Improvement
If I wanted to start improving now where do I start?
I understand, and I saw it in myself, that the decision to start and where to start from is difficult and crucial. So…
We live in a world that is constantly changing and changing extremely fast. So we must move and change too.
There are many ways and areas to improve,even on things we have no clue about. The good thing is that the knowledge and informations are plenty and mostly free nowdays. That’s because of internet. There is a high amount of knowledge and information on the internet.
One thing that clicked me as I was wandering around the web was self-improvement and it’s definitely something we don’t get tought in school.
What is self-improvement.
It consists of many things that never crossed my mind. Some of them really obvious and others never noticed that they were “in front of my eyes” (a phrase coming from my country).
Self-improvement is a non-stop process. Something that I personally believe worth our whole life. Is there an interesting life without the struggle of always improving?
I can here your voices. I was thinking the same at the beginning. And I still do sometimes. What’s the point? What’s the point if we always struggle and keep improving?
My question after some months was: What’s the point of not improving?
Whether we like it or not we tend to improve rather slowly and with fear. We follow what most people around us do and consider “ok”. Why not then improve in things we like and we are passionate about.
Although that’s the main target. I recommend improving 1st of all in some other areas.
Keep in mind that improving 1% (which is A LOT) in many areas of your life will eventually lead to a high improvement overall.
I recommend start your improvement in the 3 fundamental areas of improvement.
Fundamental areas:
1. Mind
A wonderful Tool!
Mind (the most important one.)
Changing our mindset, our believes and generally understanding of our mind is crucial. Being the most important automatically sets it to be also the toughest one. As mentioned by many spiritual teachers it takes time but it’s possible and later seems simple.
It is a step by step process that requires a lot of discipline and self-awareness and willpower.
Books is the key here. Reading books related to this subject is the best way to start. Books may seem “vintage” to many, but their value is unmeasurable. Of course reading is good but action must follow up.
Which book should I pick first? The number one book you should start with, I started with and strongly recommend , is the “Power of Now” by Ekhart Tole.
This book is an eye opening book, talking about the “now” something that many people miss to realize, including me. Read it with acceptance and curiosity.
I recommend books about habits next.
The more we dig the more we tend to realize and understand about our minds.
Don’t be scared if something is totally different from what you thought so far. Everyday is a day to revaluate what we believe
Books are a uniquely portable magic
Stephen King
Start self-improvement from your mind, because it is the toughest and most important one. Give it time. Spend time on books. Keep in mind one very powerful fact “you are not your mind”!!
Connect body and mind!
2. Body
Although the body is the temple of our mind, as many like to refer to, it is more than that.
We tend to disconnect from it! I know, I was surprised myself too when I first read it. As I mentioned the world is moving so fast around us and we tend to follow most of the time.
Take some time to calm your heartbeat with some deep breathing and “listen” to your body. The more you do it the more it will makes sense. Use it on both next parts of body improvement.
As you may already thought, exercise is a part of your body improvement. Any type of it. It can be the gym, a sport you enjoy or any other activity. But make sure you do something about your body.
Exercising affects many things. Your mood and your energy during the day, the feeling that you accomplish something about yourself and the good feeling of being tired. It improves your body composition and appearance as much as your posture.
Another thing of our body improvement is our eating habits.
“We are what we eat”.
Our eating habits affect our feeling during the day, our mood, our energy, our sleep even our smell.
Eating healthy is an annoying thing for many. We all like a big tasty burger or a mountain of pancakes.
Our body though doesn’t really like them. Its our mind that does. If we listen to our body and how it feels, healthy food should be our priority. We can always enjoy a ”cheat” meal or a chocolate cake or whatever we want.
Remember that the food cravings (and not only food ones) are caused by our mind not our body. That’s why it will be very helpful to listen to our body.
How does that “listen to your body” sounds to you? Is it any helpful?
Confidence is something we all need and most of us try to boost. Exercising and improving our body has a huge impact in confidence.
If you appreciate and look after your body, trying to improve it , it will have a huge impact in your life. And a small piece in your happiness puzzle.
3. Communication
Communication is the last but not least area of self-improvement. Humans, since their very existence, had the need/urge to communicate with each other. We are made to communicate with each other.
Although we use the communication skill every day, we tend to be mediocre in it if not less. It’s weird that we are using it so often and know so little about it.
Improving communication skills is crucial for our every day life. And it can be done by applying some simple things and learnings from our experiences in every day life.
Personal and business/professional communications are both important. Improve in both of these aspects. I would recommend starting from the personal. And it we lead to some of the professional too.
Books, once again, here is our ally. Many wonderful books are written about this subject.
One of the best (and tge 1st I read) is “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie. (don’t get fooled by the title, it has nothing to do with control or manipulation)
Start with a self digging. Try to find what makes the communicator you are, a good or a not so good one. Even being a good one I strongly believe that improvement can always take place, and it will help you.
Some basics I would recommend.
• Be a good listener
• Start criticizing yourself first
• Put yourself in their seat
• There is no winning in communications.
Ego is the enemy. Not only in communications but in our whole life. Use your ego to boost motivation in accomplishing things. If you want to improve fast in this area:
Put your Ego in your pocket!
The more you improve your communication skills the more confident you will be in communicating (and more) . Applying simple things and be aware of yourself (watch yourself).
Conclusion
Pick one area you want to improve and do simple and steady steps. Don’t rush it because you will be overwhelmed.
If you don’t have an area in mind or you “can’t” choose then I would recommend to go for the mind area. Knowing yourself and be aware is the key to anything we do.
You will be surprised by yourself I am sure about it.
Also try some light workout if you do 0 at this point. Some walking or jogging (not much).
Let the improvement begin!!
Believe in you. Nothing is easy and it takes time!!
Be persistent and let things be!!
Do it for you and noone else.
You are the only one responsible for you.
What area did you pick? What steps do you consider doing or starting with?