The A-Z Guide of Self-Improvement
Why do you want to improve?
(Sydney Sims/Unsplash)
Perhaps you want to learn new things, break bad habits, become more productive, find your emotional balance, or improve your relationships?
Whatever it is, we’ve put together this guide to help you out. It contains self-improvement ideas that you can use to improve yourself.
But remember that it takes time and dedication to grow, so be nice to yourself.
Changing our habits, changing our perception and learning new things is not easy. We must also have the courage to engage with the emotional discomfort that comes from stepping out of our comfort zone. So it does need consistency and work on long trail.
Look for daily, sustainable, small wins that add up over time. As Microsoft founder Bill Gates once said, “Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year and underestimate what they can accomplish in ten years.”
Face your fears
As American motivational speaker Dale Carnegie put his strategy: “Confidence comes from doing what you’re scared of and having a series of successful experiences that way.” So you have to get out of your coziness and face your fears set to increase self-confidence.
Often our fears are exaggerated: in anticipation of what “might” happen, we anticipate the possible responses of others and act in a kind of anticipatory obedience. The more often you realize that it’s not as bad as you thought and that you’ve achieved much more than you thought you could, the greater your self-confidence will become
Allow yourself to make mistakes
Don’t beat yourself up for mistakes you make. With this you constantly shake your ego and feed diffidence.
Try to change your attitude towards failure and see it as an opportunity for development. If you look around your team, you will see that your colleagues make mistakes too. It is common to do mistakes in regular life. The key is that you find out how it happened and learn from it.
A mistake does not determine your worth as a person. There’s no reason to fear it. Be more confident in yourself and stay willing to get it wrong every now and then. This attitude helps your own self-confidence immensely.
Feel good
The more comfortable you feel and the happier you are with yourself, the stronger your self-confidence will be. Even if it sounds like a rush: Make sure that you feel good both inside and outside. Do things that make you happy and that give you strength.
This also applies to clothing, by the way: dress in such a way that you feel comfortable and confident in it. Are you dissatisfied with your appearance? Then think about what you can change: your clothing style, haircut or a better figure make sure that you are completely satisfied with yourself.
Complain as low as viable
Sometimes you whining yourself so furiously that lifestyles appears thoroughly bleak whilst there is no cause to be. Sometimes it’s well worth simply shutting up and no longer complaining about each little issue. Yes, the espresso become perhaps a bit too cold these days. But whatever?! And another element: If you may resolve a trouble yourself, then do it! And do not speak about it for days. Is your net too gradual? Call the provider! Everyday problems specifically disappear almost by themselves if you simply select your butt up.
Surround yourself with the right people
If you have people around you who you can trust, who support and encourage you, you will be strengthened from within. You have the good feeling that you are not alone. Because you know that these people value you, they boost your self-confidence at the same time.
But that means the other way around: Keep your distance from bleak type persons who drag you down and constantly put you down. In this type of surrounding, self-confidence doesn’t fatten.
Make time for the things you love
Do you know that? You rush from appointment to appointment day after day and in the end all the things your heart burns for, such as films, music, sports or just good food, fall completely by the wayside. Don’t let everyday life take away the things that are important to you. You can do this by planning one (or two) fixed days for your favorite activity, for example. Or you keep a time diary for a week in which you write down exactly how much time you spend on what. At the end of the week you take stock: Where did you just loiter and what just has to stay where it is. Strolling hours are mercilessly canceled! You will be amazed how much time will be left for great things in the end.
Trend of personality development
Personal development is a continuous process of personal growth. This can go in very different directions. Goals can be, for example, that you know and understand yourself better. Also to understand how one acts oneself and why one does something the way one does it. You can also find out what goals you want to achieve and what principles you want to live by. An important insight can also be recognizing how one might achieve these goals. In the best case, you can ultimately be more relaxed and happier and have a more stable life. Some manage to be more flexible in difficult times and deal better with problems and crises. Achieving this is certainly great, but requires patience, because personal development is a slow process, who usually moves forward in small steps. And you can come to the realization that you’re never “done,” because you can always learn more and experience more. A few tips on how to proceed:
Not so much at once, prefer to set priorities
As described at the beginning, the possible goals of personality development can be very broad. Therefore, it is probably impossible and not even necessary to work on all things at the same time. The first thing you should do is decide which direction you want to go in. Should self-confidence be strengthened or would you like to live a more relaxed life? Do you want to be better able to deal with criticism? Others want to find a goal for their life at all or work on something completely different. It is therefore important to first decide on a direction. It may also be that the focus changes again and again depending on the life situation and interests. So, sooner or later, other topics usually come up.
Audio books as an alternative to reading
If you prefer to listen instead of reading, you should pick up the audio book. The advantage of this is that you can use an audio book in many situations where reading is not possible. For example, while driving or when you are lying relaxed on the sofa with your eyes closed and want to have the contents of a book read to you. As audio books you can now get a wide variety of topics, so that you are guaranteed to find something for the development of your personality.
Use the internet as a source
You can find texts on the subject of personal development on the Internet. There are a large number of websites that deal with all facets of the topic. There you can find a lot of exciting content, as well as experience reports and additional tips. Experiences and thoughts from other people can be very helpful for your own personal development. You should read a lot of different things and pick the aspects that suit you.
Find your own way and try something new
Since personal development is very individual, one should not limit oneself to a single path and not just believe one thing, an expert, unreservedly. It often helps to try different things until you know what really helps you. You can find many different exercises, tips and strategies for this. To find out which of these is best for you, you should experiment and try a little. You often have to test what is really good for you.
