Self improvement is defined as the journey of becoming a better you.
When you decide to embark on a self improvement journey, know that it’s not so much about the final destination.
The road to self improvement and personal development is one you will travel most of your life. It’s less about the final destination you reach, and more about the journey along the way.
As you go through more experiences in life, your goals for self improvement will change.
This is because different stages of life will demand different versions of you. And with these different versions, comes a consistent need to focus on developing who you are.
Here are 6 self improvement tips to keep in mind as you embark on this new journey:
1. Reevaluate who you surround yourself with
“You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” ~Jim Rohn
The people you surround yourself with are crucial to your personal development. There are different relationships in our lives that add value to who we are.
The company you keep dictates many aspects of who you are—including how you see yourself.
If you’re surrounding yourself with people who bring your mood down—it may be time to reevaluate these relationships.
The importance of surrounding yourself with people who support you and want to see you do well is critical.
The journey to self improvement can be tough. And if you don’t have the right people surrounding you, it can be lonely as well.
When you surround yourself with supportive people who motivate you to be the best version of yourself, no goal will feel too hard to reach.
2. Build better habits
Taking an honest look at your life to assess what’s working and what isn’t—is a key part of the self improvement journey.
Building better overall habits helps set you up for success.
In James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones“, he explains how implementing small changes has a compound effect overtime.
When we take a look at all the little things we do in life, they all add up to define who we are. When embarking on the self improvement journey, implementing better habits is how you will grow. And these habits can just be small things that add value to your life.
For example, try implementing reading 10 pages of a personal development book every night. It may not seem like a lot when you look at in the short term. But when you look at it overtime, that’s 70 pages in one week. 3,640 pages in one year.
The amount of knowledge you gain from implementing this small habit of reading will compound overtime.
Another habit you can implement is eating healthy and hydrating your body regularly. On a regular basis this may not seem like much, but you’re compounding your total health overtime.
Though habits can seem small in the short term, consistently implementing them has the power to change your life in the long run.
3. Try new things often
A big part of growth is trying new things. If you stayed in your comfort zone forever, you’d never grow.
If there’s something on your mind you’ve always wanted to try or a new skill you want to learn—stop making the excuses and just go after it!
You may not do things perfectly on the first try, but that just means you’re one step closer to getting better. You’re never going to become a pro at something, if you don’t start.
One of the greatest ways you will grow as a person is when you place yourself in uncomfortable positions.
So what are you waiting for?!
Stop making excuses and get started now. Life isn’t going to wait for you! So there’s no better time to try new things than right now.
4. Set goals for self improvement
When embarking on a journey of personal development, it can be so easy to forget to celebrate your wins. Being able to benchmark your progress is important.
It helps you reflect on how far you’ve come, and how far you still want to go.
By setting self improvement goals for yourself, you know what you’re working towards.
Life can get distracting.
I’m sure there will be many temptations and distractions on your journey towards becoming the best you. By setting goals, you’re holding yourself accountable to staying on track.
5. Keep your space neat and tidy
Don’t overlook the power of your environment. Oftentimes, your physical space is the reflection of your mental state.
When your space is cluttered, so is your mind. When you declutter your physical space, it helps you declutter your mind.
Having strong mental health is a key part of personal development.
The road to becoming the best you can be mentally draining. So making sure your environment sets you up to be as successful as possible is important.
6. Don’t be so hard on yourself
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll
The amount of compassion you have towards yourself and others, will strongly influence how you perceive life.
Life is going to get hard.
But learning to navigate the hard times with grace and understanding is critical to growth. We’re all just trying to do our best.
It’s so easy to be your own worst enemy. It’s inevitable that there will be times on your self improvement journey where you feel you messed up. Maybe it feels like you took a few steps back.
But at the end of the day, you’re human.
You’re going to make mistakes.
You’re going to disappoint yourself.
You’re going to disappoint others.
But how you navigate these situations will determine how successful you are.
Having compassion towards yourself and others is crucial when you embark on a self improvement and personal development journey.
Sometimes connecting with a therapist can help you improve how you perceive life’s pitfalls.
We like to think of self compassion as a muscle that you constantly need to exercise. The more you exercise it, the more it’ll strengthen.
