How To Work On Yourself
Knowing how to work on yourself so that you can achieve sustainable results is the most important part of planning to improve your life. You want to work on yourself in such a way as to bring about positive, lasting change…
How do we do this? How do we work successfully on ourselves?…
Well, it's not by implementing monumental change, I can tell you. Monumental changes are, more often than not, totally unsustainable. We probably start off magnificently; the excitement of a new routine certainly gets you up in the mornings…
Until it doesn't…
It's just too hard to keep such a huge change going, and we give up…
In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about the 1% improvement: tiny changes in our daily habits that improve us just 1% each day. After 365 days we accumulate an improvement of 37%…
Goals: Easy, Bite-Size Pieces
Goals: whether they are big or small, their results depend very much on your approach. In knowing how to work on yourself, you'll know and understand that goal achievement is key…
Organize your environment to make it easy to work them into your daily life. Put your packed gym bag by the front door, and your workout clothes on a chair in your bedroom…
And, since we can't eat the entire elephant at once, breaking goals down into bite-size pieces helps us to avoid overwhelm. We turn our goal into a series of small, daily incremental changes that compound over time…
Here are a few examples of small, incremental changes you could start with:
- Want to improve your diet? Find that vegetable that you like – or dislike the least – and it to your evening meals.
- Want to increase your water intake? Place a tall glass on the kitchen table ready to be filled with water for you to drink each morning.
- Want to start a daily meditation practice? Download a meditation app and set it to alarm each morning for a 1-minute meditation each morning or night.
- Want
to start exercising but you hate it? Try taking the stairs for 1 flight
if you live in an apartment, or parking a little further away from
work.
- Hoping to commit to reading more? Place a book by your bedside table, to remind you to read for 5 minutes before going to sleep.
- Want to improve your mood?
Smile sincerely at 3 random people on your way to work. In preparation,
you can give yourself a big smile in the mirror before you leave for
work.
- Want to improve your morning routine? How about getting up just 10 tiny minutes earlier each morning?
- Want to develop a habit of saving money? Try setting aside $1 dollar each day to get you into the habit of saving money.
- Want to cut sugary snacks out of your diet? Commit to eating one less piece of chocolate in the afternoon.
- Want to feel more content with life? In that extra 10 minutes you created for yourself in the morning, use it to think about 3 things to be grateful for in your life.
Choose one thing to work on; create one tiny change towards improvement, and then commit to doing it each day for 30 days…
Self-Reflection
Self-reflection is the act of thinking about and examining your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It is an important aspect of personal growth and self-improvement because it allows you to understand yourself better, identify areas for change and growth, and make more informed decisions…
There are many ways that you can use self-reflection for personal and professional development. For example, you can use self-reflection to:
- Gain a better understanding of your values, beliefs, and motivations
- Identify areas of your life where you would like to make changes or improvements
- Develop new skills and knowledge
- Improve your relationships with others
- Set and achieve your goals
- Make more informed and meaningful decisions
- Increase your self-awareness and self-control
- Enhance your emotional intelligence
- Improve your mental health and well-being.
Self-reflection is an ongoing process and can be done through activities such as journaling, meditating, or talking with a therapist or trusted friend or family member. It can be a challenging but rewarding process that can help you lead a more fulfilling and purposeful life...
Track Your Progress
When you learn how to work on yourself, you understand the value of tracking your progress. It's s an important part of the self-improvement process because it allows you to see how far you have come and measure your progress towards your goals. It can also help you stay motivated and focused on your goals, as it can be easy to get discouraged or lose sight of your progress if you do not have a way to measure it…
There are many ways that you can track your progress when working on self-improvement. Some options include:
- Setting goals by using objectives, strategies, and tactics — O.S.T. – and tracking your progress towards achieving them.
- Keeping a journal or log to record your thoughts, feelings, and actions related to your self-improvement journey.
- Using a tracker or app to track specific behaviours or habits that you are working on improving.
- Seeking feedback from others, such as a coach or mentor, to get an outside perspective on your progress.
- Reflecting on your progress regularly, perhaps through weekly or monthly self-reflection sessions.
Overall, tracking your progress can help you stay motivated, identify areas for improvement, and celebrate your achievements as you work towards your self-improvement goals…
Focus on Your Values
Focusing on your values means paying attention to and prioritizing the things that are most important to you in your life. Your values are the beliefs, principles, and ideas that are meaningful to you and that guide your actions and decisions. They reflect what is most important to you and what you want to stand for...
When you focus on your values, you are more likely to make decisions and take actions that are consistent with what is essential to you. This can help you live a more authentic and fulfilling life, as you are aligning your actions with your deepest beliefs and desires.
To focus on your values, you may want to consider the following steps:
- Reflect on what is most essential to you in your life. What do you value most?
- Consider how your values align with your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Are you living in a way that is consistent with your values?
- Set goals and make decisions that are consistent with your values. This can help you stay focused on what is paramount to you and ensure that you are making progress towards your goals.
- Practice mindfulness and self-reflection to help you stay grounded in your values and make choices that are consistent with them.
Focusing on your values can help you live a more authentic and fulfilling life, as you are more likely to make decisions and take actions that are meaningful and important to you...
How To Work On Yourself – Conclusion
Of course, there are other activities to add to this list of how to work on yourself, but this I believe to be the key elements in plotting and planning your own self-improvement.
- Too big a goal, and you'll surely quit.
- Without reflection, you won't know yourself behaviours well enough or pinpoint what makes you tick.
- Without tracking your progress, you'll not know how far you've come or how much you've strayed from the path.
- Fail to keep your values in sight, and you'll blow wherever the wind takes you…