Personal improvement, the key to making the most of yourself

Personal improvement, the key to making the most of yourself

Personal improvement is engaging oneself in activities or training that leads to increase value, or change that makes you better. It involves a conscious plan, personal training and discipline, and well defined actionable goals, someone once said “the biggest room on earth is the room for personal development” that means anybody and everybody can improve for a better productivity in which ever sphere of life one has chosen.  

 

  Keys to personal development

 

Set actionable goals

Goals are a blue print of what you are set to achieve, good precise goals can determine one’s achievement, the easiest way to dissipate energy is set out for a road that you don’t know where it leads sure enough it will get you nowhere setting goals boost performance, people with clear goals succeed because they know where they are going.

Effective goals are specific, when setting out goals for yourself or for an organisation strive for more details, be specific about what steps is needed to achieve them, for every goal must answer the question of what is involved, who need to be a part of achieving the goal, what resources in terms of time, money, logistic support or training will be required to tackle the goal headlong. You must state in precise terms what task need to be done to get the gaols achieved, the benefits of achieving the goal must also be clearly stated, and the time slice within which the goals must be achieved. It is based on the answer to this questions you are to craft a comprehensive goal statement. Goals are only actionable when every detail content of the goals are followed with action, an effective goal must inspire action.

 

Prioritize your time

Doing the best in this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment, time is either used judiciously or it is lost on irrelevant things when personal priorities are not properly set. Peter Drucker once said that “time is the scarcest resources of the manager, if it is not managed nothing else can be managed” time is an asset that must be utilised on goals according to set priorities or it slips away without productivity. Good time management is key to achieving your goals no matter how good and workable your goals may look, if commensurate amount of time is not dedicated to achieving them they only end up on the pages of the paper, alternatively time management is about managing your goals, because before you think of time management it assumed you have already set out your goals. The following are keys that makes your time productive.

§  Set out your daily task for both short and long term goals

§  Create a to do list of your daily task and attached a time slice according to priority

§  Match your plans with action, to make time work for you

Keep your focus, caving to other peoples’ demand on your time can cause you to lose sight of your goals and derail from them entirely, don’t be distracted by attending to everything and everyone around you. Remember what is most important to you is your goals and achieving them, moreover your time belongs to you first, Farrah Gray once remarked “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs”. If you are not careful you will end up getting consumed with other people’s business with no time left to accomplish your own goals.

Stay motivated

Every achiever need the courage to stay motivated and glue to their goals until they are achieved, in trying to get your goals achieved daily, so many other demands of life will mount pressure on you to make you quit or derail, at such time always borrow a leaf from what John Mason said “in trying times too many people quit trying” but the most successful people always learn never to give up.

 

Persistence 

In your goal of personal improvement, you will often have times when you relapse and couldn’t meet you your expectations, relax and refocus again persist over time and consolidate on your gains. When you don’t have the result, you desired get back to the drawing board and figure out why it couldn’t work and re-strategize for a better result.

Personal discipline

Talents can be buried, but self-discipline can groom and cultivate a talent that does not exist. In the word of Martin Meadows “self-discipline is living your life the hard way: resisting temptation and instant gratification in order to receive bigger and better rewards” it is the ability of your will power to consistently say no to temptation to quit or give in or remain at your comfort at your own expense. It is leaving your comfort zone when ordinarily you are supposed to stay. Dave Kekich lend his insight that “life is easy when you live it the hard way, and hard if you try to live it the easy way” in the word of Helen Keller who lost her hearing and sight at childhood but became a famous author and activist, said that “there is no such thing as a secure life it does not exist in nature, life is either a daring adventure or nothing” real life that add value takes place out of your comfort zone and it is at the zone where your strength is stretched to the limit of the breaking point but you still maintain your resilience.

The engine of Discipline

Willpower

To define willpower, I will borrow from the words of Roy Baumeiste who said that “it is what separates us from the animals. It’s the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation — do what’s right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It’s central, in fact, to civilization”. It is the ultimate fuel of discipline, no matter how great and fascinating your goals may seem you will get nowhere when you have no will power to put them to work.

Martin Meadows add that, “humans have the capacity to act against their urges in exchange for a better future. Unfortunately, many people live by the principle of, if it feels good do it and if it doesn’t don’t do it.” Do you know that when you have the will power you can do things you are not motivated to do, if you will be sincere, most of the things we often do to better in our career and jobs are not exciting but with determination you can always found the right motivation to do them, when you are motivated without a willpower to take a definite line of action it is just an excitement that will soon fizzle out. Determination is the drive of motivation because motivation is a stimulus but determination or willpower is its driving force. The good side of it is that everyone has the ability to be determined about something, the more you keep to your determination the more wilful you become.  

Commitment

 None of the laws of success will work except you take responsibility for your life, first of all look at all the areas of your life, where things have gone awry and take responsibility for them, when it's always the fault of someone else but you, then you find it difficult to be committed to any outstanding cause. the commitment to stay glued to your goals until they are achieved must be cultivated, it is a virtue you must use your willpower to develop. Constant monitoring of your progress will put you in perspective as to whether you are still holding forth or your steadfastness has waned.

Most often than not, the choice of quitting may be the easy way out but always remember your commitment to never find the easy way out, another tip is to stay away from constant touch with things or people that deplete your commitment, in fact, your discipline soar when you block activities that takes your focus away from your commitment.