Do You Really Need This Self-Improvement Stuff?

This question may seem somewhat awkward and unlawful when you read it for the first time, but I dare ask it again, “Do you really need this self-improvement stuff?” it may seem to be an obvious question, but when you really think about it carefully, it is not. Many people have no idea how to answer this question, and this tells why people spend lots of cash in the self-improvement process with no progress. Every human being is on the road to self-improvement in one or several areas of life. In fact, every human being MUST be on a certain self-improvement plan.

 

However, you first need to know what you want. Self-improvement basically entails changing something in your life that you think is either not right or is not fully realized. Therefore, you need to identify what it is that you want changed or developed before you begin any self-improvement program. After knowing what you want, go a little bit further and find out why you want the change or development. Self-improvement is not as simple as it may sound; it entails harsh bending of the norm you are used to. Therefore, if you have not found the “what” and the “why” then you will not stay put to the end of the process.

 

When you have passed the above step, go to the second step, which is setting goals. If I would tell you that my goal this month is to make ten million dollars out of my grocery business worth one thousand dollars (all assets included), you would laugh at me. However, that is what most people do. They set weird goals like “losing a pound a day” or “two degrees in two years.” Someone who loses half a pound per day gets too disappointed to continue, while in the real sense this is quite an achievement for most people. The goals that you set should be realistic. 

 

You should also know that no self-improvement program is magic. Therefore, you should take it upon yourself to see to it that the self-improvement program works for you. It is your personal responsibility to improve, no matter how good the program is. It is you who sets the goals and endures the hardship of the self-improvement process, and not the program that you use. If you do not take action, then these miracles will remain fictions to you, and you will continue living in a familiar world. 

Easy Tips to Boost Your Confidence

In personal development, aspect that is more important is the self-confidence. Without confidence, you cannot achieve anything in this world. As a human, you will want to have several things and if you lack self-confidence, there is no chance of you getting them. So, how you can build your self-confidence? There are no medications to do that. 

 

You might have seen that almost all those people who have achieved something or made some mark on history have been those who had great self-confidence. In your work place, at your home and neighborhood also you will see people with high self-confidence being noticed more than you are. No matter how much talented you are, if you lack self-confidence no one can help you.

 

So, how you can change this scenario and boost your confidence to be noticed and appreciated? This is something that only you can do. You will need to come out of your own shadow of fear; fear of being laughed at, fear of being rejected or insulted. All human beings are same. God made everyone in His image and likeliness. Remember, you are not less in comparison to anyone. If decided you too can achieve anything in this world. 

 

You just have to come out of your comfort zone and try out things without worrying about what others will say. Come out of the negativity around you. Learn to say, “Yes I can”. Invest your time in reading good self-help books and read self-help blogs. These things will give you inner strength to face the world with increased confidence. However only reading various books and blogs is not enough.

 

You will need to make a plan of action. Try to talk your thoughts among your friends, family and for sure at work place. Let people know what you believe in. At office place, make sure to explain your ideas about the work that needed to be done. Take up new challenges and give your hundred and one percent to that task. This will help you to get the appreciation of your seniors and they will start believing in yourself. 

 

If your love life is getting affected due to your lack of self-confidence, then go talk to your loved one. Let him or her know how much you care for them and what they mean to you. Build the confidence to talk honestly about your feeling towards them. Let them see the confidence in you when you ask them to come out with you on a date. Therefore, do not just read self-help books bring them live into action as well. 

Enjoy Every Moment as You Walk the Self-Improvement Path

The journey of self-improvement is quite rewarding, but treading it can be at times very frustrating, tiring and harsh. It needs focus and determination, and the path can only be taken when one clearly knows what they want, why they want it and where they are going with it. If you closely follow up those who have succeeded, one of the main strategies they use is failing to immediately fulfill the desire they have to indulge. What they would have used today to gratify themselves is kept for the security of the future. This is usually the main difference between the successful and the unsuccessful, which are usually not willing to make short-term sacrifices for long term success. 

 

Success and self-improvement is not a destination but a journey. To put it better, it is not a long race but simply a succession of short ones. During this journey, one usually compares their progress to those of others, and this journey may at times end up to be a lifelong contention with one self, the mind being the battlefield. This contention may also end up jeopardizing the self-improvement efforts we have invested in for so long. It is therefore important that you learn how to enjoy every present moment life presents to you and to avoid being too overwhelmed by the self-improvement thing. 

 

Enjoying life as you journey through self-improvement is not easy, because it looks wrong. Therefore, it needs deliberate effort from within you. Otherwise, you are going to end up depressed and full of boredom. The motivation you should have for deliberately enjoying life is the fact that you have only one life to live, and life is never a rehearsal for “the main show.” You can therefore not live the whole of your life as if you are doing self-improvement for the main performance of life. 

 

You need to be that mother you ought to be despite you having the determination to further your studies. Even if your target is to stop being extravagant but instead make a lot of saving, do not let your love for nature and scenic places slip away; you will never have it in the “next life!” find a slot in which you can still go out for scenic viewing without feeling guilty about anything. Enrich your life with every simple thing going on about you; the giggle of that toddler or the still waters of the river.

Factors that Bring about Self-Development

There are two main factors which affect personal development and they are environment and genetics or heredity. Over the years researchers have tried to prove whether it is our genes or our environment. The only answer that has been gotten so far is that both of them contribute greatly in shaping us. This is when we tend to weigh nature with nurture. In the real sense, it is a fact that there are forty-eight chromosomes, male has got twenty-four chromosomes whereas the female is made up of twenty-four also. When these chromosomes combine, they make up a human being and that is why you will find that some of us will have our fathers’ nose or our maters nose. 

 

These chromosomes however are the ones which carry our mothers and our fathers’ genetics and therefore passed onto us. But there are also those genetic traits which are not passed on to the children directly but go to the grandchildren or the next generation. This is what we call genetic gap. This is the reason why we tend to look more like our grandparents but not our parents. This is what we call hereditary factor. The other key factor that is very important and contributes greatly on self-improvement and personality development is capability and capacity.

 

There is a difference between aptitude and ability. Aptitude is basically a series of qualities that are important in discovering a task. Ability on the other hand is implementing whatever you have discovered or learned. Aptitude is passed on but not your skills in something like for example swimming. Moreover, it can be inherited to learn the skill. The ability however cannot be inherited but rather practiced. 

 

When it comes to environment factor, we have an example of the behavior of a child. A child will tend to learn from whatever is around him or her, be it the things around or the people around him. Other social activities that he has to learn are the likes of eating, walking and talking just like the other people. However, the people he will be spending time with are the ones who will determine his personality in due time whether positively or negatively.

 

At our tender age, our parents and any other close relative are the ones who will make us who we will be by the time we reach five years. When we reach that age of going to school then our personality development will come about from our classmates and the people we spend most our time with, The group that we hang around. 

Generating Goodwill—What Are the Various Ways?

Everyone today is looking at generating some goodwill. A little goodwill goes a long way. When people know you for what you are, they begin to respect you and they put their faith in you. In the business world, both these things—respect as well as trust—are very important. That is the reason you need to generate goodwill, because your goodwill can bring these important things into your life.

 

If you are trying to generate goodwill in your line of work, these are some things you should pay special attention to.

 

1.  Look at the quality of your business, the product that you provide. You have to ensure that you are not compromising on anything. Are you providing people good value for their money? People want to trust in businesses that are providing them great products and services. If you constantly strive for that, you will certainly generate a lot of goodwill.

 

2.  Do not go for cheap promotional tactics. There are a lot of people out there with shoddy advertisement strategies, which look completely down-market and do not do anything for improving the business in any way. Your advertising methods must be unique and creative. That is what gives you a good deal of goodwill in your industry.

 

3.  Provide great aftersales service and invest in good customer care resources. Businesses gain a reputation not by how much they sell, but by how they deal with their customers after the sales have been done.

 

4.  Most importantly, stay true to your word. Give people what you promise to give, even if it is a free incentive. If you have said that you will give them some freebie, you should give it to them. Detracting from your promises is the surest way to move towards the downfall of your reputation.

 

5.  Do not indulge in useless competitive strategies with your rivals. No one is ever the winner in such competitive fights. The market gets a bad impression of both, and the businesses of both parties take a tumble for the worse.

 

Remember these important points if you want to improve your goodwill in the market. You have to ensure that you are always striving for that noble reputation, and ironically, that reputation does not come from showing other people down. Only when you are able to stand your ground on the strength of your products and services will people start developing that all-important trust in you and the business you are associated with. 

Have You Made an Analysis of Yourself Yet?

One of the most unfortunate things that happen with most people is that they do not know what they are capable of. They do not have a full realization of their own strengths and weaknesses. They do not know what they are capable of. They live in this ignorance and they are never able to tap into the full potentials that they have.

 

We live with a particular mindset about ourselves. Quite often, even without trying anything we say that we aren’t able to do it. We resign ourselves to the statement that there are some things that aren’t meant to be. And then we begin living by those limitations and constraints that we have set for yourself. This is definitely quite a deterring factor because we are not able to realize our full potential… we aren’t able to do our best.

 

Why does this happen? Why do we have these preconceptions? The problem is, probably, in the way we have led our lives so far. Pitiably, many of us live according to the beliefs that others have created in us. Maybe our parents or teachers or siblings or friends tell us that we cannot do a particular thing and then we never try that thing at all. We remain limited and constrained, even though we might be able to do much more than what we are doing right now.

 

We should never allow other people to decide what we can and cannot do. We know our potentials the best; there is no one else who can know what we are able to do. That is the reason we should always first sit down and think what we are capable of, and then act in that manner.

 

Today, sit down and analyze your situation. What are you capable of doing? What are your strengths and weaknesses? How can you improve on those strengths? What are your passions in life? When you have a complete rational opinion of these things, you are able to go much ahead in life.

 

The important thing to realize is that you should never allow yourself to be influenced by others. People say things for a lark most of the time, without really meaning it, but they can leave indelible impressions on the minds of other people. You should not let that happen to you. You are the only person who can think about yourself in an objective manner.

How Self-Improvement Can Be Gauged

Self-improvement is the art of making sure that you are doing better that you are currently doing. As a human being, you will always find that there is room for improvement. There is no such thing as a perfect person. Human beings are prone to mistakes and downfalls. However, these mistakes and downfalls can be regulated in order to reduce the levels they occur. You can be able to gauge your improvements on your own by looking at the difference after some certain period. For starters, if you are thinking of improving your physical appearance, you can go about it in several ways. 

 

The first thing will be to note the areas that you need to improve. By noting the areas you need to improve, you will have marked you self-improvement process. Noting such areas should be done keenly as there are some areas that cannot be changed. For example, you cannot be able to change your height. Nevertheless, you change your appearance such that you look taller. You can lose some weight if you are big or you can use some clothes that make you look taller. 

 

Knowing the areas that you can change in, and how to change them, is very important. As this is the case, you should be careful how you go about it. Once you have known the areas that you need to change, look at the options that can give you change. If you are looking to change your physical attributes, most of the time, it is exercise that will be the best way to do this. Many types of exercise are done in the world today. These exercises will be the determinant of the outcome of your improvement. 

 

However, you should choose these exercises carefully. There are exercises that will have the necessary effects but will also need you to work hard. There are others will not consume a lot of your time and energy but they will take longer. Finding the right combination of exercises will give you the best results with the minimum effort. With this in mind, you will find that there are many solutions that a person can use for self-improvement. The best way to go about it would be to have thorough research on the remedies that are available in the world. Knowledge of the various remedies will give a person a chance to make an informed decision. 

A Few Tips to Overcome Your Stage Fright

If standing on a stage and performing intimidates you, then these are some things that can help.

 

1.  Make sure your preparation is perfect. Rehearse your stuff several times. Do a mock show in front of your family and friends and get their feedback. They may tell you what you are lacking in, and they will also compliment you on the things you did well. Having a fair idea of these things will help you do better when you are on stage.

 

2.  If you are on stage, facing the public and doing something static, like speaking to them, then this trick could be employed. Look around in the audience for people who are interacting with you in some way. There are always such responsive people in the audience. They might be holding a direct eye contact with you, or they might be shaking their heads in approval of what you are saying. Bond with these people. Even when you are speaking in public, you can create such personal bonds. Speak as if you are speaking to them directly. Look at them often. Even they will get the feeling that you are performing directly for them and they will become more responsive. This boosts your confidence further.

 

3.  At the same time, do not alienate people in the audience. When you are up on stage, take a moment first to glance through the entire crowd. When you know what you are up against, you can certainly do a better job! Look for people you know—the familiar faces who you know will root for you—and cast a look around in general.

 

4.  Be confident. These people are looking forward to listening to you or watching you perform. They will enjoy what you say or do. Keep such a positive attitude in your mind. You will find that when you think positively, you automatically begin performing in a much better manner.

 

5.  Everybody fumbles. Do not worry much about those gaffes and goofs that might happen when you are on stage. Think about it this way—how many of the people in the audience will have the courage to do what you are doing? That itself propels you to perform better. You get the trust within yourself that you are doing what few people in the audience would dare to do.

 

These are the tips that can help you put up a better show on stage. Most importantly, be yourself and you will find that you falter much less when you are up there. 

An Extremely Effective Way to Reduce the Pressure in Your Life

If you think about all the stressful situations in your life so far… the situations in which you felt the great, unbearable amount of pressure that was sapped you from within… you will find out that there was one common element in all of them. This was the element that acted as the causative factor in building the pressure.

 

That element was time.

 

Every time that you were stressed, you will probably have noticed that the pressure was built because you had to do something in a particular amount of time. Maybe it was an examination, or an impending interview, or some huge and very important occasion. In all these cases, the most important thing is time. You need to accomplish something in a particular timeframe.

 

If you give it a thought, if everyone had unlimited time on their hands, they would probably achieve a lot more than they have already. In this world, it is not just doing things that matters; the important thing is to do things in a particular limitation of time.

 

Hence, if you have to deal with the pressure in your life, a very effective way to do it is by speeding things up! By not procrastinating when you still have time! By improving your skill in such a way that you can accomplish your tasks within a short timeframe!

 

This may sound like a simplistic solution to everything, but it really works. And it works every time. Suppose you learn how to attempt your examination papers faster. This will be of great help to you because you will be able to quickly breeze through the questions that you are confident of answering, which will help you to spend more time on the questions that you need to think about. If your pressure is because of a huge event in your family, you could handle a lot of it by doing things in time, which also gives you time to implement backup options if your initial arrangements do not work for some reason or the other.

 

There are many ways in which you can save on the time and thus, effectively, make more time available to you. You need to learn that. This is an important trait that all successful people have already used, whether it is an Olympic gold medalist who has tried consistently to beat the stopwatch, or a multinational industrialist who has learnt to be always quicker than the competition.

 

On a lesser note, you will be able to effectively remove a lot of pressure that is built up in your life. Consequently, you will be able to keep a clearer mind about things and you will be able to achieve more as well.

Are You a Good Leader?—8 Questions to Ask Yourself

If you are in a leadership position, then self-assessment becomes a very important thing. At every step of your leadership, you need to see how efficient and effective you are. Are your people responding to you in a positive manner? This kind of assessment is needed on a continuous basis, because only then can you bring about improvements in your game.

 

The following are some questions that you can ask yourself to assess your leadership. The answers to these questions should be evident to you, but they are provided all the same!

 

Question 1: Does your team trust you? 

Answer = Yes. It is important that your team relies on your decisions and looks forward to your guidance. 

 

Question 2: Does your team feel intimidated of you?

Answer = No. A team that is frightened of opening out to its leader is indicative of a negative environment. As a leader, you have to provide everything you can to allow the progress of your team. 

 

Question 3: Does your team come forward to you with questions/suggestions?

Answer = Yes. A team that opens out to their leaders with their own suggestions is a reflection on the creative and positive environment that the company provides. If you want to unleash the true potential of your team, then you need to provide them with this kind of atmosphere.

 

Question 4: Do you find people getting promoted in your team frequently?

Answer = Yes. If your team members are promoted, it means you are a good leader! A leader is a guide, a mentor. If people under you are climbing up, it means you are doing a great job as well.

 

Question 5: Are more people moving into your team?

Answer = Yes. Again, this is a reflection on the positive atmosphere that your company provides.

 

Question 6: Do people stay at home often?

Answer = No. If people are bunking their duties often, it means there is something amiss. They should look forward to coming to the job, not staying at home.

 

Question 7: Are you happy with the incentives you are giving?

Answer = Yes. If you are satisfied with the incentives you are providing to your team, then it is likely that your team likes it too. This means you are providing enough motivation for your team to work, even do more than their best at times.

 

Question 8: Do you feel energized about coming to work every day?

Answer = Yes. The biggest response for your team’s improvement comes from you yourself. If you look forward to come to work daily, then it means everything is going on right at work.