From time immemorial mankind has been engage in the activity of improving himself in a bid to adapt better in life and create opportunities for himself to gain more from his environment. That was really formal and deep, right? But no less true.
Today we’ll be talking about how to improve yourself. Why? Simply because life is wide, wild, and full of unexpected twists and turns and it only pays you to be as ready as humanly possible for whatever it throws at you. So dear reader, here are 12 ways you can significantly improve yourself.
1. Know What You Want
The first step on how to improve in yourself is to look within you and find out what you want from life. What are your dreams, aspirations, desires, and needs? You need to know this to decide what path to follow and what course to pursue.
You should also know that no two person's paths are the same, it can be similar yes, but not the same, and accept that no desire is mundane or inferior to that of another.
If you desire to seek a path that is relaxed, comfortable, and “chill” that’s fine, that’s you and if you decide to go all-in jetting from place to place pursuing a busy and fast-paced life, that’s also fine and very much you.
But do not make the mistake of letting the opinions and lifestyle of others decide your path, they can guide, suggest, and act as a reference point for you but that’s all they should be.
2. Set Your Goals
Once you’ve identified the path you want to pursue, what’s next is setting goals for yourself. These goals will act as a guide to help keep track of your progress toward achieving your desired result.
It could be a checklist of things you should do or should have achieved at the end of the day, week, month year, or years or a journal detailing your thoughts and plans for the future.
All this will help keep track of your progress so that you’ll know if you’re failing or succeeding and act as an accountability check for you. This is one of the steps to improve in yourself
3. Acquire Necessary Skills/Qualifications
Today everyone is all about Skills acquisition and master classes and internships and all that, why? It’s simple, you cannot go into anything without having a fundamental knowledge of how it works.
For instance, if you want to cook instant noodles for the first time in your life, what do you do? You find someone who has knowledge on it and gets information on how to go about it before you do it – or you could just ask Google but the intent is the same, you seek out information.
This principle applies in all aspects of life, for you to improve in yourself, you must gain knowledge in your chosen path and sometimes that means getting formal training and receiving certification from it.
So, once you have identified your path, work to gain the necessary skills, experience, and qualifications that will aid you in achieving your goal.
You could start by reading books, learning another language, participating in internships, webinars, and, master classes – there’s a vast world of information out there that can help you achieve your goals and dreams quickly, you just have to take advantage of it.
4. Put Yourself Out There
Doing this requires a lot of courage, confidence, and a stiff upper lip because it necessitates you leaving your comfort zone and doing things you may ordinarily not like. But to achieve that goal, you will have to meet the right people and position yourself in the right place to get the right information for you to improve yourself.
That means, joining platforms, associations, clubs, and organisations you may have ordinarily ignored; limiting the time you spend on things you enjoy but have no positive impact on your goals (I.e. messaging apps, social media, sleeping, recreational reading, and movie watching), traveling and meeting people. In other words, you’ll be networking, and it is quite important in building yourself into the person you want to be.
So be ready to get out into the world and show it what you have to offer while gaining as much information and knowledge as you can. Fight your fears, encourage yourself, and be confident, you may make mistakes but it’s all part of the process.
5. Surround Yourself with Like-Minded People
The effect of your environment and the people around you cannot be overstated. They influence you, your actions, reactions, and decisions in one way or another and this is why having a healthy team of friends that are just as determined and focused on their dreams and aspirations cannot be overemphasised.
Their goals and visions do not have to be the same as yours but they definitely have to be upstanding and determined to get there as you are, why? It's because that’s one way you can have a motivating support system that works in your best interest.
You find yourselves encouraging and pushing each other in a healthy and safe environment filled with love and care. Honestly, there’s no better person to call you out on your failures and misdeeds than someone you love and trust because then you’re sure that they’re not trying to put you down but help you shape yourself to be the best version of yourself, this is how you improve yourself.
6. Prioritise Your Physical, Mental, and Emotional Wellbeing
To reach your goal you must be as healthy and well as any human being can be. That is why taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally can never be overstated, is one of the ways to improve yourself.
These three aspects of our being affect everything we do and impact our relationships, work, and view of life, and where one or all are failing then you can bet that everything around and about you will be imparted negatively.
So, take time to ensure that you’re operating at an optimal level on all three fronts, go for regular medical checkups, keep in touch with your thoughts and feelings, and don’t shut yourself from interactions with people that care when you’re going through rough times or feeling sad, frustrated and depressed. That’s when you need them most and if you find that something’s wrong reach out to a professional.
Understand that you must take care of yourself, if not for anyone else, for yourself because in the end, you’ll have to live with the consequences of every decision and action you take and make. So why not make the best ones and have as few regrets as possible or don't have regrets at all?
7. Do Not be Idle
This is what I learnt in 2020, things were pretty bleak and it seemed I was stuck in one place doing the same thing every day: wake, eat, watch drama, sleep, and repeat. Having failed an important career-defining exam and unable to retake it due to the pandemic I found myself depressed and unable to get out of it.
Eventually, I decided to focus my energy on other things like baking, trying out new/foreign recipes, revamping, and updating my blog. You won’t believe it but these things worked, my mind was diverted and constantly working to find solutions to problems and answers to questions that these tasks required, and I found myself happier, livelier, and healthier.
I even started working out albeit temporarily, and it seriously helped boost my morale and confidence. It's a lesson I haven’t taken for granted ever since and neither should you.
Find something to help engage yourself when it seems you’re stuck waiting on something or someone you have no control over, rather than dwelling on the situation and brooding over things you cannot change, engage your mind and body in other tasks that you enjoy to get your mind off things, that is how you improve yourself. Trust me, you’ll be all the better for it.
8. Re-evaluate Your Plans
There always comes a time when you hit a roadblock and you’re not really sure how to attack things going forward, that’s the time you need to step back and re-evaluate your plan.
Find what and what works and what and what doesn’t. Improve yourself on it. Don’t be afraid to admit and accept that you made a mistake in your earlier actions and decisions, just don’t dwell on it, instead focus on how you can turn the situation around and move forward.
Also, don’t be afraid to remove what doesn’t work – including people – if you cannot talk them into doing better, then you have a right to cut them off. Remember, your physical, mental, and emotional health are of utmost importance and cannot for any reason or person be subjected to damage.
9. Always Remain True to Yourself
It’s very important to keep in touch with your goals, roots, and motivating intentions. Remind yourself at every point where you find yourself slipping, weak, or depressed, of the reason(s) you started this journey of self-improvement in the first place.
Ask yourself if your feelings have changed or if your desires, wants and needs have changed. If yes, how do you adjust your chosen path to fit in with your current situation? If not, then encourage yourself to keep moving forward.
This will help you not to get carried away by the things that happen around you, it’ll keep you focused and true and when life gets loud and confusing, as it often does, this is one of the ways you can keep yourself centered and improve yourself.
10. Be Kind to Yourself
Many a time in the pursuit of our dreams and desires, we often find ourselves overwhelmed by ourselves. We put so much pressure on ourselves that we start comparing our lives and achievements to that of others we consider our peers, we sometimes put down ourselves excusing it as motivating ourselves and we even allow others to do it to us too.
This is so very wrong! Be kind to yourself, if you fail, know that it is only an opportunity to do better and not the end. I’m not saying you should make excuses for yourself but encourage yourself, and be your own biggest fan, not your worst critic.
Yes, there are times you must tell yourself the truth but while doing this be sure to do it from a place of love and compassion, and don’t forget to do the same for others.
11. Rest
From the start, we’ve been talking about getting the bag, achieving your dream, pushing forward ensuring you have a healthy environment to grow but another important thing you need to know, is how to rest.
You have to learn to take breaks, not just timed naps or regular sleep but rest. Like no work on your mind or brain running a hundred miles an hour deep, relaxing rest.
It does wonders for the mind, body, and emotions and will help you see things from an angle that your overworked and stressed mind couldn’t and opens your eyes to other intriguing opportunities.
This is important and further helps you in maintaining your physical, mental, and emotional health.
12. Be Sure to Maintain Your Relationships
In building ourselves and our lives, we are very likely to make everything about us and cut off people who matter to us or make our interactions with them centre around us and our challenges and desires.
Forgetting to listen to their troubles and provide support for them as well or even just hang out and relax in a normal, not tense atmosphere. Eventually, we find that we’ve drifted apart from them and we don’t know why.
in our busy schedule, make time to check on the people who mean a lot to you. Call, text, go out for a drink or movie, catch up, really get to know what’s happening in their lives, and provide support, and trust me, you’ll receive the same energy.
Yes, we all want to win but it’s lonely at the top, the best way to enjoy your wins is when you’re sure that everyone you love is happy, settled, and winning as well.
Conclusion
The above steps in no way exhaust all the things you need to know about the journey of self-improvement but they’re a very good start for anyone who wishes to undertake it. It may not be easy, but the results will be worth the work put in.
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True. Mindfulness helps. Thanks so much. I appreciate.
thanks so much