Making ‘life improvements’ is often extremely difficult for a great many people. This is mostly due to the fact that most people think ‘life improvement’ needs to be massive changes made instantly, like ‘get a promotion’, or ‘fix everything wrong in my house.’ Often, these life improvement changes are also extremely vaguely defined, like ‘eat healthier’ or ‘learn a new skill.’ However, either of these are undoubtedly the wrong way to go about things. With just a few simple steps, you can improve your life much more easily than before!
Step 1: Don’t try to go too big.
Trying to set up a massive goal with no prior attempts is just setting yourself up for failure. A simple objective to start out, then work towards that as best you can. The trick is to continuously repeat this, until you are satisfied with your life changes. Even when you are satisfied with what you’ve done, be sure to keep up with your changes. Many people think that self improvement is a sort of one and done thing, when it requires constant maintenance. A life change usually needs to be lifelong, or at least several years, for you to reap all the positive benefits that can come with it.
Step 2: Set a clear goal.
One of the biggest downfalls of people going on a ‘life improvement crusade’ is not setting any clear goals for themselves. Just saying ‘I want to eat healthier’ is not an excellent way to begin. Start by saying something like ‘I want to eat more vegetables.’ It isn’t incredibly specific, and often the more specific you make your goal, the easier it will be, but it is still a marked improvement. You will still have to work hard and consistently, but a clear goal is often a foot in the door.
Step 3: Small steps are key!
Even if you have followed Steps 1 and 2 to a T, like many others, you may feel that the current change you want to make is too big for you. That is an extremely normal thing to feel, and a lot of other people go through the same thing. The best thing to do here is break it up into smaller steps. Think about how you don’t want to finish your work, but you still need to do some? Then you do a single section. The same applies for your life changes and self improvement. Simply splitting up your goals into steps to be taken one at a time can make improving your life just that much easier.
Step 4: Give yourself time.
Changes won’t happen overnight! Keep up your hard work, and you’ll see results. Expecting instant results from anything, not just self improvement, has become a problem in today’s society. This can be a way for you to start unlearning the impatience that life has ground into you, and you’ll be making better decisions after the changes for it! Time is the most important part of changing your life, and if you give up too early, then you will have put in a lot of effort for no reason. Trying to ‘skip ahead’, so to speak, could often lead to being worse off than you were before you tried to change things.
Step 5: Only do it if it makes you happy!
This is the most important facet of self improvement. If you are happy with how something is in your life, and it isn’t harming you, then you don’t have to change it. As a reverse, if something is harming you, it isn’t helping you, or it doesn’t make you happy, then you should make changes. If you just make changes to your life because you think you should be, with no further thought put into it, then you will end up upset, most likely you will not see the changes you believe to be occurring, and you will probably be not very motivated to try self-improvement in the future. Self improvement is similar to other life changes, in that it should only be taken on if you, personally, believe you should take it on, or that it will make you happy.
So, what now?
Going on a self improvement journey can feel impossible at first, but don’t worry! Many before you have felt that way, and many others will again. The, The best way to get over nerves, and have a journey with positive results, is to just start!
