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What is Self Improvement?
It may be pretty unambiguous as to what the meaning is of self-improvement, but it is worth noting that it covers a broad area of personal development. Whether a person is looking to improve their knowledge, skillset, status or temperament. Self improvement is purely based upon one’s effort to make themselves a better person in all aspects of their lives.
As human beings, we are naturally driven to better ourselves as a way of survival. You could call it human instinct. It could be a desire to climb up the corporate ladder at work or to find the perfect partner.
Whatever your core ambitions, self improvement is an integral part of life fulfilment. But why?
Why is it Important?
It happens all too often. We set out with the motivation to improve our lives but with no particular direction in mind. This “strategy” is doomed for failure.
You wouldn’t go looking for something in the dark would you? You would need a light or torch of some sort to find it. That’s why it is important to fully understand the process of self development. You need to find the right path and pursue it with a clear action plan.
How to Build Your Skillset
Personal development is not a simple step-by-step process. It is a challenge. However, it is good practice to push ourselves outside of our comfort zones. You will usually find that you discover a lot more about yourself that way.
There is always room for improvement. To reach our personal goals, we must look at how we can add value to our surroundings. By focusing on developing new habits and developing the inner self, you may be surprised by the results that follow.
Think of self improvement to be like a new workout routine. It will take some time to adapt to the change. You have to invest in the process and allow yourself some time to get used to it. Success comes with resilience. It may seem impossible at first to break a habit, but with the right amount of discipline and determination, it will be worthwhile.
To get started, it is important to do your research. There is no point taking a wild guess as to how you should go about this. Try doing some reading or taking a couple of online classes/webinars.
Here are 5 of the main skills you should consider acquiring to achieve your personal development goals:
Listen
By taking in what other people have to say in classes or the workplace and engaging with conversations, you will build up that listening skill. It’s very easy to switch off during formal talks such as university lectures, classes or workplace meetings. Nevertheless, staying alert and preventing that daydream from creeping in can take you further in your career. It gets noticed!
It is important to be present.
You can daydream during your down time in the evenings or on your commute to work. Rather than just trying to get through the day, work on getting something from your day. You might learn something new. Stop watching that clock!
Acknowledge
As much as absorbing information is a fundamental part of self improvement. Being able to provide a response also comes hand-in-hand with listening to people.
You are naturally going to be affected by what you hear and see in your surroundings. Each day is an experience. Allow yourself to feel those emotions. With every action or experience, comes an emotional response. It can be positive or negative. Therefore, you must let enjoyable things be enjoyable or let stressful situations be stressful for you.
By building up your emotional responses and accepting them, you will eventually respond better to everyday circumstances.
Reflect
Go back over previous events in your mind. This is called reflection. Learning to reflect upon what you already know, have learnt or experienced is a great way of getting more out of your days.
Taking just a few minutes or hours at the end of the day or week (depending on your schedule and workload) to find a quiet space to critically reflect on what you have seen, heard of, or reacted to will add value to your future self. You may learn something you didn’t realise at the time. Although it is important to live in the present, you can actually learn a lot from the past.
Taking that time to relive your experiences and evaluate your decision-making skills will provide you with your own life lessons. You can then invest these life lessons into your future.
Take Action
Bring your dreams to life. Possessing the inspiration to improve your self development is one thing. However, there is a difference between wanting to make a change and actually doing something about it.
You must be able to act on your daily thoughts and feelings. Those that take action will become innovative in their idea generation, values and future endeavors. Make those small changes one at a time. Try making a list of the daily and weekly disciplines that will take you in the right direction.
Some people take great satisfaction in what they do each day. From reading the newspaper to speaking up in a workplace meeting. The disciplines you carry out in your daily life will make the difference in achieving your aspirations in life.
Share your Experience
Sharing is caring! It is a skill that can make you a bigger and better person. There are many people out there who find sharing a difficult activity, whereby they feel by giving they will receive less.
In reality, sharing can create more opportunities for you. It’s quite the enigma.
You can expand your capacity of perception and individuality by sharing with others. It comes in the form of language and communication. You will find that people are easily affected by words.
Author: Eve Becker
Eve is a professional writer for Technical Writers with a first class degree in Business Management. She originally captured her passion for all things business related when she gained her work experience at an estate agency, helping to manage the accounts and finances.
