To become the very best, master every skill or just being content. Self improvement has a variety goals, but how do you start your self improvement journey.
The first step to start your self improvement journey is research.
Finding various methods through YouTube, blogs, and self improvement books.
The second step is to start.
Avoid searching for constantly searching for the best way to improve. This is the trap most people fall into searching for a quick cure all for a lifelong process. The fastest way to improve is to start your journey now. The greatest thing about starting self improvement you literally cannot do it wrong.
I can tell you various techniques like the Pomodoro, Eisenhower matrix, bullet journaling, and Pareto Principle. At the end of the day, it all boil down to be awareness, incentives, and a plan.
Treat your time like your money
Time is money that you are constantly spending. It’s something you are always using and by being aware of this you start to choose where that money is going. This can be as simple as setting aside time to relax in your day. An example of this is the Pareto Principle which says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
Incentives are a great way at getting work done. They provide an immediate reason to finish things quickly. You begin to form a positive association with the action, and you give yourself a break. Incentivization techniques include Pomodoro, realistic deadlines, and gradient gratification.
Prioritizing and planning allows you to look at how your spending those 24 hours and fitting it to your goals and aspiration.
Traps at the start of self improvement
Inconsistency
Inconsistency has plagued me for my entire life. Consistently inconsistent is the perfect summary of my self-improvement journey. I had no set schedule to achieve what I wanted in life. As a result, I only consistently worked towards my goals for around a month before forgetting about it entirely.
How I plan to fix:
- Deadlines
- By setting reasonable deadlines, you have a visual of what you’ve achieved and a roadmap on how to reach the next steps.
- Gamification
- By using various game mechanics like daily quests, you can use the addictive systems of games in real life. This can drastically improve productivity if done properly.
Understanding that this is a journey not an endpoint
We are human and taking breaks and making mistakes is still a hard thing to accept. Every mistake felt like this was just another thing to prove that I am not good enough. That what I’m doing is a mistake. However this isn’t true to expect ourselves to work at peak perfection 100% of the time is insane. It removes what makes us special our humanity. We strive towards better and grander things but it also means that we make mistakes. These mistakes are not reasons to stop trying they are reasons to get back up and try again.
Time Sinks
Things we sink hours, days, or years of lives into that bring us no closer to goals, don’t bring nearly enough joy into our lives and what companies spend millions of dollars researching how to make sure their product is our time sink. For me, YouTube and Tik Tok are my biggest time sinks. I’ve addressed this is by making technology work for me.
Technology is a tool that is used for and against us. An example of this is YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. They have spent billions on this system designed to constantly keep you on their platform constantly stuck within an endless scroll. With each video the algorithm is getting better and better at predicting what you want to see and keeping in the time sink. However we have two ways to combat this making the algorithm work for us or just preventing the effect of it entirely.
We can make the algorithm work for us be specifically watching videos that inspire us or give us information that lead directly towards our goals. You can do this in a couple different ways:
- Creating a separate YouTube account or curating your current YouTube account.
- Using plugins like Unhook which remove the homepage and recommended entirely.
- Deleting the app(s) on your phone
Instant Gratification
Instant gratification is rampant in today’s world. Waiting is not in our vocabulary anymore and because of this we have never gotten used to delayed gratification. Delayed gratification is like working on a project and finally finishing it. However today we mostly end up stopping once the immediate gratification is gone.
Progress can take months if not years to make and we can enjoy the process; but gradient gratification is delayed gratification over the course of a day. Gradient gratification is starting with the hardest tasks and ending the day with the more fun and relaxing tasks. So start your day with emails or homework and end it with a social media binge and relaxing.
Motivation throughout your self improvement journey
Motivation is tricky. There are many different kinds of motivation:
Excellence Based
This is a great motivator reaching the peaks and becoming the very best in your field is a motivator used by most pro athletes however one problem with this kind of motivation is the external comparison. This method of motivation solely relies on how you compare to other so even if you do everything right you still might not achieve your goals and you’re more likely to view it as a failure. In addition if you reach the top of your field then you have no one to compete against and your left without motivation.
Creation Based
To create your best work is an amazing motivator however with proper guidelines you may end up in two different camps.
- Those caught within the preplanning stage looking for the best idea.
- This puts unnecessary pressure on ourselves and focuses on unimportant details.
- Those who think they constantly have to one up themselves.
- For those that have already begun to create accepting that sometimes good enough is fine is a hard pill to swallow. With the mentality that the next piece should be better is good in theory this usually ends up with no creation at all because we fear our own failure once the bar gets to high so we end up stopping production and improvement entirely.
Outcomes based
Outcome based motivation avoids the issues with the last two to but is not nearly as exciting. This focuses on reaching outcomes or milestones. If these milestones are reasonable and still exciting, this will lead to motivation in the long term.
For more tips on Motivation: Fuel for Success
You start your self improvement journey by avoiding traps, planning, and taking action. Starting your self improvement journey is the greatest thing you can do for yourself. You’re striving to become better and I wish you luck on the start of your self improvement journey.