How to Improve Yourself

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SELF

Ways to improve your self

1.Read a book every day.Books are concentrated sources of wisdom. The more books you read, the more wisdom you expose yourself to. Whatare some books you canstart 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. 

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 andculture is a totally a mind-opening experience.

3.Pick up a new hobby. Beyond just your usual favorite hobbies, is theresomething new you can pick up? Any new sport you can learn? Examplesare 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 indifferent aspects, whether physically, mentally or emotionally.

4.Take up a new course.Isthere 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 hadnot considered before.

5.Create an inspirational room. Your environmentsets the mood and tone for you. If you are living in an inspirational environment, you are going to be inspired every day. 

6.Overcome your fears.   All of us have fears. Fearof 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 addressingit helps me to grow.

7.Level up your skills  -If you have played video games before especiallyRPGs, 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 levelup?

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 wakeup early, your mindset isalready 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 30minutes 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 2014 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 ofperson 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 comfortzone . 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. Byexposing yourself to a new context, you’re literally growing as youlearn to act in new circumstances

13.Put someone up to a challenge . Competition is one of the best ways to grow. Set a challenge (weightloss, exercise, financialchallenge, etc) and compete with an interested friend to seewho achieves the target first. Through the process, both of you will gain more thanif you were to set off on the target alone.

14.Identify yourblind 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 mein a day – trigger meaning making me feel annoyed/weird/affected. These represent my blind spots. It’s always fun todo the exercise because I discover newthings 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-dolists .  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. 

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’llfeel absolutely on top of the world once you complete them? Set them and start workingon 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 whoinspire 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? Howcan 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 somehelp onhow 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 personaldevelopment article a day (#40) and meditating. Is there anyother new habit you can cultivate to improve yourself?

23.Avoid negative people .  As I says, “You are the average ofthe 5 people you spendthe 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 youcan’t avoid, such as at your workplace, or when the person is partof 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 wewant to tap into them. With all the friends whosurround you, they are going to have things you can learn from. Trythinking 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, theywill be more than happy to help!

26.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.

                                                                                                        27.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 optionin the chat programs and launch them when I do want to chat and really have the time for it.

28.Learn chess (or any strategy game)  .  I foundchess is a terrific gameto learn strategy and hone your brainpower. Not only do you have fun, you also get to exercise your analyticalskills. You can also learn strategy from other board games or computer games, such as Othello, Chinese Chess, WarCraft, and so on.

29.Stop watching TV . I’ve not been watching TV for pretty much 4 yearsand 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 notvery 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.

30.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.

31.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.

32.Join Toastmasters (Learn public speaking) . Interestingly,public speakingis the #1 fear in the world, with #2 being death. After I started public speakingas a personal development speaker/trainer, I’ve learned a lot about howto communicate better,present myself and engage people. Toastmasters is an international organization that trainspeople in public speaking.Check out the Toastmasterclubs nearest to you here.

33..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 fromthem on how you can improve and achieve the same results for yourself.

34.Start a business venture  . Is there anything you have an interest in? Why not turn it into a venture and make money whilelearning 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 anddeveloping my personal development business has equippedme with many skills, such as self-discipline, leadership, organization and management.

35.Show kindness to people around you . Youcan 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 qualitiessuch as compassion, patience, and love. As you get back to your day after reading this article later on, start exuding more kindnessto 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.

36.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 peoplewho hate us. It’s much more challenging to love them back. Being able to forgive, let go and show love to thesepeople 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.

37.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. Youcan’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.

38.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 thinkis a great habit. There are many terrific personal development blogs out there,some of which you can checkhere.

39.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 bypicking 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.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article or anything about personal growth. Feel free to share your thoughts in a commentbelow and I’ll get back to you! If you have any other suggestions to add to the list, please share with us too!