This article was written to show you some of the best self-improvement techniques that’ll help you change your life.
It’s no secret that self-improvement is strongly linked with success. By taking measures to improve yourself, you’re also improving the likelihood of being successful in life.
Whether this means your career, your relationships, or something else, your life always benefits taking measures to developing yourself.
11 Self-Improvement Techniques That’ll Change Your Life
The techniques listed below, are simple things you can do to start improving your life for the better. It’s amazing how much of a difference these can make to your happiness, success, and sense of fulfillment.
Here are 11 self-improvement techniques that’ll change your life:
1. Practicing Gratitude Daily
Believe it or not, practicing what seems to be the lost art of gratitude can boost your overall happiness. Nowadays, we’re really not grateful enough for all the awesome stuff we have access to in life.
I recently wrote an article that stated how much happier people were in poorer countries, than over here in the likes of the UK and US.
Funny how that works, isn’t it?
You’ll probably find that if you take a few minutes everyday to practice gratitude, you’ll complain a lot less about the small things in life.
Here’s what to do:
- Find a suitable moment during your day, where you’re sitting in a cafe, taking a walk, or driving your car.
- In that moment, take a second to really enjoy and appreciate what you’re doing
- Whether it be sipping that cup of coffee, enjoying a view, or travelling at 60MPH down a country road, just appreciate how great it truly is
2. Hitting the Gym Every Other Day
I used to hate going to the gym and working out…
However, I’m at a point now where if I don’t go for a few days, I feel sluggish, run down, and weak. I’m actually addicted to feeling sore after a workout. It’s that feeling that shows me my body’s not decaying.
If you hit the gym at least 4 times a week, you get a serious energy boost for the days you’re not working out. It feels fantastic.
Plus, you know… hitting the gym is good for your health, helps you achieve your dream body, gain confidence, and attract more people into your life.
…Can’t leave out those awesome benefits.
3. Stop Watching the News
I hate watching the news. I won’t often read newspapers, or turn on any news channels on the TV.
Why?
It’s depressing. Let’s be honest. It sucks you in and makes you feel negative about the world you’re living in right now. Nobody wants that. That doesn’t encourage positivity.
Sure, there’s a lot of bad s**t that goes on in the world. We all know that, and it seems like 2016 hasn’t been the best of years.
Our hearts will always go out to the victims of such situations that get plastered all over the news. However, you sitting there becoming depressed isn’t going to do any good.
Maybe give the news a rest for a while, and see what happens.
4. Asking For Help When It’s Needed
Sorry, but you can’t do everything on your own in life. Doesn’t matter what aspect of life it is, you can’t do it all alone. There are going to be times when you need help.
In terms of the blogging aspect, I ask for help all the time. If I have questions, I’m not afraid to ask people. I’ve asked advice on everything you could think of, from SEO companies, on design, social media management – and everything else in between!
In fact, the list of companies that give me all the aid I need is endless…
- Aweber
- Optin Monster
- Presslabs
- Hostgator
- Zoho
- OnPoint Internet Marketing
- Buffer
- Optimize Press
- PayPal
- ….we can keep going all day…
Don’t be afraid to ask or search for help when you need it!
5. Acting Out of Want, Rather than Worry
This is one of the biggest self-improvement techniques I know. And it’s to simply start acting out of want, instead of worry.
What I mean by this is simple…
So often in life we worry; about small things, about big things. We worry all the time. So what happens, is we begin to take action out of worry, and forget about what we really want.
We settle for an average job, because we’re worried about going after the dream job and not getting it. We worry about people rejecting us, so we only go after people we think are the safe options.
We want to go travelling, but we’re worried it’ll be dangerous, so we don’t. Or we avoid the places we’d absolutely love to visit.
Sound familiar?
Yep, well… just stop it! Forget your worries. Act on what you want.
6. Banning Excuses From Your Life
You probably give yourself at least 3 or 4 excuses a day as to why you can’t do something.
My guess is they revolve around the following:
- I’m too young or too old
- I’m too tired
- I’m not smart enough
- I have no money
- I have no time
- It’s impossible
Do you realize how ridiculous these all sound? Go and ask someone successful how ridiculous these excuses are.
I always tell people to try 30 days without making any excuses. Zero whatsoever. You just do whatever it is you said you ere going to do. And then take a look back at those 30 days and see how much more you got done.
7. Questioning the Normal
Sometimes it seems silly to question the normal way of doing things. Don’t you think?
I mean, all these people have been doing something the same way for years and years because of several reasons. Why would we question that?
Nobody else does, it’s just accepted as the normal way of life.
I read an article the other day, about a large company who’s just scrapped the degree requirement to work for them, because, and I quote,
“there’s no proof going to university increases your success.”
Sometimes it’s important to question the normal way of doing things. In fact, that’s how so many of the famous individuals we all know today came to our attention.
By doing the opposite to what’s expected, and being successful at doing so.
8. Building A Positive Environment Around You
For a positive life, you need to surround yourself with positivity and encouragement!
There’s a speech I listened to the other day, and the gist of it went a little like this;
“If you run a race with people that aren’t as good as you, yeah you’ll win; but if you run a race with people that are better than you, you might come in last, but your time will be better.”
Surrounding yourself with positive and like-minded people pushes you harder than usual.
So even if you think you’re being productive in comparison to the people you’re currently hanging around with, you might be able to do so much more when you make yourself the weakest link in a circle of friends.
9. Stop Chasing People & Money
We’re probably all guilty at one stage of our lives or another, of chasing both people and money. Sometimes you chase people thinking you like them, more than you actually do. And you chase money thinking that being rich and having all this cool stuff will make you happy.
When you find out that’s not the case, which hopefully you do one day, your attention becomes focused on your dream and nothing else.
And being focused on a dream eventually leads to attracting the people and money, rather than wasting time chasing them.
10. Taking Care of Your Health
Taking care of your health isn’t just good for the core reasons such as being free from diseases/illness and living longer.
The daily benefits people experience from being healthy are:
- More energy
- Less risk of depression
- Less stress
- Higher concentration and focus
- Higher levels of happiness
It’s important to take care of your health; and even if you’re young, and you’re not ‘bothered’ about all these illnesses that tend to affect the older generation, don’t forget about all the other benefits of eating healthy whilst you’re young and you’re body’s strong.
11. Thinking, Believing & Acting Big
All three rolled up into one pile of awesomeness!
If you can begin to think big, believe big, and act big, then you’re heading towards great things in life. It’s not an easy mindset to get into, but once you do, doors start opening.
If you haven’t read the book; ‘The Magic of Thinking Big‘, definitely pick up a copy when you can. Quite frankly, this book is the reason why I think big, believe big and act big.
This is the last, yet not the least, of the 11 self-improvement techniques on this list that’ll change your life.
Summary
Now that we’re at the end of this article, here’s a short recap on the 11 self-improvement techniques I’ve mentioned above:
- Practicing gratitude daily
- Hitting the gym every other day
- Stop watching the news
- Asking for help when it’s needed
- Acting out of want, rather than worry
- Banning excuses from your life
- Questioning the normal
- Building a positive environment around you
- Stop chasing people & money
- Taking care of your health
- Thinking, believing & acting big
Great tips Dan.
Most people are chasing for the next big shiny objects, I feel guilty about this too, at times.
Whenever I have the thought of chasing after things, I will tell myself to stop chasing, stop comparing and start living life on my own terms.
And I have read The Magic Of Thinking BIG. And I love it. 🙂
It is a great book that everyone should read. Cheers
This article is dripping with awesome sauce.
11 well written and thought out steps towards success. The magic of think big is a perfect road map to go from thinking little in many big ways to thinking big in one big way while practicing quality over quantity.
Dope read….
Awesome sauce! Dayummmm best comment ever!
Thanks a bunch Claudius, I appreciate you taking the time to comment, and I love The Magic of Thinking Big!
Dan
I think that as a society we have become so depressed. Of course poorer countries are happier than us. They have less to think about and worry about. They do not have a means to watch the news and know about the evil that happens around the world. I think a simpler life definitely makes a happier life. I can recall about a week ago there was a story about a young boy that was killed on a ride in an amusement park and I couldn’t help but think about my own nephew who happens to be 10. I was very empathetic to the family of this boy. It definitely brought me down and I was thinking for a few hours about this boy and his family. I think media definitely plays a large role in our happiness because everything in the news is so sad and depressing. In regards to exercise and happiness this totally makes sense. Exercise wakes up our endorphins and this makes us feel better, that’s why we feel great on days after exercising. Thanks for the tips, Dan!
Beautiful read, Dan! In order to create an article like this, you usually have to believe in (some or most) of these ideas yourself, so it’s quite refreshing to know there’s still some good people out there! 🙂
I specifically love your first three steps:
1.) Practice Gratitude Daily — love that this is No. 1 on the list).
2.) Hit the Gym Every Other Day — being in shape is ALWAYS a must when leading (or wanting to lead) a successful life.
AND
3.) Stop Watching the News — it’s all propaganda, anyway… because, in my honest opinion, this country is more divided now than it has ever been, and now you can say the same thing about social “MEDIA.” Everyone seems to have an opinion, and when sitting behind a username and avatar, it’s much easier to express those “opinions,” whether right or wrong, clean or dirty, or nice or explicit.
I wish more articles were this well thought-out and layered. Life would be much simpler. So thanks for the information and inspiration, Dan — and God bless!