5 practical tips to improve yourself

According to Market Research, approximately 75 million millennials worldwide are using self-help services currently. The people who choose self-improvement cite it as an integral part of their career and life. 

They further suggest that making time for self-improvement is time well spent, for it is a lifelong process that guarantees continued growth.

So if you’re someone looking forward to becoming better than you were yesterday, self-improvement can help you-

• Push yourself to reach your highest potential
• Figure out your strengths and weaknesses
• Discover opportunities and tackle threats
• Get better at good habits and life skills 

And while you can try a hundred different ways to improve yourself, some significant development tips require the most of your attention urgently.

Here’s a list of 5 such practical tips to improve yourself- 

1. Quit lying to yourself 

Using only feel-good statements or subtle lies to monitor growth in life does more bad than good. Often, these statements are just sluggish excuses that keep us away from self-awareness. To track progress better and make healthier decisions, you must first accept what you are and where you stand.

Here are some tips to help you quit lying to yourself – 

• Maintain a journal to track your progress and prioritise your plans.
• Meditate or count your breath to improve moment-by-moment awareness.
• Consider regular feedback at work to analyse your strengths and weaknesses constructively. 
• Take psychometric tests that measure various aspects of you – including emotional intelligence, your attitude towards life, etc. 
• Ask trusted friends for honest and critical opinions on your actions & behaviours that might be troublesome. 

2. Focus on one course of action until success 

A strategy called the Ivy Lee method explains how a daily routine can increase productivity through ‘focusing on one action at a time.’ It further suggests that ‘your amount of multitasking’ is inversely proportional to the ‘quality of your work.’

This quick & smart method of eliminating distractions and practicing ‘one job at a time’ is highly effective and involves the following steps-

• Start each day by writing down six most important tasks for the next day.
• Prioritise each task in the order of importance.
• On the next day, pick the first task and work on it until completion.
• Once done, commit to the second task and follow the same module for each task.
• Move any unfinished item to the next working day. Repeat the process daily. 

3. Make yourself take actions

You cannot progress if you’re only setting goals and not working on them/completing them. Research suggests that if we keep the things we want to do more in front of us, the frequency of doing it increases. A simple practice of integrating cues in your day-to-day environment can help. Begin with writing down ‘4 things that you want to do more often’ and keep it at a place you see regularly, such as your desk or purse.

Here are some practical steps to take inspiration from- 

• If you want to increase your water intake, carry a bottle with you at all times.
• If you do not want to miss out ‘talking’ to your loved ones, stick a simple post-it note on your desk that says, ‘call mom’
• If you wish to start meditating before sleep, set up an alarm next to your bed right before bedtime.

4. Measure your progress backward, not forward

Measuring your progress backward helps you analyse your recent actions, identify invisible patterns and helps focus on planning immediate actions. By backwards we don’t encourage you lamenting over feedback from 5 years ago. The idea is to focus on short-term feedback from the recent past. 

An efficient way to do this is by using a ‘recap’/’review’ model for the week or month. 

Here’s a step-by-step procedure for the same – 

• Create an overview of the period selected.
• Identify what went well and signs of internal progress, if any. 
• Identify what went wrong and any signs of negativity.
• Summarise and maybe, do a S.W.O.T analysis. 
• Plan the upcoming week/month as per the review.

5. Ditch the ‘all or nothing’ mindset 

The ‘all or nothing’ mindset disapproves of anything that falls short of perfect. It processes consequences as either ‘too good’ or ‘too bad.’ The fear of failure attached to this mindset stops individuals from trying new things and deprives them of greater outcomes/possibilities by focusing on ‘perfection’ than consistency. 

Here’s how you can ditch this mindset and embrace a better attitude – 

• Notice when and what makes you feel triggered
• Reflect and understand the reasons behind it 
• Divide your thoughts and reframe each away from the ‘all or nothing’ statement
• Celebrate the small wins & reward yourself for progress.  

Towards self-development, you must shift your mindset from fixed to growth continually and embrace learning as the only way forward. The points mentioned above shall help you develop yourself at the core.

And as you master them-

Remember, you can ‘grow through’ whatever you ‘go through.’