Improving Your Life - Getting Started
I must admit, this was the most tricky challenge I've faced so far (albeit in a relatively short space of time). Following my initial discovery of the words of Steve Pavlina, I know/knew that I will achieve everything that I am going to set out for. The motivation and eagerness to succeed that is now within me is driving me like never before, and I recognise the benefits now of everything I am aiming for.
Before I move on to describe the methods I've used so far to get started, I need to iterate that these are my (relatively early) experiences. I do not pretend at this stage to be an expert at personal development, and this is in fact the first article I've written on the subject. My aim is simply this - that if I can show the journey I am making towards self improvement, and the methods I've used along the way, perhaps others might be inspired to improve their lives too.
Read Steve Pavlina
This discovery has proved to be the single most important inspiration to me. On reading Steve's website, I immediately became obsessed with achieving a similar sense of happiness and achievement in my own life. I want to be content and happy in the knowledge that I have continuously improved myself, my life, and the lives of others around me, since this will furnish me with a sense of achievement in my life. I also hope that one day someone might read some of the words I've written and become equally inspired and driven to improve themselves.
What would you improve?
My next step was to really work out what it is that I would improve. To explain my current situation, I am 26 years old, I have a wife and son and I adore them both, I have had a fairly successful career to date, I have a decent house, a car and we are financially fine. On the face of it, it would seem like I've no reason to concern myself with improving any of this, since for my age, I must be doing fairly well.
However, wife and son aside, much of this seems quite empty. I don't have enough time to spend with my wife and son, I don't feel that I really achieve a lot, and I don't feel that I give enough back to others around me. So on this basis, I began to consider the things in my life that I would improve.
I came up with a list of broad headings of areas where I thought I would like to improve. Things like my physical health, my personal learning (educational). I decided that I'd like more time to spend with my family, I'd like to travel a bit more. The list goes on.
What do these mean?
Looking at the list I'd produced, I realised that I wasn't clear exactly why I'd written down some of these things. It struck me that there had to be reasons they were on there, and so the next step was to clarify each of the points a little more. So with each of the list items as a heading, I wrote the sorts of things I'd like to improve in each of them. Under "learning" for example, I realised that I had regrets for having not completed my college degree, and completing a degree was one of the tasks here. As was reading more and indeed writing more, two tasks which have certainly come true of the last week. Suddenly each of these areas for improvement had some meaning specific to my own life, and I had an idea as to the projects I might have to complete to improve myself in the future.
What's stopping you?
My next thought was to question why I wither hadn't done these things already, or why I wasn't already doing them. If you've created a list of your own, I fancy the answer to this question will be fairly similar to my own answers - either I haven't enough money or I don't have the time. This led me to explore these two areas within my own list further. And the answer is obvious - a good place for me to start is to work towards both time and financial independence. After all, more time would give me the opportunity to complete my life improvement projects, and financial independence would give me the financial support I need.
Plan some tasks
Finally, I decided therefore that it would be a good idea to plan some tasks to start with. Time and financial independence are long term goals. However, it is possible to start working towards them now. I've decided to train my body to get up at 6am every morning. This will give me 2 hours every morning before I need to go to work, which will allow me to pursue and complete some of my website projects which I currently have on hold (in fact, the motivation I currently have has led me to complete one website project over this first weekend). The completion of these websites will ultimately result in an increase to my income, until eventually I can afford to leave a full time role to concentrate on my own businesses.
In addition, I've started to think about my personal organisation a bit more. I've come up with a few tasks here too - sorting out my personal finances will move me slowly towards financial independence. Sorting out my (home) working environment will allow me to be more productive at home. Improving my diet and sleeping patterns will give me more energy to complete the other tasks on my list.
Finally
I now have a list of goals to work towards. One of my key considerations through this was to make sure that I'm aiming high. I could have listed some easily achievable goals and completed them within days. But I would have always regretted doing this in the future.
By using the method above, I have managed to produce goals set at the highest level, but break them down into (not easily) achievable tasks. And it's this that has made me sure that I am going to succeed.
Before I move on to describe the methods I've used so far to get started, I need to iterate that these are my (relatively early) experiences. I do not pretend at this stage to be an expert at personal development, and this is in fact the first article I've written on the subject. My aim is simply this - that if I can show the journey I am making towards self improvement, and the methods I've used along the way, perhaps others might be inspired to improve their lives too.
Read Steve Pavlina
This discovery has proved to be the single most important inspiration to me. On reading Steve's website, I immediately became obsessed with achieving a similar sense of happiness and achievement in my own life. I want to be content and happy in the knowledge that I have continuously improved myself, my life, and the lives of others around me, since this will furnish me with a sense of achievement in my life. I also hope that one day someone might read some of the words I've written and become equally inspired and driven to improve themselves.
What would you improve?
My next step was to really work out what it is that I would improve. To explain my current situation, I am 26 years old, I have a wife and son and I adore them both, I have had a fairly successful career to date, I have a decent house, a car and we are financially fine. On the face of it, it would seem like I've no reason to concern myself with improving any of this, since for my age, I must be doing fairly well.
However, wife and son aside, much of this seems quite empty. I don't have enough time to spend with my wife and son, I don't feel that I really achieve a lot, and I don't feel that I give enough back to others around me. So on this basis, I began to consider the things in my life that I would improve.
I came up with a list of broad headings of areas where I thought I would like to improve. Things like my physical health, my personal learning (educational). I decided that I'd like more time to spend with my family, I'd like to travel a bit more. The list goes on.
What do these mean?
Looking at the list I'd produced, I realised that I wasn't clear exactly why I'd written down some of these things. It struck me that there had to be reasons they were on there, and so the next step was to clarify each of the points a little more. So with each of the list items as a heading, I wrote the sorts of things I'd like to improve in each of them. Under "learning" for example, I realised that I had regrets for having not completed my college degree, and completing a degree was one of the tasks here. As was reading more and indeed writing more, two tasks which have certainly come true of the last week. Suddenly each of these areas for improvement had some meaning specific to my own life, and I had an idea as to the projects I might have to complete to improve myself in the future.
What's stopping you?
My next thought was to question why I wither hadn't done these things already, or why I wasn't already doing them. If you've created a list of your own, I fancy the answer to this question will be fairly similar to my own answers - either I haven't enough money or I don't have the time. This led me to explore these two areas within my own list further. And the answer is obvious - a good place for me to start is to work towards both time and financial independence. After all, more time would give me the opportunity to complete my life improvement projects, and financial independence would give me the financial support I need.
Plan some tasks
Finally, I decided therefore that it would be a good idea to plan some tasks to start with. Time and financial independence are long term goals. However, it is possible to start working towards them now. I've decided to train my body to get up at 6am every morning. This will give me 2 hours every morning before I need to go to work, which will allow me to pursue and complete some of my website projects which I currently have on hold (in fact, the motivation I currently have has led me to complete one website project over this first weekend). The completion of these websites will ultimately result in an increase to my income, until eventually I can afford to leave a full time role to concentrate on my own businesses.
In addition, I've started to think about my personal organisation a bit more. I've come up with a few tasks here too - sorting out my personal finances will move me slowly towards financial independence. Sorting out my (home) working environment will allow me to be more productive at home. Improving my diet and sleeping patterns will give me more energy to complete the other tasks on my list.
Finally
I now have a list of goals to work towards. One of my key considerations through this was to make sure that I'm aiming high. I could have listed some easily achievable goals and completed them within days. But I would have always regretted doing this in the future.
By using the method above, I have managed to produce goals set at the highest level, but break them down into (not easily) achievable tasks. And it's this that has made me sure that I am going to succeed.
posted by Newbury at 3:03 PM
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