FIVE WAYS TO BEGIN IMPROVING ONE’S SELF!

Sometimes it takes a lifetime of lessons to learn the things that would have made the life lived, so far, better. Recently I was asked what five suggestions I had to begin improving one’s self? I thought, now this will be easy! But it wasn’t. Not when you take into consideration all the twists and turns that life has dished up so far. All the mistakes I’ve made; all the successes I’ve had and what I’ve learned from them all in retrospect.

The one thing that I know for a fact is that self-improvement should never end. From cradle to grave we need to understand that we must continually be on a path of self-improvement. You can’t really get away from it. If you choose to be homeless and live on the streets or be a hermit and live in the woods, you’ll need to learn how to do that. And, that requires some level of self-improvement. If you believe that you need to “begin” improving one’s self, I will ask you to review your life so far, as I think you will discover you’ve already been doing something. Simply the idea of thinking about improving one’s self IS a beginning.

My list turned out about as foundational as you can get. If you’re just embarking on a lifelong, dedicated journey of self-improvement, be sure that you master some basics first. Here’s my starter list:

1.     PRIORITIZE everything you do. Make it a habit to only do the most important things in life. You will eventually realize that you didn’t need to try to do everything. You just need to learn to do the most important things. Those things with the highest consequence. Forget about everything else. People will tell me that they would do things that they know would improve their lives if they just had the time. Well listen close, you do have the time! I’ve found that about 80% of a person’s time each day is wasted on unimportant tasks. Are you investing your time? Or, are you wasting your time?

2.     READ. Honestly, I don’t care what you’re reading but set time aside every day to read. The average American will read two books a year. That’s it. We have our faces shoved so far into our cell phones; lap tops and video games that we’ve forgotten how to learn and to communicate. Mix a self-improvement book or educational cd with a novel, however you want to do it, but read. We spend the equivalent of two semesters of college just in windshield time in our cars every year. Take that time to go to automobile university. Listen to a cd and learn a new language; learn a life skill or listen to a book.

3.     LEARN TO LISTEN. The lost art in world business is the art of listening. No one listens anymore. An expert recently commented that most people only listen to find their chance to talk next. If you take the time to listen, you will thrive and you will learn. Listen to those around you. Listen to the people you work with. Listen to your friends and family. If you really want to begin improving yourself immediately, start by acting like you’re listening. You’ll be amazed at what you will hear.

4.     LEARN TO SELL. No matter what you’re doing in life or hope to do, you will need to have selling skills. Like it or not, everyone sells and everyone will have to sell. Learn it as soon as you can. Take a SALES 101 course, read a sales book, listen to a cd on sales or take an on-line course, but do whatever you have to do to learn the basics of sales. Whether you’re selling as a profession or just want to be able to sell yourself better when asking for a raise, learn how to sell, NOW!

5.     LEARN TO LEARN FROM MISTAKES. Some people allow mistakes to stagnate and ruin their lives. They give up and quit trying. Many companies will spend millions of dollars just to uncover who made mistakes. One is stupid and the other is a waste of time. Learn from mistakes and then move on. Mistakes are a way of life. Thomas Watson of IBM fame was once asked his take on how a person could improve their rate of success. His answer was to improve your rate of failure. A mistake is only a true mistake if you did not learn from it. I have a four-step process that I teach all my coaching clients, when dealing with mistakes;

·        What happened? (Honestly analyze what really happened)

·        How did it happen? (What went wrong?)

·        How will it never happen again? (What is the solution?)

·        Move on, see you later! (Know what you’ve learned and apply it!)

The road to self-improvement can begin simply by deciding to take the lifelong journey. The key to its success, as with anything) is your commitment; dedication and discipline to do it. So, you must ask yourself, how important is this to me? Your answer will direct the rest of your life!

Real World Master Business Coach Danny P. Creed

Want to know more? Visit www.businesscoachdan.com or write to me at [email protected]