, develop business acumen and have a competitive edge. The
process of starting and developing my personal development business has
equipped me with many skills, such as self-discipline, leadership, organization
and management.
38.
Show kindness to people around you.
You can never be too
kind to someone. In fact, most of us don’t show enough kindness to people
around us. Being kind helps us to cultivate other qualities such as compassion,
patience, and love. As you get back to your day after reading this article
later on, start exuding more kindness to the people around you, and see how
they react. Not only that, notice how you feel as you behave kindly to others.
Chances are, you will feel even better than yourself.
39.
Reach out to the people who hate you.
If you ever stand for
something, you are going to get haters. It’s easy to hate the people who hate
us. It’s much more challenging to love them back. Being able to forgive, let go
and show love to these people requires magnanimity and an open heart. Is there
anyone who dislikes or hates you in your life? If so, reach out to them. Show
them love. Seek a resolution and get closure on past grievances. Even if they
refuses to reciprocate, love them all the same. It’s much more liberating than
to hate them back.
40.
Take a break.
Have you been working too hard? Self-improvement is also about
recognizing our need to take a break to walk the longer mile ahead. You can’t
be driving a car if it has no petrol. Take some time off for yourself every
week. Relax, rejuvenate and charge yourself up for what’s up ahead.
41.
Read at least 1 personal development article a day.
Some of my readers make it
a point to read at least one personal development article every day, which I
think is a great habit. There are many terrific personal development blogs out
there.
42.
Commit to your personal growth.
I can be writing list articles with 10 ways,
25 ways, 42 ways or even 1,000 ways to improve yourself, but if you’ve no
intention to commit to your personal growth, it doesn’t matter what I write.
Nothing is going to get through. We are responsible for our personal growth –
not anyone else. Not your mom, your dad, your friend, me or LifeHack. Make the
decision to commit to your personal growth and embrace yourself to a life-long
journey of growth and change. Kick off your growth by picking a few of the
steps above and working on them. The results may not be immediate, but I
promise you that as long as you keep to it, you’ll start seeing positive
changes in yourself and your life.
Celestine
Chua
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/42-practical-ways-to-improve-yourself.html
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