Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
7 Considerations When Implementing a Self-Improvement Program
Implement Your Self-Improvement Program
Here’s How to Get Started on Yours Today
There are many ways to achieve self improvement which could be highly successful, depending upon your state of mind and willingness adhere to a set path of personal improvement criteria.
However, setting a course of action and then failure to follow thru could cause not only cause you to lose your sense of self-esteem but to also digress into a more depressed sense of self-worth defeating any motivations for future self-help activity.
If you are serious about improving yourself, here are a few things to think about when setting up your self-improvement program:
1. Know your “Why”
What is it about yourself that you want to change? Unless you have a clear understanding of what you want your new self to be like, how will you know when you have achieved your goals?
To start you need to sit down and thru introspect, determine your weaknesses and your strengths regarding the changes you are trying to make within yourself. Are you wandering through life with little direction – hoping that you’ll find happiness, health and prosperity?
Try to identify your life purpose or mission statement and write it down. Individuals who commit their goals to writing, as a general rule, are much more successful in attaining them then those individuals who only commit their goals to memory.
2. Identify your personal values
What do you value most in life? Make a list of your top 5 values. Some examples are security, freedom, family, spiritual development, learning and etc. As you set your personal improvement goals – check your goals against your values. If any of your goals don’t align, with any of your top five values – you may want to reconsider it your plan accordingly.
Don’t limit yourself to just five. That should be just for starters. After you feel comfortable in your plan and have made some progress, you may want to revisit your goals and increase the number of values and goals to help provide you a more rounded and satisfying target. The point here is not to let the number discourage you. Instead it should motivate you to do continually seek other ways to improve yourself.
3. What are your specific personal needs
When you secretly harbor and do nothing to fulfill your unmet needs it can keep you from achieving some of your other identified self-improvement goals. You need to take care of yourself both mentally and physically. Do you have a need to be acknowledged, to be accepted by your friends, to be in control of your life and situations that you find yourself in, or, to be loved and respected by your friends and peers?
There are millions of people who will never live a rich and full life because they simply do not understand the importance of realizing their dreams. This is one of the leading causes of stress and depression. To alleviate this problem, it is recommended that you list your top five needs and work to fulfill them before you become a victim. You don’t need to accomplish all of them at once. Simply make a list and work at one at a time until you have achieved your goal then move on to the next one. Each small individual success will motivate you to taking action on the rest.
4. What is your passion in life?
Within each of us is a driving passion to fulfill some special dream. Many of us simply harbor it inside and only dream of achieving it but rarely act on making it come true. That passion is what we dream about in our wildest fantasies with little, if any, intentions that any of them will actually come to fruition. Passions are personal to each of us and normally we do not share the same passions as our friends, family or other close acquaintances. You are the only one that knows your true passion what you truly enjoy in life. What is your passion in life?
Obstacles like self doubt, lack of confidence, lack of self worth, lack of enthusiasm and other similar personal traits will often become road blocks to achieving our passions thereby preventing us from reaching our self-improvement goals. However, these bumps should not derail your chance to become the person you want to be. You need to express yourself with honor and dignity at all times and show appreciation to those individuals who inspire you to become the person of your dreams.
5. Take time to reflect on yourself
It is important that you increase your awareness of your inner self by regularly reflecting in silence. To accomplish this, find a quiet spot in your home, or in a nice quite park or wherever you can find peace and quite and practice breathing deeply which will help to clear your mind. If you are like Jim Gray, you may choose to simply sit in a dimly lit, quite room and play some soothing classical. You will be amazed at how this will put your mind at ease and you will reach a state of inner peace that you may never have felt before. With your mind at peace, you will be much more acceptable to self suggestions for self improvement techniques.
6. Determine your personal strengths
What are your personal positive traits? What special talents do you have? For now, list three – if you get stuck, ask those closest to you to help you identify some of your best strengths. For example: Are you imaginative, witty, have a positive attitude, like people, or etc.
Find ways to express your self through your strengths. You will be amazed at how this will attract others to you and help put you in a position of trust and respect with your peers.
7. Share your talents with others
You can increase your self-confidence and self worth when you share your special talents, skills and knowledge with those less fortunate than you. You will be amazed at how helping others in need will help you achieve inner peace and help you to achieve a higher sense of self-improvement.
When you are true to who you are, living your purpose and sharing your talents and skills to the world around you, you give back in service your spirit and the very essence of what you came to share with others. The rewards for sharing your gift with your family, friends and others close to you, however, you will receive a higher personal reward when you share yourself with strangers in need especially in the eyes of a stranger who can appreciate what you have done to them.
There is room for self-improvement in all of us. We all need to determine what our life purpose and lifetime goals are and to seek ways to make improvements in our lives that will make us achieve the rich fulfillment of life as it is intended to be. The difference lies within our selves.
