Self-Improvement: Overcoming the Challenges

People have different backgrounds and different types of upbringings. During the journey of life, we develop and pick up habits, tendencies and inclinations, which become deeply embedded into our being as the years go by. Then comes a time when we realize that success demands that we lay down some of the habits and tendencies we have comfortably lived with all our lives. This is when we lazily drag our feet to the starting point of a journey we are not sure we will complete; self-improvement. Self-improvement is not an easy journey, and it really works against the grain of what you believe in or want to believe in. it often transcends the norm in our lives and brings in a new us altogether. 

 

Life is a challenging journey studded with problems and challenges here and there. At times, we tend to cringe and defend ourselves from the difficulties we face; at other times, we get on the offensive and start doing weird things to counter the effect of these challenges. However, facing these challenges and using the right tools is what is usually required if we are ever going to be successful. This is not to say that discouragement will not come or that when it comes it shows weakness on your part. It is common for you to reach a point where you are sure that your journey of self-improvement has been or needs to be called off. The big question is how you handle it. 

 

In his book, “Born to Win”, Lewis Timberlake says, “It is not what happens but how you react to what happens that separates winners from losers and the successful from the unsuccessful.” This can’t be better said, because it is the absolute truth. Every person has his own share of challenges to deal with every single day, but those who choose to face it positively usually emerge that day’s winners. 

 

As a matter of fact, there lies an opportunity in every challenge; no challenge comes empty handed, without its reward at hand. For instance, who would have thought that the rude interruption of Isaac Newton’s sleep by an apple from a tree hitting his head would lead to the all-time discovery of the gravity principle, which today is used in almost every technological concept? Environmental pollution by garbage is a problem, and many people are making thousands of dollars a day by just solving the problem through garbage collection, safe disposal, recycling, et cetera. Every need presents an opportunity. 

Self-Improvement: Taking a Step in the Right Direction

You want to improve yourself, and this explains why you are reading this article right now. It is very possible to “get there,” only if you are willing to take the right steps in the right direction. Before you take off, you need to have the right mentality about self-improvement. The reason why “get there” is in quotes is because “there” does not exist. Self-improvement is not a destination but a journey. If you have the right mentality and take the right steps, you will not fail along the way. 

 

If you have embarked on the journey of self-improvement, have a pal to whom you are accountable for your progress. This keeps you motivated to your goal. For instance, if your aim is to lose two pounds every month, having an accountability friend will keep you glued to the goal, because you will not want to weigh yourself in their presence only to find that you have lost nothing or you have in fact added two pounds!

 

Be an accountability pal to yourself. This means that you will track your progress based on results. An achievement of a certain goal can be quite motivating, thus enabling you to achieve even more in the next step. One rule in self-improvement about goals is that a goal is not a goal if it is not quantifiable and assessable.

 

As you push towards the goal, find the “why” in all that. The “why” is usually the motivating factor behind every goal. For instance, the “why” behind you wanting to sell one hundred muffins a day may be a pending debt. Your aim for losing a total of ten pounds may be fitting in your wedding gown or simply a promise you made to your husband. Any time you think of this goal, you cannot help but say no to that offer for an ice cream treat!

 

Make incentives and rewards for yourself along the way. For instance, give a $100 bill to an accountability pal to keep as an incentive. When you achieve the goal by a certain set time, the pal is to return the cash to you. However, if you do not make it, let the cash be given to a certain charitable trust (you should have decided which one before giving your pal the money). Reward yourself when you achieve a goal. For instance, if you make your target sale, promise yourself something, for instance a new outfit or a pizza treat. Enjoy the journey as much as you can; do not get too overwhelmed about the goal.

Significance of Journal Writing on Self-Improvement

Journal writing is a powerful self-improvement tool. When one picks up a pen to do journal writing, what he or she writes is what comes straight from the mind and heart without being tampered with. When you do journaling, you get a realistic view of what really lies within you.

 

Everyone needs a safe place to express themselves without judgment or ridicule. In a private journal, you have a trusted confidante who you know will not spill your secrets. It's up to you to keep the journal in a safe place.

 

You can begin to express your creativity and individuality by carefully selecting a journal of who you are. It does not have to fancy or expensive, just feel good for you. The design and texture of the journal not only reflects who you are but also should give you immense pleasure when holding it and thus writing in it. This makes a big difference in how often you will use it. For it to be effective, you do have to use it regularly.

 

The act of writing your thoughts down on paper, gives them legitimacy. It is a great time to really get to know yourself and take your hopes, dreams, and wants seriously.

 

It has been known to heal broken hearts, and has been a great source of strength for people undergoing certain changes.

 

You do not have to feel obligated to write every day, but it is a good idea to try even if it is just a short paragraph or two.

 

To help get you started, we have listed some journal topics that have been very well received in terms of helping people make a connection.

 

Suggested Journaling Topics:

 

1) You at 85:

 

Imagine that today is your 85th birthday and a reporter is going over to your house to interview you. You have about 10 minutes to highlight important things in your life up to now. Discuss significant events in your life, people you've known and loved, places you've seen, good will that you've shown, etc. Describe your life exactly how you would like it to have been should you be 85 years old looking back.

 

2) My Favorite Treasure:

 

What is your favorite material thing? It should be something that holds great personal value to you. If you had to save one material thing from your house, what would it be? Discuss why it's so important to you? What value do you get out of it?

 

3) My Favorite Space:

 

Describe your favorite space in the whole world. It does not have to belong to you, but it should be the place that you go to that brings you great happiness, joy and a sense of safety.

Start a Home Business—Take Control of Your Life

Do you think you are stuck in a job that you don’t want to do? A wise person has said that if you like what you do, then you will never have to work for a single day in your life. But, if you are feeling the pressure of work, then evidently you are not liking what you are doing. Then what is it that keeps you at it?

 

If you are thinking about financial stability, then you do not need to think about it much. Today, people who are working over the Internet from their homes are mostly earning more than their traditional desk job counterparts. It may take some time to set up things, but you are in the game sooner than you think. For most people, it takes just a month to build a good name on the Internet and see the money start trickling in.

 

Now, I don’t intend to say that stating a home business will be as easy as saying pie. It won’t be. You will be responsible for yourself, everything will be your responsibility, and you will have to manage your finances, production, deadline, quality and everything else that is associated with a business. You might find things difficult at times, especially in the beginning when you are just trying to set things up. But, once the ball is rolling, you will find that there will be no turning back.

 

Maybe you are thinking that working on the Internet is too technical and that is what is stopping you from doing something here. But, you mustn’t worry too much. It is not as difficult as you think and there are a variety of things you can do. You can pick and choose something that is more up your alley. Just do your research; you will see the various options that exist.

 

You must have faith in your management skills and you should be able to stick to deadlines. You should be able to provide quality jobs. These are all the requirements that you need to work on the Internet. If you have what it needs, then the Internet can open up an unending world of possibilities for you.

 

But you need to work in the determination. If your current job is going nowhere, perhaps it is time that you took stock of the situation. The time has come for you to think about making the change. Think about it and see what you want to do.

The 5 Important Assets of Our Lives

We are all looking for different things in life. Some of us want to become rich, some of us are looking for fame and some are looking for things they can do to improve society at large. But though we are here for different things, there are several common elements among us, and this is true for a king as well as a beggar. These are the things that we can count as our assets. All our activities are so that we can preserve these assets we have.

 

Asset # 1: Our Self

 

Our self comes above everything else. This relates to the people we are within, our individuality… our thoughts and beliefs… our likes and dislikes. All these things make up our selves. We are all gives unique personalities and we need to preserve them. Enhancements and modifications always keep happening within us, but at the core of it all, we are the same people.

 

Asset # 2: Our Family

 

The second important thing in our lives is our family. A large part of what we do throughout our lives is for our families. We are always engrossed in their improvement and advancement. We want to progress in lives, but we want to progress with our families. Most of us plan out our lives keeping our families in mind as well.

 

Asset # 3: Our Love

 

Love is something that gives meaning to our lives. Relationships give our lives a new direction, and we gain in strength. We need to preserve the love that we get, especially the love that we get from people we don’t know from birth.

 

Asset # 4: Our Friends

 

Friends are important to us because they are so influential in our lives. The way our friends think and act somehow influences our beliefs and actions too. It is easy to make friends but more difficult to preserve them. However, preserving friendships should be a constant endeavor in our lives. This is something that can take us ahead.

 

Asset # 5: Our Passion

 

All of us have some or the other passion in our lives. The passion is defined by what we want to do in life, where we want to take our life. Our lives are the most ideal if our passion gets converted into our profession. If we do what we enjoy doing the most, we will never have to work a single day in our life. 

How to Improve Yourself—Some Tips

Self-development is the art of making yourself better in all aspects of the word. This being the case, people are looking for ways that they can improve their self. The improvement comes with certain advantages. 

 

One of the main advantages of the improvement is that a person is able to be more productive. Apart from this, they are also able to do things that they could not before. This means that self-development is an important part of ache and every human being. 

 

There are some tips that a person can use to make their self-development experience good for them. 

 

The first thing that comes to mind is that they will need to look at their negative attributes. Looking at their negative attributes will make them know what problems they are facing. At the same time, they will able to know their weak points. The best way to know their negative attributes would be through using a list. 

 

If you happen to be in this situation, you will need to reflect on your character. In most cases, people will complain some things about you. Such things should be put down on paper for of a list. You should also look at the problems that you have on your own. 

 

Once you have done this, you will be able to know the exact problems that you are facing. Putting them down on paper will act as a reference point for future use. From this list, you should look at each point and analyze it. You should analyze the issue thoroughly. In some cases, you might find that it is something that you can control. If it is something that you can control, you should control it. You should try your very best to do it on your own. In a week’s time, you would have some positive results. 

 

In the event that you do not have positive results, you should seek some help. In some cases, the trouble that you might be undergoing can be solved either clinically or emotionally. This will mean that you can look for help using a counselor or by using some medicine. If you happen to be addicted to drugs like cigarettes, you can try reducing your daily intake. If in seven days you will not have reduced you daily intake, you can opt to look for remedies like a stop smoking patch. 

 

Thus, analyzing your inner self and resolving to improve upon it is one of the best ways that you can use to go about with your personal development. Be truthful to yourself, and you will find interesting solutions beginning to emerge.

How to Make a Plan for Anything

There are two ways to achieve things… you can either make a proper plan and work according to it in order to achieve what you are looking for, or you can simply work without a plan and still try to achieve what you want. But the former option has a potential to give you much better results. You will know what to do at each given time and you will know what you should do to go about it.

 

But, how do you make an effective plan? You cannot go about it haphazardly, of course. All plans are not bound to work; if you want your plan to work, these are the most vital things you have to include in it.

 

Why Are You Making the Plan?

 

The first thing that you have to analyze is the reason why you are making the plan. What purpose is it going to achieve? When you are sure that your plan will do something positive for you, you see that its importance rises, and then you go about it in a more focused manner. You should start with a very clear-cut idea of why you are creating the plan.

 

How Serious Are You About Accomplishing It?

 

Whatever the purpose of the plan might be, or whatever results it might bring for you, it is important that you are serious about bringing it to fruition. What is your level of seriousness? Some plans may promise the moon, but unless and until you are serious about putting your efforts into its accomplishment, there are going to be no results achieved.

 

Have You Spent Time on It?

 

When you are planning, you should not do it in a very hurried manner. Such plans, which don’t have much thought put into them, are not much likely to work. You have to be able to devote time to the plan you are crafting and then you should work accordingly. Only when you sit down and think about each aspect of your plan carefully can you rely on its accomplishment.

 

Do You Have the Resources?

 

Another thing that you have to consider is whether you have the needed resources to realize what you have planned? You need to have everything in place. But that does not mean you abandon the plan if you do not have a particular resource. Maybe you can incorporate that too in your plan… how to get the resource that is missing.

 

The most important things that you need are determination and courage. If you have these two vital ingredients, along with a creative mind that is open to ideas, you will find that you are able to make more successful plans that work.

How to Overcome the Fear of Speaking in Public

Most people are paranoid of speaking in public. But, at the same time, these people know that if they could overcome this fear, they would lead a more successful life. Are you afraid of speaking in public as well? These methods will help.

 

1.  Firstly, you should know that the fear of speaking is not the fear of speaking itself. You know that there are many things that you can say, so the speaking part itself is not a problem. Your problem is something related to the act of speaking. Maybe you are afraid that you will mess up on stage, forget your words, or pronounce something in a funny way and become the butt of YouTube jokes. Or, maybe you are afraid that people will walk out when you start speaking, or doze off, or not applaud you. You have to sit and analyze what your cause of fear is. This actually helps in dealing with the situation.

 

2.  Everyone feels jittery, at least a teensy-weensy bit, when they have to walk up on stage and face those people who are staring at them. But, you should realize that this kind of nervousness is universal. Most of these people, as soon as they hold the microphone, find all their fear subsiding. You just have to walk up to the stage, hold the mike and begin… you will find your fear going away.

 

3.  Practice well. If you are paranoid of getting on stage, then rehearsing it in advance will help a lot. If you know your speech backwards and are confident about it, you won’t be afraid too much. You may also try to hold a mock show at home with your family and friends attending, just to get over the fear.

 

4.  Do not worry about messing up with the words. There is only a very remote chance of that happening. The trick is to speak from the mind, to really feel what you are saying. If you are truthful about what you say, you will not lisp.

 

5.  Dress well. Be neat. It all works!

 

6.  When speaking, if you suddenly feel jittery, look at the place where people you know are sitting. Just looking at them can help a lot. From personal experience, if feel a bit nervous when speaking, I look for people who are visibly responding to what I say… nodding their heads or something like that. Speaking directly to them is also something that can help build that confidence on stage.

 

Try these tips. You will find that your stage fright is not as bad as it seems. 

How You Can Motivate Yourself to Work Better

Motivation is something we all feed on. We need to be motivated to do our tasks. We need to be inspired… without that, it is very difficult to achieve anything that we are setting out to do. This is especially true in the case of business goals. If you aren’t motivated about fulfilling the various goals in front of you, your efforts will only be half-baked and you cannot say that they will be successful.

 

Now, motivation comes from various quarters. There are many people who can motivate us to do a better job, but the best motivation is that which comes from within. If we put our minds to it, we can motivate ourselves to perform better. Self-motivation, as it is called, is a state of the mind. To be able to inspire ourselves to do better, we have to condition ourselves to think that we can do better.

 

That is so true! There are so many times that we just let go of things just because we resign ourselves to our demotivated self. We tell ourselves that we cannot do something, and then things really begin happening that way. 

 

In order to keep ourselves motivated, the one most important thing for us to do is to accept that we can do things. We have to prepare a clear plan about each aspect of what we are setting out to do, and we have to build proper strategies for the fulfillment of the task. It is not an easy thing to do, but if our plans are carefully laid out, then we can definitely reach out to do better things.

 

An emphatic part about motivation comes from expecting results. We need to keep our focus on what we want to achieve. If our intentions are clear, we are able to concentrate on the task in a better way too. We have to actually visualize the results of fulfilling a particular goal and that can drive us towards the accomplishment of that goal.

 

It is quite a difficult process to go about that initial phase of self-motivation. It is difficult to generate that, but once it is created, it remains stable. When you condition yourself to think that you want to achieve something, the inspiration does not fade away easily.

 

So, your difficulty might be only in that initial phase when you do not know what you might do to motivate yourself. But, once you are out of that phase, and you build some determination within yourself, you find yourself going ahead in the right direction.