Monday, 26 October 2009

Another Article on Self Improvement

Take a few minutes and read this, you won’t lose anything. But hopefully, gain some helpful hints about how you can improve your life.

If you did a search on Google, you would be presented with a plethora of information on the subject of Self Improvement.  You will find articles, web pages etc. with many different ways of self improvement.  Some of these will be lectures, that are all about ways of achieving this.

Sometime, between the age of 35 and 40, I suddenly realised many things. It was as if I had just woken up, and I started to ask myself some very serious questions. 

How and where will I be at the end of my life?
Will I be content with the life that I have lived?

Someone, I believe a colleague suggested that I investigate ‘self improvement’.  They suggested that I look up and read as many articles as I possibly could.  This I did, and I promised myself that it was not late for me to give this ‘task’ a try.  I did what I’m going to outline below. I did this and it helped me, and I sincerely hope that it helps you to.

If by reading this, you are starting to feel anxious, don’t worry it’s only natural!  You may even start to feel confused at what I about to tell you, and claim that there is no problem.  You are comfortable in your job, with your family life, and you feel happy. But is what you currently have, enough?

We all have an imaginary ‘class ceiling’. Think of this as an invisible barrier? we all convince ourselves that our lives are fulfilled. And we stop being passionate, and allow our dreams to die before we’ve even tried to fulfil them.

There are ten steps that you can use to help you improve your life, and which will move you on. Hopefully, this article will enable you to break through your own barriers, and be able to create a better life for you and your loved ones.

1. Allow yourself to dream. Kids have no problems dreaming. Have you lost the ability to imagine or even dream about you desires and what you would like to be? Do you remember when you last sat there daydreaming and were pleased?

2. Look inside yourself for happiness. Enhance your self-awareness and find out the ‘real’ you. Love yourself by developing and building a true relationship with yourself.

3. Look after yourself. Spend time attending to your needs. You need to be able to truly focus on self improvement rather than living in survival mode.  Start getting yourself organised and deal with things that are wasting your time and energy.

4. Remember your past, but move on. Instead of asking yourself ‘why’, ask ‘what’ or ‘how’ do I want to move forward?  This is a very useful technique and is more powerful, with positive results.

5. Not alone – there is support. From time to time, we all feel besieged with the ups and downs of life. Support is available, in the form of self improvement articles. You just have to find them.  The more you read on the matter, the clearer things will become.

6. Be grateful. Always be thankful for what you have. Start by making a list. You should spend a little time everyday doing this.  Think about what or who you are grateful for.

7. Be enthusiastic. Let your passions flow.  Ask yourself, when did you really feel happy and felt alive? Who is the person that you think highly of, and what do they rouse in you?

8. Do things, even if risky. Just being inspirited is not enough to make you leave your comfort zone and move onto the next level. Action is required as well.

9. Silly, but keep breathing. Take deep breaths. When stressed we breathe shallow breathes.  Many self improvement techniques will advise you to take deep breaths.  As you read this, take 5 deep full breaths.

10. Do something pleasurable. Have a long luxurious bath or do something that you enjoy and that gives you pleasure. Play music that you like and dance around the house etc.  Anything that gives you pleasure and is fun.

Yes another one of those self improvement articles, but hopefully useful!

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Start Believing In Yourself

If you are like me, you've probably experienced some bad times and you've in all probability started to doubt yourself.  Chances are that you now believe that you don;t have any talents and doubt your own capabilities.  You are finding it very difficult in believing in yourself. Take it from me, believing in yourself is a vital part of any goal achievement.  You must overcome any doubts and disbelief that you have as this is critical if you want to improve your life, both emotionally and physically, and the life of your loved ones around you.

  • You have to believe that you can do it! 
  • You must have total faith in what you can acheive!
  • You must have reasonable confidence in the powers that you possess to succeed.

Firstly and most important of all, YOU need to start thinking positively about yourself and your capabilities. Most of, without realising it, habour negative thoughts at some point in our lives.  This a bad habit, one which is usually adopted.  This then starts affecting us personally and also our lives, by making the wrong decisions. 

To develop a strong belief about yourself, try these:

Knowing your potential - You are harbouring thoughts of ‘Self-doubt’ as the result of an ongoing series of assumptions having been made. You’re probably assuming that you cannot succeed because you failed at something in the past. You’re assuming that you have no talent because of something someone said in the past. You’re assuming that you are destined for an ordinary life because you’ve never dared to push yourself.

What you have to realise is that you’re living your life based on your assumptions, which are probably not true! Like most people, you’ve accepted them as the truth, because you’ve only looked at it from one angle.  You owe it to yourself to revisit your assumptions and challenge them, and to be open to accepting the possibility that you may have been wrong about yourself.

Try it anyway - Not trying to do something in order to improve yourself is BAD because you think it’s going to be a waste of time.  This is worse than any assumptions you have about yourself.  You aren’t doing yourself any favours by taking this attitude.

Promise yourself to do your best at everything. You shouldn’t concern yourself about having failed, been unsuccessful in the past etc. or whether it’s achievable or not.  Don’t worry about whether it’s possible or not or whether you’ll succeed this time around.

TRY it anyway – no matter, it doesn’t matter whatever the result.

Prove it to yourself - On a piece of paper, note down all the things you believe you can not do.  These can be minor or major things, it doesn’t really matter. Then, just to make a point to yourself, go out and do the things on your list.  You don’t need to do them well, but just do them. I'm sure you will be amazed at your achievements!

With every little step you take, you are achieving positive results and eventually you will build a stronger belief in yourself. You should try to expand your comfort zones to achieve more and more!

Do You Want To Feel More Empowered?

Did you know that Getting to know yourself is the first step to acheiving Power? Did you also know that Knowledge is Power?

YOU, dear reader have to stand up and take control of your life, and everything that is important to you. You have to make the choices, because the results will affect you. If you don't make the decisions, someone else is going to, and the results might not be right for you. It's often said, that the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker!  That dear reader is the law of nature. 

Take the first step to Getting To Know Yourself! feel empowered and really know who you are and what you stand for.  Armed with this important information, you will start becoming aware of yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, your talents, your capabilities, limitations and start build your confidence.

Honestly, how well do you know yourself?
You will be surprised at the number of people who don’t really know themselves or find it difficult answering this question.

Don't worry.  It's only natural that we are all so busy getting to know other people around us, that we don't or won't have a clear-image or knowledge of ourselves.  This tends to lead to feelings of insecurity, inner disconnection and feelings of utter helpless.

When you get to know yourself, you become empowered with that knowledge. By empowering yourself, you  start feeling confident, self-assured, centered and strong.  You will start living a purposeful life, and you start making the right decisions which will be beneficial to you.

To get to know yourself, you need to spend time focusing on yourself. It's very much like you would spend time with a new acquaintance in order to get to know then better! Spending, what I would call quality time with yourself, you’ll begin to get a better picture of who you really are, and what you stand for.

If you don't know where to start, begin by thinking about what your interests are, and what you feel passionate about. On a piece of paper, make a list of these. Next make a list of the things you are doing now, and a list of the things you enjoy doing now or have done in the past, and the things you would like to do in the future.  Most of us have happy memories of our childhood, perhaps you could think back then for inspiration. Below are some ideas:
  • Are you interested in creative activities?
  • Were a member of any clubs whilst in school?
  • Do you a desire to learn and speak a different language?
  • Are you interested in visiting different countries?
Given time, you’ll be able to spend some time investigating these and as a result, you'll find you'll start becoming a different person - someone who is beginning to know themselves.  Don't worry if at first all you have is a list on a piece of paper.  You will start to explore these and eventually turn them into realities.

To find out the sort of person you really are, you need to make a list about the important things that matter to you. Some of the question are:
  • Do you seek honesty, love and compassion?
  • Do you have a healthy family connections?
  • Would you like to make a positive difference in the world? 
The list will help you see a clearer picture of yourself and the type of person you really are.

To be true to yourself, you'll want to ensure that the answers to the above questions, resemble your everyday actions. To feel truly empowered, you have to be honest about yourself and your feelings.  

Some people find that keeping a personal diary of their life, where they jot down most things, actions and thoughts.  By making daily entries, you are actually connecting with the deeper part of your being, and being honest.  You too can begin by jotting down some of your thoughts about yourself. Ask yourself these questions:
  • Who/what am I?
  • What is my life's purpose?
  • What difference do I or can I make?
  • Do I appear confident to other people?
  • What am I about?
You don't have to be concerned about getting the answers right.  There isn't a right or wrong answer to the questions above!  You are simply trying find out about yourself to get a better picture of yourself and who you really are. 

All during our lives, we are finding things about ourselves, and we learn new things everyday.  The process of getting to know yourself continues and doesn't stop once you reach a certain age. The trick is getting to know yourself, connecting with your inner-self, becoming and being self-assured.  This is when you start to feel empowered!


To find out more about releasing the powers you possess click here