An article by Habit Nest

In general, we all want the very same things. 

We’re all striving for a comfortable life in which we can experience a stable sense of happiness, excitement, curiosity, love, relationship and growth.

The reason self-improvement as an idea and as a practice exists at all, is because we find that as we are, we’re not experiencing the quality of life we’re striving for.

Otherwise we would have no need to improve ourselves; there would be no reason.

There’s no lack of ways to begin working on improving yourself. You can work on anything that you don’t like about yourself.

We all dislike different things about the way we are and so the answer is somewhat unique to each of us.

But self-improvement needs an aim, and there are core methods of coming into relationship with your aim of improvement that serve as universal; they apply to all of us.

1. Creating time to ponder
2. Make learning a habit
3. Stop wasting your nights and get rest
4. Get to know the nature of your own desires
5. Take care of yourself physically

If you don’t take the time to THINK about why you want to improve, to question how to improve, to learn how to improve, to make time for improvement, and eliminate all excuses for actually improving, chances are you’ll never move from where you are right now.

5 Key Ways To Begin Self Improvement

1. Creating time to ponder:

To ponder means to think deeply. To truly deliberate. To have a serious question.

We generally experience our day to day life with very little questioning. We live as if we knew all the answers.

We think we know what’s right and wrong, what we like and dislike, how people should behave, what a good life consists of, what success means, what happiness means, how to achieve happiness… even if we think we don’t know much, we live our lives as if we knew everything.

We all live with some guiding principles, right?

We’re all looking for basically the same thing – a comfortable life in which we can experience a stable sense of happiness, excitement, curiosity, and love.

Isn’t it interesting that most people we meet, including ourselves, don’t seem to experience the quality of life we’re all striving for?

***Have you ever questioned why that is? ***

Have you ever questioned that maybe the lives we’ve been taught to lead don’t lead us where we’ve been told it will?

Unless we create free time and space in ourselves to really approach these types of questions, we never get to them.

From the moment we wake up, our mind and attention is already taken by all that we have to do in the day. We start our days by literally being taken by our obligations.

Finding time to simply question your life, where its going and whether its going to take you where you want is the most important action you can take – isn’t that the whole point of this experience of being alive?

What’s self-improvement worth without knowing why you want to improve, and how it will improve the overall quality of your life’s experience?

2. Make learning a habit:

If we’re not learning, we’re dying.

Without being exposed to new modes of thinking, new information, and seeing through new eyes with what we learn, then the quality of our thoughts can’t change. If our thoughts don’t change, and we don’t change the way we live, then our entire lives will be lived the same exact way we’ve been living up until this point.

If we live the same way for the rest of our lives, then in a very serious way, we’re already dead.

To be alive is to be alert, active, engaged.

If our attention is constantly traveling the same paths, our responses to situations are automatic and without an eye towards growth, then we can’t consider ourselves active and engaged.

3. Stop wasting your nights and get rest:

If we’re not asleep, what are we usually doing from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.?

It’s one thing to be out with friends or family and enjoying a night out, but its another to be watching hours of t.v., or messing around on the internet or social media.

We’re always complaining about time, but do we ever really accept how much of it we spend with what’s basically useless and mindless activity?

Do we accept that if we stopped wasting our nights aimlessly, we could get the rest we need and wake up ready and create our day rather than being obligated to respond to it out of “lack of time” for ourselves?

We all have obligations, and we all want to do certain things – have certain desires. Stop wasting time, and take control of it so that your obligations don’t rob you of your time.

Read more https://habitnest.com/blogs/habit-nest-blog/5-key-ways-to-begin-self-improvement