Self-Improvement - Where to Start?
Sep 16th 2020When you start your journey towards self-improvement you might become lost. There's so much to be done. Where do you even begin? The answer is simple. You start with baby steps.
You must set your expectations and goals realistically. If you don't, you will encounter common pitfalls that kill the journey altogether. Who has been in a similar situation: You get a sudden surge of motivation and decide to fix your life. After a couple of days (or even the next day) all the motivation that made you plan things out is gone. You're back to square one.
I've experienced this, a lot, and it took me a long time before I realized what I was doing wrong. My expectations were too high.
What do I mean by setting realistic expectations? Let's say you're somebody that doesn't exercise a lot. If you make a plan where you have to do HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) three times a week then you will fail. In this example, we have to set our expectations as low as getting out of the house and walking for a couple of minutes. You cannot go from Zero to Hero in a day. You will need easy and consistent tasks to push yourself in the right direction.
First, you need to identify what areas you want to improve yourself in. There are many: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Practical. Let's say you decide to lose weight. The best method to lose weight is diet and exercise. When you research the topic, watch a couple of videos, read a couple of blogs, you are motivated. You might make a schedule or a todo list. You tell yourself that now is the time to change. This is a trap. Even if you manage to do your schedule for a couple of days, you will soon lose motivation and return to the old ways. Not because you're weak, but because you're a creature of habit. You return to the state of least resistance. To trick your brain into doing hard things you have to start small. Instead of fasting or omitting delicious foods from your diet, you should cut sugar or carbs. Instead of making a workout schedule that sounds good, you make one that is easy. The goal is to stay consistent. Walk for 15 minutes every day. Sounds easy enough? Everybody will be able to do this no matter what. The goal is complete after 15 minutes. You can walk more, or you can run straight home after you reach the goal. It doesn't matter, as long as you cross off that goal from the list. Consistently.
This is the most important skill for self-improvement. Consistency. Once you start being consistent, you slowly increase the intensity of your tasks. If you don't do this, you will burn yourself out. It takes impossible amounts of dedication to 180 your lifestyle in a couple of days. It's like steering a speeding truck. If you turn the wheel too fast the truck will crash.
This sort of marginal improvement is talked about in the book Atomic Habits. The name itself comes from this principle. Atomic because they're small but they bring exponential growth in the long run. If you wish to learn more about this topic read this book. Atomic Habits
Okay. Now you understand the importance of baby steps. Let's revisit the big four areas that you can improve yourself in.
- Physical - Anything connected to your physical body. Exercise, diet, weight, sleep, etc. Improving in this area will improve everything else. It is wise to start here.
- Mental - Anything brain-related. Visualization, emotional development, meditation, etc. Improving here will lead to long term benefits.
- Spiritual - Religious meditation and mindfulness is part of this category. I also consider being well-read, relationships and anything similar to be housed here.
- Practical - Anything related to your work life. Finances, work-related skills, efficiency, and so on. Your quality of life increases exponentially when you develop some solid practical skills.
I would recommend starting a journal. Pick a couple of tasks that you want to better yourself in. Cut them into manageable chunks. If you want to start running, it's better to start consistently walking first. If you want to develop discipline, waking up early might be the perfect goal for a start. If you want to increase how much you read, the goal of reading one page per day is very helpful. You will oftentimes find that you will surpass your written goal. Instead of reading one page, you might read fifteen. The incentive here is to start reading instead of setting the goal of reading a lot.
You cannot go wrong if you choose to improve yourself in any of these four. I would recommend starting with physical pursuits. When you start exercising your energy goes up and you'll be able to do more during the day. Remember to stick to baby steps. It's easy to forget how much effort changing yourself requires. Do not believe people who claim that self-improvement is easy. Do not think of yourself as weak when you fail at 'easy tasks'. If you consistently fail, change your strategy. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
We will expand upon this topic in the future with further, in-depth articles.
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