8 Keys to Self-Improvement

8 Keys to Self-Improvement

“The desire to improve themselves is in the DNA of all successful people.” ~John Maxwell

Whether you’re just getting started on self-improvement or have been working on it for a while, I hope this article aids you in your self-improvement journey.

Let’s discuss eight keys to self-improvement.

8 Keys to Self-Improvement

Improving yourself is the key to improving everything else.

Can you imagine if our current society’s wealth of knowledge remained stuck in the stone age?

What if women still had to wear torso-crushing civil-war era corsets or doctors never discovered smoking causes cancer?

If you want to get ahead, you have to improve yourself, first.

You must possess a teachable spirit and desire change.

Success doesn’t always bring personal growth, but personal growth will always bring success.

People who attain success in any area of life started out by desiring change and working to improve themselves.

You must get victory privately before you will receive it publicly.

If you’re stuck in a dead-end job you hate, for example, the best place to start for a solution is by looking in the mirror.

Who do you need to become and what do you need to do to in order to acquire your dream job?

Have you settled at your current job because you don’t think you’re capable of more?

Because achieving anything more requires too much work?

Do you blame your boss or company for your misery?

There is a solution to improve any and all areas of your life, and they all start with you.

I noticed when people who lost a significant amount of weight are asked what led them to finally make a change, they often say they were disgusted by what they saw in the mirror.

They were fed up with themselves!

Whatever area you’re struggling to change in, I want you to get fed up and fired up to make that change!

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Self-Improvement requires stepping out of your comfort zone.

“The most common trait I have found in successful people is that they conquered the temptation to give up.” ~Peter Lowe

People who play it safe never get anywhere in life because they’re afraid to make mistakes or fail.

But if you stay trapped by fear of failure, how will you move forward?

How will you learn what does and doesn’t work?

And when you do fail (because at some point, you will), do you learn from it, or do you just give up?

Nothing worth having comes easy.

You must be willing to do what’s uncomfortable long after the motivation to do it has passed.

Standing between you and what you want is the uncomfortable.

The thing you fear.

Stuff you don’t want to do.

You have to do the hard stuff to get to the other side.

What are you allowing fear to keep you from doing?

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Be controlled by your resolve, not your feelings.

You’re tired and don’t want to get up early to work out, so you hit snooze.

Instead of sticking to your plan of working out 45 minutes a day Monday through Friday, you break your commitment to health and yourself.

Before you know it, your five-days-a-week workout becomes your one-or-two-days-a-week workout.

Later in the week, you step on the scale and notice you didn’t lose any weight since your last weigh-in.

Instead of shedding extra pounds-which you vowed to do-you’re no closer to your goal because you remain controlled by your feelings.

The desire to sleep in is stronger than the desire to lose weight.

It’s easier to order that drink instead of ordering a glass of water.

Easier to eat the donut instead of the fruit.

To procrastinate and not work on the business.

Do the thing on your to-do list you’ve been dreading.

Allow yourself to feel negative emotions.

At the end of the day, they are just that-negative emotions.

Your resolve is stronger than those negative emotions if you want it to be.

Negative emotions are apart of life and you must accept allowing them is part of personal growth.

You can succumb to them and receive the instant gratification but suffer the long-term success.

OR, you can allow the negative emotions, do the thing you don’t want to do, feel accomplished for having done so, and eventually, experience the long-term success.

People who succeed didn’t get there by luck.

They got there because they were willing to do what was uncomfortable and not allow their feelings to control them.

Every. Single. Day.

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Improvement is a never-ending battle.

“Improvement doesn’t come to people who fixate on quick fixes. It comes to the slow but steady people who keep working at getting better.” ~John Maxwell

Self-improvement is a never-ending journey.

Once you reach the top of that mountain, there’s another one waiting in the wings to climb.

There is no plateau in self-improvement.

No finish line.

You will have to fight your ignorance and laziness every step of the way to excel for the remainder of your life.

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Improvement is the result of small steps repeated day in and day out.

“Little by little, a little becomes a lot.” ~Terri Savelle Foy

If you read 20 minutes a day, that’s 10 hours a month.

It’s been said that we overestimate how much we can get done in a day or a week, but we underestimate how much we can accomplish in a year.

Success is the result of good habits repeated day after day.

Working on your small business for 1 hour a day won’t make you an overnight success.

But working on your small business for 1 hour a day, every day, for a year straight?

You just might be on to something.

Chances are, when you reach that goal or that thing you’re working toward, it will sneak up on you.

You won’t even know it’s coming.

That’s the beauty of taking small steps daily.

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How to Make Improvement Intentional

Decide you are worth improving.

You must make the decision that you are worth improving, no matter how far gone you may think you are.

No matter where you are in life.

It’s never too late to become the person you want to be.

The past is irrelevant; make the decision to start today, regardless of circumstances.

There is no right or wrong time to start-just start!

So many people think they are resigned to the way things are.

I used to think this debilitating belief for so long, and came to discover in my 30’s that it’s just not true.

It’s never too late to change and it’s definitely not to late to start.

Pick an area to improve.

Focus on improving one area at a time.

I tend to struggle with making decisions based on emotions, so this is the area I focus on the most.

It’s a constant battle (just like I mentioned above).

But for you, it may be something else.

Find opportunities to improve in light of mistakes and losses.

One thing I learned early on as a newer blogger, was that so many bloggers give up before they’ve truly even begun.

They’re not getting traffic or making money, so they give up.

Running a successful online business is hard.

Despite some minor successes, I’m still figuring it out.

Whatever you’re working toward that seems impossible to you right now, you must learn from your mistakes and figure out what it will take to get it right.

This is the only way to improve and overcome.

Before You Go

If you can master self-improvement, you can improve any area of your life.

Self-improvement is a matter of desire and choice.

It’s never easy, but it’s always worth it.

Will you live your life on repeat year after year?

Or will you make the decision to overcome?

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Lisa

Hi! I'm Lisa. I help women live purposeful, fulfilling and joyful lives. I'm happily married and a fur mom to two boxers and two rabbits. I love Jesus, freelance writing, fitness, personal development, reading books, football, cross-stitching, and video games.