Self improvement is what allows you to reach your fullest potential. Since birth, all we’ve done is change. These changes have allowed us to experience new things in life from different perspectives. To improve yourself, you’ll need to continue educating yourself, trying new things, and making changes to become the version of yourself you're most proud of. In this article, we’ll share 25 ways to improve yourself to make the most of your self improvement.
25 Ways to Improve Yourself
1. Meditate
Following a guided meditation like Declutter The Mind is a great way to master self improvement. Everything starts with that brain of yours. When you calm the mind, you can make the best decisions for yourself. When your brain is filled with ruminating thoughts, it’s more likely that you’ll burn bridges with people, give up before you start, and do other things that don’t serve you. Meditation allows you to challenge the inner critic so that you can have peace of mind. And with a peaceful mind, you can accomplish anything on this list. You can try this guided meditation for self-inquiry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY9LQ65pR1k
2. Practice Kindness
Challenge yourself to do a good deed every single day. Acts of kindness can help you improve yourself in so many ways. For example, if you find yourself becoming a toxic person, doing kind acts allows you to think about things differently. You’ll spend your days looking for opportunities to help, love, and support people. And doing that kind of good always ripples back in a positive way.
3. Feel Gratitude Towards Others
It’s easy to look at what’s wrong with others when we think, “what is wrong with me?” However, feeling grateful for the people in your life can be a transformative experience. When we feel gratitude for the people in our lives, we feel happier. There’s less drama and chaos and more inner peace. Expressing gratitude can also allow others to feel self-important, which makes them feel better about themselves when they’re around you. You can try this gratitude video for a guided meditation.
4. Study Yourself
Self improvement only happens when you know yourself well enough to know what you need to work on. Studying yourself isn’t just about self-reflection but also about getting feedback from others. Become curious about all your bad traits, good habits, and everything in between. Find out what your strengths are so you can continue building on them. And work on your weaknesses so that you can minimize their negative impact.
5. Exercise
Exercise helps you manage your weight, increase your confidence, improve your mental health, prevent illness, and live a longer life. You can build confidence just by spending some time going for walks, lifting weights, or joining in a fitness class. For some people, exercise is easily added to their morning routine. For others, it’s a mission to motivate yourself to put in the work. If anything, listen to music while you go for a walk to increase the number of steps you take per day. You don’t need to do 100 jumping jacks, nor do you need to lift 500 pounds. Instead, increase your daily movement and add hand weights, so you can build some muscle, as muscle loss is common as you age.
6. Eat a Balanced Diet
You can improve yourself by eating a balanced diet. Including vegetables, fruits, meats, and fats is part of a balanced diet. Most diets recommended eliminating one thing for another, such as low carb or vegetarian. However, eating for your body will help nourish you. For instance, some people are allergic to specific vegetables, so eating a balanced diet will be different for them. Mindful eating is all about eating the foods that nourish you, give you energy, and keep you healthy.
7. Focus on your growth
Self improvement is all about building on top of what you’re great at. For example, if you’re a talented musician, you can develop yourself by learning how to write your own songs. Skilled content marketers can flex their skills by learning SEO. A family physician can grow by specializing in a specific area of medicine. There’s always a way to develop. Try to find something that allows you to build on top of something you’re thriving in to maximize your skills.
8. Stop Repeating Bad Habits
Let’s face it; we’ve all got bad habits. But learning to do some Jedi mind tricks to stop doing them will benefit our self improvement. Our weaknesses can hold us back from slouching to thinking in worst-case scenarios. We need to eliminate our bad habits, challenge our inner critic, and develop good habits to move forward.
9. Apologize
Self improvement is also about being a bigger person. In your past, there have been times where you’ve said or done the wrong thing. Own up to it. Apologize to people you’ve hurt, rejected, or done mean things to. Not only does taking ownership of a mistake help you grow, but it also challenges you to do something uncomfortable, which is admitting your mistake.
9. Forgive Others
Just as you need to apologize, forgiving those who’ve hurt you is also crucial to self improvement. You can improve yourself by accepting that everyone makes mistakes. Knowing that people say hurtful things in the heat of the moment or only learn how terrible something is in hindsight is a part of growth. We’ve all done things we regret. Forgiving those who’ve wronged us isn’t weakness; it’s strength.
10. Take control of what you can
If it’s within your control, change it. If it’s not, accept what comes. You can improve yourself by taking ownership of the areas within your control. You can control your actions, behaviors, and habits. You can’t control other people. So instead of trying to change the external elements, focus on changing the internal ones: yourself.
11. Love yourself
One of the best ways to improve yourself is through self-love. Loving yourself is all about accepting your flaws as they are, letting go of the past, and taking care of yourself. So often, we listen to our inner critic, who keeps making us question, “what is wrong with me?” However, we should nurture that inner child who has experienced a lifetime of trauma. Remember at your core that you’re worth loving, you are good enough, and you don’t need to change everything you are in your self improvement journey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmsDBC036z8
12. Ask more questions
People are more likely to give opinions than to ask questions. We love talking about ourselves and our experiences. However, to get better, we need to ask more questions. Take time to network with people who are smarter than you so you can level yourself up by asking questions. People who ask questions will gain more value than they will from talking about themselves. Not only do others get excited about talking about their experiences, but you’ll also benefit from learning something new.
13. Read books daily
Every night before you go to sleep, read a book as you unwind. You can read a chapter or so every night before falling asleep. Of course, the books you choose to read will play a role in whether you’re improving yourself or not. An educational book will serve you more than a comic book. But don’t be afraid to mix things up. Entertaining books can spark new ideas and creativity in you too. Aim to read books about topics you don’t know much about, so you can learn something outside your skillset. You can even check out these meditation books.
14. Become more aware of your surroundings
Self improvement and self-awareness are intertwined. The more you become aware of the people, moods, and things happening around you, the more likely you can connect the dots between what’s working and what’s not. Feeling repelled by some people can give you an indication of what you can improve upon. Consider asking those people directly for feedback on how you can improve.
15. Spend less time on social media
A social media detox now and then can help you step away from your phone and into the real world. You can’t spend your whole life glued to a screen watching endless reels, despite how hilarious they are. You need to invest in your future by taking action, such as working, contributing to society, or just enjoying life in general. Life is meant to be experienced, not watched.
16. Take up a hobby
Hobbies are great for so many reasons. It allows you to learn a new skill that you can develop; it gives you a way to disconnect from your work day, allowing you to enjoy yourself and experience new things. Most hobbies can be fun and play a big role in your life. Whether you’re playing the violin, looking up at the stars, building a side hustle, running, or investing in crypto, you can learn a new skill. Some say you should have three hobbies: one for creativity, another for making money, and the last one to keep you in shape.
17. Spend more time in nature
Ecopsychology teaches us that nature allows us to reap many benefits. For example, the greatest philosophers often believed that walking in nature allowed them to think their best ideas. Many grounding techniques, such as gardening, will enable us to connect with nature and feel good. Nature also provides vitamin D through the sun, allowing us to get a daily dose of health benefits.
18. Take an online course
An online course can help level up your knowledge. Whether you sign up for Udemy, Skillshare, or MasterClass is up to you, but you can find online courses on topics you’re passionate about. If you’re looking to broaden your knowledge in many things, you can take multiple courses. If you’re looking to specialize in a specific topic, you can sign up for various platforms to broaden your knowledge for that one topic. Online courses are all about your self improvement.
19. Develop a peak performance routine
What’s your morning routine like? Have you ever thought about crafting a peak performance routine? Consider how you could maximize your mornings, afternoons, and evenings to level yourself up. Include meditation apps, exercise, work, and education into your day, so you make the most of each moment.
20. Face your fears
A fear of failure is often the piece that leaves us incomplete. To improve yourself, you will have to overcome obstacles like fear to get to the level you want to climb. Some of the biggest influencers in the world often talk about how much hate they receive, but they overcome the negative aspects of success to keep building on top of it. Of course, there will always be a dark side to life, no matter how low or high you climb. But self improvement is about climbing higher, so stop standing still; you’re meant to grow.
21. Write down your goals
Many people who have written down their life goals for personal growth, have eventually noticed that with the passing of time they ended up achieving many of them. Some call this “the secret,” but psychologists call this a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” The things we think about the most end up becoming a reality. So if you write down what you want out of life, you’ll subconsciously start becoming and building towards that. So, think about what you really want and aim big.
22. Praise others
If there’s one thing in life, most people won’t be your cheerleader, especially in your inner circle. However, to change that, all you need to do is become their cheerleader first. Praising others is a good start. Look for the good in others and help coach them to level up as you bring yourself to higher ground. It’s easier to climb a ladder when you’re climbing with friends.
23. Ask for feedback
People often fear feedback because they’re scared it’ll be negative. It’s true that in the early stages of asking for feedback, you might get more bad stuff than good. But that can be your blessing in disguise. Plus, self improvement is about taking the bad and turning it into good. So, if you get negative feedback, great, now you have something you can work on.
24. Get out of debt
To improve yourself, consider improving your financial situation. Most people are debt-ridden. From student loans to mortgages, most of us get loans or pay with credit cards. If this is your current situation, consider paying down debts as much as you can. Then, cut your spending and increase your income streams to pay down debts faster. Finally, being debt-free will allow you to save money and build up your income.
25. Remember that this is life
You woke up this morning with an opportunity to learn anything, explore anywhere, and try something new. Even on our bad days, we have this gift of us that we’ve been given. We can explore the world in so many ways: intellectually, emotionally, or physically. While working and paying the bills is part of the process, don’t be afraid to take risks to just live every now and then.
Conclusion
Self improvement is all about making the amazing you a little bit better. The opportunity to grow in life allows us to feel a sense of fulfillment and excitement as we experience new things in life. After all, life would begin to become dull without improving yourself. So take advantage of all the spectacular things this planet has to offer and live your life to the fullest. So, what will you be doing to stretch yourself next?
