A Complete Guide to Self Improve : Become the best YOU.

Determined to become a super achiever in 2021? And don’t know where to start from? What if I told you big achievement is not about doing something big?. But it is simply about doing many small things together? Read how you can self-improve. Discover the different ways you can enhance your personality, seek self-improvement and grow into a self-reliant, self-driven person.

Man has been gifted with natural instinct to grow. To learn new things, discover the secrets of nature, improve the standard of living and to keep growing with every experience. Each experience of our life shapes us into who we are today. We can wait for life-changing experiences to help us grow. Or we can find out what exactly can we do to self-improve.

I shall not be talking about education. Because we have seen uneducated people become super successful millionaires. I shall not talk about how to become rich. Even some who were born poor are well-known legends today. It’s not fair to mention the power to be source of success. Even once unknown people have risen to the ranks of leaders.

How can we improve our self?

So what is it that builds the life of successful people? It’s their soft skills, their habits and their ability of managing resources in hand that create the magic.

It is about analyzing what people have done to improve their self and become success stories. Then inculcating those ideas in our life.

Discover how you can develop your personality by making some self-improvement. Self-improvement in your habits and traits.

READING BOOKS

“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.”

Charles Baudelaire

Books are powerhouse of knowledge. They store the information, inspiration and more. Books is man’s best friend (after a dog, probably).

You can find all the answers in a book. You just need to be sure you are looking at the right one. From history to geography, from wealth to welfare, from health to self-help, you can get all.

Reading improves cognitive functions of brain. Yayyy! now you know the secret of staying smarter for longer part of your life.  Great news!!!

Reading also improves your communication skills. You can be good at meaningful, small talk. It also improves your cognitive skills. You have lot to share in the gathering of friends next time.

Reading uplifts your imagination and creative skills. I remember reading “Harry Potter” series and imagining every bit of it. The imaginative visions are still fresh in my memory. Books just carry you to world of possibilities where there can be a platform no. 9 ¾. And you can drive a flying car too. Do you remember that one???

Books give you inspiration to become millionaire, to be super-achiever. You can learn to manage your time, money and efforts effectively. You can learn to be healthy, tons of new languages and also discover the wonders in the world. All by reading the right books.

Action plan:

Make a list of books you want to read this year. Download Goodreads and set up a reading challenge for yourself. Make a habit of reading 20 pages each day. You will become little wiser each passing day.

DEVELOP SKILLS

Which skill will accelerate your career growth or make you a better at your work? Review Technical, Financial, Digital and Creative skills that can help you grow in your organization. Develop those skills. Invest your time, money and efforts in learning those skills. They will you give you better edge over your competition.

Digitalization has touched most of the sectors / industry. So sound knowledge of digital skills shall give you better chance at progressing in your work.

Action plan:

Explore the skills you want to learn. List them down. Explore the platform that is best for your skillset. Allocate few hours a week/ month to learn something new.

BUILD SELF-CONFIDENCE

Self-confidence is critical skill for an entrepreneur. Fortunately, it is a skill that can be acquired with efforts. With training and practice, self-confidence can be sharpened.

You need to figure out what makes you feel self-confident. Is it your dressing or your actions or your thoughts?

Dress for the occasion. Be well prepared for the task. Plan each action well. Have a positive self talk. These are some ideas to make you feel confident. Think what works for you the best.

Action plan:

Think : When was the last time you felt super confident? Analyze what made you feel confident. Practice that act more often.

IMPROVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Learn how to improve communication skills. Communication skills makes you good speaker. You can articulate your expressions clearly and effectively.  It is easier to put across your sentiments in proper words. You can convey your emotions with its right intention.

Communication skills also make you better listener. You become more empathetic. People feel free to talk to you and speak their heart. This is one of the biggest asset of a leader. Leaders can empathize their followers and influence their decisions.

Formal communication such as letter writing, writing emails or memos have definite pattern  and jargons that are used. Master them to make an impression on people around you.

Action plan: Discover the various communication that you undertake in your daily life – formal as well as informal. Figure out which of the areas you would like to improve your self. Find out courses or videos to improve your communication skills.

CAREER GOALS

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible”

Tony Robbins

Setting up a career goal is important. It is equally important that you work towards those goals systematically.

If you have joined as junior accountant in an organization and aspire to become manager someday, only working hard will not help you reach there. May be you have to wait till your current manager leaves that position. Even then, there is always a risk that someone out of organization will be hired as a manager.

How are you going to rise up then? Make a career plan. Write down where you want to be in next one year, five years or ten years. What are responsibilities that are additionally performed by person at higher position? Evaluate what skills are required for to fulfill those responsibilities. Acquire those skills.

Become part of professional groups which are related to your field. You will become aware of challenges faced by others and their experiences in dealing them. You will also know the latest developments in the field.

Action plan:

Are you ready with pencil and paper? Write down your yearly goal. Break it down into skills, responsibilities and mindset. Figure out what can you do to achieve these skills and mindset.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

“Health is like money, we never have a true idea of its value till we lose it”

Josh Billings

The word “health” is defined as a state of physical, mental and social well-being in which disease and infirmity are absent.” So being healthy means that physically and mentally one is free from diseases.

Healthy lifestyle can be acquired by wholesome balanced diet, regular exercise, enough water and adequate sleep. Simple, isn’t it???

If it is so simple then why is the bigger part of the world struggling to remain healthy. And the reason is, people are focusing on short term solutions and not emphasizing on the word ‘lifestyle’ enough.

Build healthy habits for healthy lifestyle. Make it a habit to eat nutritious food and indulge in physical activity at least 3 to 4 times each week. Drink 2-3 liters in a day and have undisturbed sleep for 7-8 hours.

FITNESS IN DAILY LIFE

Fitness makes you look good and attractive. It also keeps you energized throughout the day and you can perform better without getting tired. It keeps the aches and pains at a bay. So you can be go-getter while the person next to you whines about his health issues.

You can work actively in the office and play with your children with ease. There is no other better key to work-life balance.

Also remember that children emulate parents. By being fit, you are setting good example for your children. They indulge in healthy lifestyle since their childhood making it easier for them to grow into fit adults.

Action plan :

Set your health goals. Build healthy habit of nutritious food, daily exercise, enough sleep and adequate water. Keep it simple. Use tracker to track your habits.

PEOPLE SKILLS

Managing people or building a team is a critical skill for a leader. Effective leader is always able to convince people positively to support him wholeheartedly in all the instructions that he imparts.

So if you empathize with your teammates, guide them in their work, support them in their difficulties and encourage them to move ahead, you will win the confidence of your team members. And when you have gained their confidence, they shall be motivated to complete any difficult task as a team collectively (without any resistance). It is very crucial to develop such positive attitude among people around you.

And this is not only with your team members, but with everyone you deal in your life. Wouldn’t it be magical if you can convince everyone around you to understand your point of view and support you unconditionally? It is surely worth a try

PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS

Public speaking skill is being able to address a public gathering with confidence. You need to strike a chord with the audience. They need to find you credible about the knowledge that you impart. Being a successful orator shall help you become more influential and feel more empowered.

Join the Groups like Toastmaster or listen to Ted Talks or try practicing public speaking to yourself in front of a friend or mirror. Practice makes a man (and a woman) perfect. Keep practicing public speaking and you will become better at it over the period of time. you can overcome stage fear by building public speaking skill.

FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

Many people say that they have stage fright and freeze when they go on a dais. It is all about self-talk that you have given to yourself. Have you felt fearful when you voice about where to have dinner among your 10-15 friends? No, Right? But you will feel fearful when you are told to stand in front of same 15 people and give a self-introduction or may be a small speech.

That is because you have thought about what you will say, how your actions will be, how your punctuations will be etc.

To be good public speaker, two things are important. One is knowledge and second is desire to share that knowledge with the audience. That is the reason why we can discuss a topic freely with our friends but become tongue-tied on a dais. The missing link is connection with your audience.

PRACTISE MINDFULLNESS

Mindfulness is about being aware of the situations or actions in the present moment without being judgmental. It is about observing and accepting what is happening now around you. It’s being aware of your actions.

Mindfulness makes you aware of what actually you are actually doing now and whether you should be doing it or not. Like mindful eating is about relishing and chewing each morsel of food, feeling gratitude for being blessed with food on table and feeling contented that this food will nourish your body.

Action plan :

Spend 10 minutes of the day journaling all the events of the day. It shall help you to self-reflect and become more mindful of your actions.

OVERCOME BAD HABITS

Apart from bad vices that affect our health adversely like alcohol, cigarettes, there are other bad habits like procrastination, being unorganized, laziness, untidiness etc. These bad habits stand in the way to success. 

Identify the bad habits that are tying you down and make a plan to overcome them.

It’s said that 21 days practice is needed to make or break any habit. Start today.

TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Take my word, this is THE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL in your life.  If you can master this skill, you can make time for improving all the other skills listed herein.

Learn the principles of better time management. You can make a to-do-list for all the task you have to complete next day, create time blocks when you will focus only on one task.

Choose pomodoro technique where you set an alarm of 25 min and focus on one task only, next 5 minutes you will have a break. This is one pomodoro cycle. Take bigger break of 15-20 minutes after 4 pomodoro cycles.

Figure out what works for you. You will be able to achieve more in less time with time management practice.

DEVELOP GOOD HABITS

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

Jim Ryun

Build good habits that shall help you become super-efficient in your life.

Some of the good habits you can build are building fitness routine, eating well, practicing gratitude, meditation, respecting environment, being planned and organized, good practices of self-grooming and self-care.

Yes, all the actions mentioned in the list can be practiced as good habits. Self-improvement is about doing same good things again and again so that it becomes a part of your life. Implementation and practice is more important that reading or learning what to do.

Just do it. Start Now.

PRACTISE GRATITUDE

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”

Oprah Winfrey

Gratitude is derived from latin word gratus that means being thankful. Gratitude is being thankful for all that we are blessed with in our life. For all the situations and achievments that has shaped our life.

Gratitude is the base for major religions where worship to God is our expression of gratitude for his blessings.

Gratitude is proven to help people build positive relationships and self-acceptance. It makes people happier and less depressed or stressed. People who practice gratitude are open towards seeking help from other people and helping others around them. It also helps to build problem solving strategy with faith and positive attitude.

Action Plan

Write a 5 min entry in your journal every day being grateful for all the people and things that happen in your life. You will notice the change in your thinking and actions.

IMPROVE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY

Improving productivity is the core of self-improvement. Productivity means the result or outcomes against the actions taken by a person. So the aim is to improve the outcomes or results for our action.

Productivity can be increased by focusing on the stuff that really matters. Choose your actions carefully. Say No to time-killers which will do no benefit. Or do not take us closer to our goals or destination.

Follow the 80-20 Pareto principle in your every activity. List all the actions you plan to undertake. Identify which actions will help you gain maximum outcomes. Adopt that action plan. Do it for every activity

As per Pareto principle, 20 percent of our efforts yield 80 percent of our goal-oriented results, remaining 80 percent of our efforts are towards the 20 percent outcomes.

Focus on these effective actions so you can achieve better results with least efforts in earliest possible time.

SELF CARE AND GROOMING

Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.

Being well-groomed and presentable is welcoming and endearing. The way you dress, speaks volumes about you especially when you are meeting someone for the first time. Being well dressed would not necessarily mean to be dressed with branded clothes or accessories. You can dress well with simple attire.

Attending a meeting in well-ironed dress with proper accessories shows that you have put an effort in yourself. It shows that you are organized and well-planned for the meeting. It shows that “You care”.

Self-care routine involves morning and evening routine that you undertake to keep your body and mind in good state. Meditating, self-reflection, setting your clothes and accessories for next day, weekly and daily routine of hygiene all are small things that you can do to build an impressive personality.

Self-care and grooming sessions leave you feeling fresh, raise your level of self-confidence and makes you mentally ready to take on the world.

Figure out what you can do to improve your self-care and grooming routine this week.

ORGANIZATION SKILLS

“Everything in its place and place for everything” is the mantra of being organized. Being organized seems simple yet plays a big role in your self-improvement. It is one of the 7 highly effective habits of successful people.

Being organized gives you clarity. It saves your time that you would otherwise spend in searching the things you own. It actually lessens your stress and anxiety level.

Just imagine would you achieve more with a clean, organized desk or with a messy desk having heaps of paper?

Do you get the message? It will take about 10 minutes each day to organize the things which are not in place. But to reach to that level of being organized, you need to spend probably few days to set everything in its place. And to decide a place for everything you own.

–  YOUR HOME

The change begins from the mindset. At home we tend to store or hoard lot of stuff with the thought that you may need it someday or that you may not be able to get it when you need. So you hoard, when you have it.

Start being organized at your home. Run through all closets, shelves, all rooms and figure out where is the clutter. Sort that clutter. Keep only the things you use and need regularly. You will notice the difference in your mood and attitude within a week of decluttering.

– YOUR WORKSPACE

I spoke to you about having clean desk. Well, you know what to do now.

Check your desk for all stationery, accessories, sticky notes and find place for them. Return all those you don’t need to your office admin. (Some impressions you gonna make!!)

Run through all the papers on your desk. Sort them as per the order of importance.

– YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA

This is one pain point for everyone today. Our email accounts are overflowing with emails from nowhere. The social media feeds are filled with updates. We try each time to organize it but its flowing at a pace faster than we can imagine.

Take it one at a time. Run through your email box and filter unread emails and take actions on them one by one. For generic emails from accounts you have subscribed ages ago but no longer need, use the search and delete option.

Download unroll.me and enter your email details. It will list out the emails that you have subscribed to. You can cancel the subscriptions so the rate of incoming emails reduces. Its super effective tool.

For every social media that you use (Facebook / Youtube / Pinterest), go to Manage Subscriptions option. It will list out all the subscriptions you are signed in for. You will be amazed with the sheer number of subscriptions. You can unsubscribe the accounts that are no longer aligned with your goals.

Hope Evolve for better life makes it to your inbox after you have finished with unsubscription task. J

So are you ready to make your own personal development plan. These are some of the effective ways that would take you long way in your journey of self-improvement. Let me know in comments below what will you do to start with your self-improvement goal. I would also like to hear from you about any other way to improve our self. As you know Evolve for better life is all about inspiring and being inspired.

Read more on this topic>>

• Exercise daily – Build your fitness routine in easy way.
• How to lose weight without counting calories
• Personal development – Make your own success plan
• Why is personal development plan important for success?

Stay in touch…..

Let me know in the comments below, what would you like to Self improve.

You can also learn about ways more about self-improvement on Pinterest, Instagram, facebook. Join my facebook group to mingle with like-minded people who are interested in personal growth and self-improvement.

We are in this together!!!