What's Self-Improvement? And How to Change Your Mindset
What is self-improvement?
Imagine waking up every morning smarter, stronger, and more focused than you were the night before.
Self-improvement is like a never-ending quest to level up in the game of life.
It's about becoming the best version of yourself, whether that means learning new skills, improving your relationships, or just becoming a more awesome human being.
It's like a personal upgrade but without the annoying software updates.
One thing often overlooked when in pursuit of self-improvement, is mindset.
We listen to podcasts, purchase self-help books, invest in courses, and consume endless content online.
But the key is to change our mental model of our world.
Breaking down our old worldview and reshaping it with a new mindset that allows us to thrive.
My lessons on self-improvement
Know your personality
Ever since I was a young boy I knew who I was.
But it always amazed me how people loved to label me and others. I too fell into the trap of believing what others thought and said about me.
Not knowing they were only projecting their personality onto me.
Doing a simple HEXACO or Big 5 test free online will teach you who you are.
It will also teach you what partner to look for.
Similarities create less cognitive friction.
Each person has a unique personality, and you should use it to your advantage.
Deal with your fear
I have always had a natural sense of fear towards new things.
Since we all are afraid of failure, we naturally shy away from protecting our reputation.
Little do we know that exposure therapy is how we all learn new things.
Master your fears by writing them down and then applying one of several different cognitive behavioral techniques to overcome them.
Create a "Good enough" mentality
I was raised by doers or highly conscientious parents.
With time I learned that life was about perfection.
Little did I know that perfection is a lie and never attainable.
Instead, I learned to focus on "Good enough" which made my life fun.
We never know how things will be perceived by others, so focus on dealing with your fear and iterate continuously instead of pouring your heart and soul into something no one will ever enjoy.
By knowing this little trick, your life will be much more fun and less obsessive.
Enforce a life-work balance
It is called living a life worth living for a reason.
Unfortunately many have it backwards and think life comes from work.
But work is a contract between two parties to do a certain amount of hours to receive a certain amount of money so that you can spend it on what we call a life.
See how wrong that is. Prioritize self-care and rest when you feel tired.
If your body says it is enough, you should listen and not ignore it.
When doing this right, you will have the power to do things your way every day and wake up well-rested without anxiety.
Build yourself with self-education
It has never been this easy to educate yourself through the internet as now.
The internet has tools that are free to use to validate facts and to rewrite your worldview through exposure.
We can harness the sheer power of these tools to self-educate ourselves in days rather than years on a school bench.
The world is changing rapidly, and so are the requirements of the world on you to do the same.
Self-education is all about harnessing the power of your curiosity, ability to reason, and being determined to learn every day to stay in front of 99,99% of all people.
There is a huge difference between living to work – feeling exhausted and repeating this for 260 days a year – and truly living the life you strive for with purpose and intention.
By making self-improvement your top daily priority, you will soon be ahead of the game. You will reshape your mental model of your world.