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? Quit those bad habits..
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?ref=mail&mtype=newsletter_tier_2&mid=20170628&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&action=click
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