Self Improvement is the enhancement of one’s knowledge, education, personality, status by making conscious efforts. Self-Improvement is one’s journey to achieve their personal goals.
Table of Contents
Definition
How to become a better version of yourself? You might be looking for the answer to this question. This is why you have landed on this page. Change is inevitable, and a person changes with the occurrence of various events in our life. However, change takes place without the conscious efforts of a person. For example, when I was a child, I could binge-watch my favorite cartoon, but now I cannot even stand its sound.
But Self-Improvement does not happen like change. One is required to make conscious efforts and do certain things to become a better version of himself. It is not constricted to one particular domain of life. One can improve himself to become better in any field of his or her life.
For example, you can make an effort to become good at studies, and a professional can make efforts to obtain a promotion or get a salary hike, a parent can improve himself to become a better parent, a sportsperson can improve himself to become a better sportsperson.
Therefore, Self-Improvement is to become aware of one’s limitations and making efforts to either getting rid of your weaknesses or turning them into your strengths. It is a constant process, and there is no restriction of age when a person can start a Self-Improvement process.
Similarly, there is no restriction on the time taken by one person to reach a Self-Improvement goal. A person can learn things at his own pace. For example, one person can take six months to learn something whereas another person can learn the same thing in much lesser time. It depends on the dedication, discipline, punctuality, and availability of resources.
Steps of Self-Improvement
Many times, we find ourselves in situations where we don’t like the way we are, or we find ourselves lacking at certain things. The desire to become a better version of ourselves becomes prominent when we see people like us enjoying things that we don’t have.
In this section, you will learn about the set of steps that you can follow to improve yourself in any domain.
1. Awareness of your shortcomings:
The first step is knowing flaws. You cannot grow at anything or become better at anything if you think you know everything. A person who knows what he doesn’t know can only improve himself.
You will exactly know where to put efforts. For example, to become fit and healthy, you are required to eat healthily and opt for physical activity.
2. Set a Goal:
The next step in the process is to set a goal. Once you become aware of your weaknesses and have to desire to turn them into your strengths, you are at the stage to begin the process of Self-Improvement.
Therefore, decide what you finally want to achieve by improving yourself. For example, if you’re going to learn a foreign language, then you must first determine your goal. What level of proficiency do you want? If you wish to get a certification or not? Having the answer to all these questions will help you in deciding your goal.
In addition to setting your goal, divide your goal into smaller goals. Work to achieve those goals one by one. Achieving smaller goals will give you motivation. Moreover, you can also track your progress easily.
3. Find or arrange resources:
Once you have decided on your goal, next, you are required to look for the resources that you might want to use to learn. You can find sign up for an online class, or you can enroll in local courses, or you can collect some study material that can help you in your learning process.
It is imperative to do research and figure out your method of learning before you start your learning process. Enrolling in a class will give you discipline and a prepared curriculum. Moreover, you can take the help of professionals to improve yourself.
But if you don’t want to enroll in a class, then it is vital to prepare a detailed plan for your Self-Improvement process. Your half job is done if you have a comprehensive and well-researched plan. You will exactly know what you are supposed to do to reach your goal.
4. Prepare a time table:
Prepare a time table. Make sure that you take out at least one hour a day for the process. The time table is essential; otherwise, you keep postponing your work to the next day, and in this way, you will never reach your goal. If you are working, then you can use your travel time to study and dedicate a few hours of your weekend to test your learning. This way you will know how much more efforts you are required to make.
In reality, it is challenging to stick with the time table. There will be times when you will find it challenging to keep up with your time table. Be mindful of your time spending. Make sure that you have your time-table in front of you all the time.
Paste your time table on your desk. Set reminders on your phone to remind you to do important tasks on time. In this way, you will be able to keep up with your time table and achieve your goal in time.
5. Look for help:
In the process, one works on his weaknesses and learns new skills to become a better person. However, Self-Improvement does not mean that you should do everything on your own. You can take the help of others if you need it.
You can approach people that you think have the skills. For example, if you want to learn cooking, you can always go to your mom and ask her to help you. Your mom will be more than happy to help you. If you have the desire to learn something, then don’t withhold it and take help whenever required.
6. Find inspiration:
People get demotivated and leave in midway when things get tricky. But rather than giving up, take a break and look for inspiration. You will find many people who have achieved similar things that you want to achieve.
It is very easy to find like-minded people in the era of the Internet. You can join an online forum where you can talk to people about your problems. Keeping yourself motivated and inspired is very important to become a better version of yourself.
7. Measure your progress:
It is essential to measure your progress. You can measure your progress weekly or daily. Make notes about how much you have done and how much more you are required to do. You this information to modify your plan. You can slow down or fasten your process of learning, depending on your performance.
8. Repeat the process:
One is required to repeat steps, as mentioned earlier until you achieve your desired outcome. One will never fail in a Self-Improvement process.
Your progress might be slower than others, but you are always moving in the forward direction.
External Improvement
External improvement means improving yourself externally. For example, when you earn money, improve your social status, make a lot of friends, or get a promotion at work. These all are examples of external improvement. External improvement is visible and noticed quickly by the people around you.
Most of the times, people confuse external improvement with Self-Improvement. Because most of the time people start the process to achieve external goals. However, it is much more fulfilling than external improvement.
You can achieve all your external goals by working on your Self-Improvement. For example, you will automatically become entitled to promotion if you will start focusing on your work and acquire new skills. People will like to become your friends with you if they like you as a person.
Therefore, it is more important to work on your Self-Improvement rather than your external improvement. Moreover, it is a life-long process, and external improvement is a short-termed process.
Goals
Setting your goal is the most important part of your Self-Improvement process. The process becomes easy if you are aware of your weaknesses and the things at which you want to become good.
In this section, you will learn how to set your Self-Improvement goals to get better results.
1. Know your Goal
First of all, you need to have a rough idea of what do you want. What will be the things that will make you happy? Why do you want to start the process? For example, one wants to become healthier, or one wishes to become more confident at work. Having a rough idea of what do you want gives your direction to set your goal.
2. Know your limitations
The next step to set a goal is to be aware of your limitations. Accept your imperfections rather than neglecting and hiding them. Working on your limitations to convert them into strength is the most important part of the Self-Improvement process. How can somebody improve if he is not even aware of his shortcomings?
Let us understand the importance of awareness of your limitations. XYZ works in a company as an assistant manager. She has been in the same position for the past five years, and the people who joined the company later got promoted to higher positions.
She always cribs about her situation and the unfair behavior of her boss towards her. She spends her time getting jealous of other people at work rather than working on her limitations.
If you find yourself in the same situation, then take a day out of your life and think about the reasons why others are getting promotions, and you are not. Make a note of the qualities of your counterparts that helped them to get promotions. Ask yourself questions and write your limitations on paper.
Once you become aware of your limitations, it will become easy for you to decide your goal. Having the clarity of what you want gets you one step closer to success.
3. Set a Lifetime goal
The next step is to decide your long-termed or life-time goal. A lifetime goal can be an abstract goal like to become happy in life, to have a peaceful and satisfying life, to provide the best life to your children or it can be definite goals such as getting a job in your dream company, becoming a millionaire before you turn thirty, to travel the world.
Deciding a life-time goal is necessary as it helps you in making the right decision in your life. for example, if you want to become a millionaire before you turn thirty, then you should start your own company in your early twenties.
In this way, rather than wasting your time in trying out other things, you would make right and timely decisions. Because of this reason, some people have their life sorted out at a very young age.
4. Set smaller goals
Once you are aware of your life-time goal, you are required to choose your short-termed goals. So that by achieving these goals, you can get closer to achieving your life goal. For example, if you want to become a millionaire before you turn thirty, then you are required to have a plan in your early twenties. You can follow different strategies.
Strategy 1 can be to go to business school, get job experience, and then to start your business.
Strategy 2 can be to know your passion and follow your passion by learning along the way.
Divide your long-goals into smaller goals. For example, to read a business book in a month, to work with your role model, etc. Achieving smaller goals will give you motivation and keep you moving in the direction of your dream.
5. Evaluate your goals
The next step is to evaluate your goals. Please don’t jump on a goal without assessing it and giving a second thought to it. You might end up wasting a lot of your time on something you would never want.
6. Make the effective use of your time
The last important thing that you should keep in mind while setting your goal is to make the effective use of your time. Time is precious. It will reward you if you make proper use of it. Plan your Self-Improvement process and work on yourself to achieve your goal.
7. Choose your Role model
A role model is a person that you look up to. You can take inspiration from them. You can follow their path. Please choose your role model wisely as it is going to impact your life. Choose what you want to learn from them and whatnot.
Ideas
A person can improve himself by making minimal changes in his routine. In this section, I will tell you about a few brilliant ideas that you can use to enhance your life.
1. Wake up early in the morning
Now, you will say that I sound like your grandpa. But believe me, your grandpa was right. Waking up early in the morning can do a lot. First of all, you can add extra hours to your day that you can use for something productive.
Moreover, it has been said that the morning time is for achievers. All the successful people have one thing in common that they wake up early in the morning every single day. I am not saying that something miraculous will happen when you wake up early.
But you will notice the difference in your attitude towards life by waking up early in the morning.
2. Take care of your health
We all have heard of this old saying, “Health is wealth,” and it is quite right too. When you are healthy, you can focus better on your work. Your mind will work better if you feel fit. Therefore, you need to take care of your health before you start your journey.
Take on a physical activity like running, cycling, jumping rope. Start doing any physical activity and lose those extra pounds. You will automatically start feeling positive.
3. Write
Yes. Get a habit of writing everything. Write everything, whether it’s your feelings or your goals, in your diary. Writing everything will help you in connecting with yourself, and you will know about yourself better. By writing your journal, you can keep track of your progress in your Self-Improvement process.
4. Read
Get a habit of reading a book every day. Reading will help you enhance your perspective in life. Reading is one of the cheapest ways to expand your wings. Reading a book will help you learn about how great minds think, and you can adopt their ideology to improve your life.
You can start your habit of reading by starting reading fiction books, and gradually you can move to read biographies and autobiographies of successful people. You can read the biographies of people like Steve Jobs, Stephen Hawking, and Barack Obama.
5. Face your fears
I am not encouraging you to do something stupid and risk your life by going for an adventurous sport. But there are a few things that are not life-risking, but we are still scared of them. For example, facing your boss, asking out a girl.
Go and speak in front of people if you are afraid of public speaking. Taking on small challenges will boost your confidence, and you will feel energetic to take control of your life.
6. Adopt good habits
Habits can either make a person or destroy a person. Therefore, choose your habits wisely. Make sure that your habits should help you to make a better person. The examples of good habits are waking up early in the morning, going to bed early, being punctual, reading books, writing journals, drinking more water, etc.
Take baby steps, and don’t rush to adopt all good habits at once. Take one habit and practice it every day, so that it becomes an integral part of your nature. It should come to you naturally. For example, you can take up a habit of drinking ten glasses of water every day.
Set a reminder on your phone that should remind you to drink water after one hour. Practice this for 30 days, and you will notice that your body will start asking for water without the reminder.
7 Leave your bad habits
Pinpoint your bad habits, and make efforts to get rid of them. It is tough to leave your habits, but when you are determined to do something, no one can stop you. Examples of bad habits are spending too much time on a mobile phone, eating unhealthy food, staying up late, taking too much caffeine, etc.
Make efforts to leave your bad habits and replace them with your good habits. By minimizing your mobile usage, you will notice that you have so much time that you can spend on doing something productive.
8. Learn to become independent
Being independent does not only mean moving out of your parents’ home. But it means to take up the responsibilities. For example, cleaning your room by yourself, preparing your food, paying your bills, etc. being independent will give the control of your life, and it can prove to be a stepping stone in the direction of your Self-Improvement journey.
9. Make new friends
Meet new people. Make new friends. Making new friends doesn’t mean you spend your whole time hanging out with them or chatting with them. Befriend people who help you grow as a person.
10. Pay more attention
The last idea is to pay more attention. Pay more attention to work. Pay more attention to your relationship. When you pay more attention to other people, they feel respected and valued. Paying more attention will help you in improving your relationship with them.
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