What Is Self-Improvement Actually? And Why You Need It
Reading Time: 5 minutes Are you curious about what is self-improvement? Have you ever come across the term self-improvement and wondered what it means?
Well, I have your answer.
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Read on to understand the meaning and all the hype that self-improvement gets, and why it matters.
What Is Self-Improvement Actually? And Why You Need It
Self-Improvement goes by the names: Personal Growth, Personal Development, Self-Development, and so on.
To start with, let’s take a look at Google’s definition:
Self-Improvement is the improvement of one’s knowledge, status, or character by one’s own efforts.
But, it’s so much more than this strict definition.
Change is inevitable. We’ve seen it everywhere.
From dinosaurs to apes, to eventually humans. From hunting animals and gathering herbs to feed ourselves, to being able to order food in a blink of an eye.
From not having electricity to being able to write this article from the comfort of my house.
Change is everywhere, and a person changes when different events take place in life.
However, changes mostly occur without the consciousness of the human brain.
Remember when you binged-watched your favorite cartoon as a kid? Now you probably can’t stand the sound of it.
Self-Improvement does not happen like change. It’s the conscious changes and necessary measures that you take to change your Life Strategy.
Your Life Strategy
Imagine yourself as an organism. An organism has needs, goals, and an instinct to survive in its own environment.
Well, it’s way more complex for us humans because we have to take in mind numerous factors, but, the starting principle remains the same.
We have to survive, we have needs to fulfill and goals to achieve.
How do we accomplish the above?
By developing a collection of principles, values, habits, thoughts, experiences, and behaviors to deal with the challenges that life comes with.
That’s your Life Strategy
Sometimes, the way you deal with these challenges will be pretty effective.
Maybe you exercise regularly, you have a well-balanced diet, and maybe you have a good night’s sleep. Not so sure about the last one.
Other times, the way you deal with these challenges will be pretty bad.
Maybe you’ve been procrastinating on a school/work project for a long time and you manage to scrap it one day before deadline day.
The key point here is that your Life Strategy consists of all the small steps and actions you have taken (or don’t) your entire life to the challenges you’ve dealt with, up until this point.
This includes both the conscious adjustments and tactics you take, but also a lot of behaviors that are driven by emotions, such as anger, jealousness, eagerness, etc.
Why Do I Need To Improve My Life?
Have you ever looked at someone in the street who was young, fit and successful?
Probably wherever you go you see a person like this.
When this happens, do you tell yourself: “I wish I was as young as her/him” or “I wish I was as fit as her/him” or “I wish I was as rich as her/him”?
Or you say: “If s/he can do it, probably I can do it.”?
Self-Improvement has no restrictions of age, or timeline. A person can learn things at his own pace.
Everyone, no matter their age, financial status, and physique, can improve their life.
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”
-George Bernard Shaw.
You can improve your external situation (money, fame, women, etc.) without improving yourself, but that results in temporary happiness.
If you want to make a serious change in your life, you should start by changing your mind– your perspective, the way you think.
By changing your mind, you change your choices and actions. And by changing those, your results will be different.
The most valuable asset you have is YOU.
Regardless of your current position, you can make it through. If you can commit to self-improvement.
The choice is yours in the end.
This exact mentality you have to have when making changes in your life. Start by changing your mornings.
I’ve written an article about How To Wake Up Early In The Morning And Not Feel Tired (3 Easy Steps)
I’m here to tell you 4 reasons why you need to improve yourself:
1. No one else is responsible for your success.
You’ve read that correctly.
No one on this planet Earth is responsible for what you want to achieve and no one can do it for you but yourself.
Think about it for a moment:
If you want to lose weight, you have to exercise regularly and have a balanced diet.
But, no one will do the push-ups for you, and speaking from the heart, no one will follow the diet for you.
You can’t hire a personal trainer and expect to get results without breaking a sweat.
You are responsible for your actions and your success.
So stop making excuses, stop blaming others and let’s get to work!
2. Self-Improving Is The Only Way To Get Better
If you want to be better, you have to consistently improve yourself, until you have reached the point where you no longer feel you can improve yourself.
But that’s a long way ahead, so focus on being a little better day by day.
You see, if you keep doing what you always were, without any changes, you shouldn’t expect to see different results.
The skills, experiences and knowledge you have, can only get you so far. If you want to be better, you have to upgrade yourself.
Develop new skills, acquire new knowledge, and experience new things. But most importantly, take action.
Only if you take action you will see what’s working best for you.
3. Self-Improvement Unlocks Your Inner Potential
You don’t know you can do it unless you try, right?
Most of us, are living in “the comfort zone”.
What does that mean?
It means that we don’t test our true limits. We don’t try new things, we settle for mediocrity, thinking it’s way too hard to accomplish things.
Self-Improvement is the antidote to this mentality.
Making conscious efforts to be a little bit better every single day, will have you building a strong character and a powerful mental state.
And last but not least…
4. Why The Heck Not?
The question shouldn’t be why you need to improve yourself. The question should be:
“Why you shouldn’t improve yourself?”
“Why live a mediocre life?”
“Why be content with the bare minimum?”
“Why you don’t want to improve?”
You get the point, no need to stretch this one out.
If you are reading this article up to this point, I’m pretty sure that you’ll agree with me that Self-Improvement is very, very important to living a life that you deserve.
But, like with all the things in life, Self-Improvement comes with a cost.
The only negative about it is that it’s going to be hard.
Somedays you will feel like quitting, but don’t. Remember your end goal.
Either way in life you have to suffer some pain.
The choice is yours to take. The pain of discipline or the pain of regretting never starting?
What Is Self-Improvement Actually – Conclusion
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