42 Practical Ways To Improve Yourself

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BY CELESTINE CHUA (/ARTICLES/AUTHOR/CELESTINE) | 16K SHARES

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Are you someone who likes to grow? Do you constantly seek to improve
yourself and become better?
If you do, then we have something in common. Im very passionate about
personal growth. It was just 4 years ago when I discovered my passion for
growing and helping others grow. At that time, I was 22 and in my final year of
university. As I thought about the meaning of life, I realized there was nothing
more meaningful than to pursue a life of development and betterment. It is
through improving ourselves that we get the most out of life.
SEE ALSO: How to Better Yourself One Day at a Time (/articles/lifehack/how-tobetter-yourself-one-day-at-a-time.html)
After 1.5 years of actively pursuing growth and helping others to grow through my
personal development blog, I realize there is never an end to the journey of self
improvement. The more I grow, the more I realize there is so much out there I dont
know, so much that I have to learn. For sure, there is always something about
ourselves we can improve on. The human potential is limitless, so its impossible
to reach a point of no growth. Whenever we think we are good, we can be even
better.

As a passionate advocate of growth, Im continuously looking for ways to selfimprove. Ive compiled 42 of my best tips which might be helpful in your personal
growth journey. Some of them are simple steps which you can engage in
immediately. Some are bigger steps which takes conscious effort to act on. Here
they are:
1. Read a book every day. (14-ways-to-cultivate-a-lifetime-reading-habit.html)
Books are concentrated sources of wisdom. The more books you read, the
more wisdom you expose yourself to. What are some books you can start
reading to enrich yourself? Some books Ive read and found useful are Think
and Grow Rich, Who Moved My Cheese, 7 Habits, The Science of Getting Rich
and Living the 80/20 Way. Ive heard positive reviews for The Tipping Point,
Outliers and The Difference Maker, so Ill be checking them out soon.
2. Learn a new language (/articles/communication/develop-your-greatest-skilllanguage.html). As a Singaporean Chinese, my main languages are English,
Mandarin and Hokkien (a Chinese dialect). Out of interest, I took up language
courses in the past few years such as Japanese and Bahasa Indonesian. I
realized learning a language is a whole new skill altogether and the process of
acquainting with a new language and culture is a totally a mind-opening
experience.

3. Pick up a new hobby (http://t.co/fOGxfjG). Beyond just your usual favorite

hobbies, is there something new you can pick up? Any new sport you can
learn? Examples are fencing, golf, rock climbing, football, canoeing, or ice
skating. Your new hobby can also be a recreational hobby. For example,
pottery, Italian cooking, dancing, wine appreciation, web design, etc. Learning
something new requires you to stretch yourself in different aspects, whether
physically, mentally or emotionally.
4. Take up a new course (http://t.co/fOGxfjG). Is there any new course you can
join? Courses are a great way to gain new knowledge and skills. It doesnt have
to be a long-term course seminars or workshops serve their purpose too. Ive
been to a few workshops and they have helped me gain new insights which I
had not considered before.
5. Create an inspirational room (http://celestinechua.com/blog/does-your-roominspire-you/). Your environment sets the mood and tone for you. If you are
living in an inspirational environment, you are going to be inspired every day. In
the past, I didnt like my room at all because I thought it was messy and dull. A
few years ago, I decided this was the end of it I started on a Mega Room
Revamp project and overhauled my room. The end result? A room I totally
relish being in and inspires me to be at my peak every day.
6. Overcome your fears. All of us have fears. Fear of uncertainty, fear of public
speaking, fear of risk All our fears keep us in the same position and prevent
us from growing. Recognize that your fears reflect areas where you can grow. I
always think of fears as the compass for growth. If I have a fear about
something, it represents something Ive yet to address, and addressing it helps
me to grow.
7. Level up your skills. If you have played video games before especially RPGs,
youll know the concept of leveling up gaining experience so you can be

youll know the concept of leveling up gaining experience so you can be

better and stronger. As a blogger, Im constantly leveling up my writing skills.
As a speaker, Im constantly leveling up my public engagement abilities. What
skills can you level up?
8. Wake up early. Waking up early (say, 5-6am) has been acknowledged by many
(Anthony Robbins, Robin Sharma, among other self-help gurus) to improve
your productivity and your quality of life. I feel its because when you wake up
early, your mindset is already set to continue the momentum and proactively
live out the day. Seth recently wrote a waking up early series which you should
check out to help cultivate this habit.
9. Have a weekly exercise routine (15-tips-to-restart-the-exercise-habit-and-howto-keep-it.html). A better you starts with being in better physical shape. I
personally make it a point to jog at least 3 times a week, at least 30 minutes
each time. You may want to mix it up with jogging, gym lessons and
swimming for variation.
10. Start your life handbook (http://celestinechua.com/blog/create-your-lifehandbook/). A life handbook is an idea I started 3 years ago. Basically, its a
book which contains the essentials on how you can live your life to the fullest,
such as your purpose, your values and goals. Sort of like your manual for your
life. I started my life handbook since 2007 and its been a crucial enabler in my
progress.
11. Write a letter to your future self (http://celestinechua.com/blog/writing-a-letter-toyour-future-self/). What do you see yourself as 5 years from now? Will you be
the same? Different? What kind of person will you be? Write a letter to your
future self 1 year from now will be a good start and seal it. Make a date in
your calendar to open it 1 year from now. Then start working to become the
person you want to open that letter.
12. Get out of your comfort zone. Real growth comes with hard work and sweat.

12. Get out of your comfort zone. Real growth comes with hard work and sweat.
Being too comfortable doesnt help us grow it makes us stagnate. What is
your comfort zone? Do you stay in most of the time? Do you keep to your own
space when out with other people? Shake your routine up. Do something
different. By exposing yourself to a new context, youre literally growing as you
learn to act in new circumstances.
13. Put someone up to a challenge. (http://t.co/fOGxfjG) Competition is one of the
best ways to grow. Set a challenge (weight loss, exercise, financial challenge,
etc) and compete with an interested friend to see who achieves the target first.
Through the process, both of you will gain more than if you were to set off on
the target alone.
14. Identify your blind spots (http://celestinechua.com/blog/blind-spots-inpersonal-growth/). Scientifically, blind spots refer to areas our eyes are not
capable of seeing. In personal development terms, blind spots are things
about ourselves we are unaware of. Discovering our blind spots help us
discover our areas of improvement. One exercise I use to discover my blind
spots is to identify all the things/events/people that trigger me in a day
trigger meaning making me feel annoyed/weird/affected. These represent my
blind spots. Its always fun to do the exercise because I discover new things
about myself, even if I may already think I know my own blind spots (but then
they wouldnt be blind spots would they?). After that, I work on steps to
address them.
15. Ask for feedback. As much as we try to improve, we will always have blind
spots. Asking for feedback gives us an additional perspective. Some people to
approach will be friends, family, colleagues, boss, or even acquaintances, since
they will have no preset bias and can give their feedback objectively.
16. Stay focused with to-do lists (/articles/productivity/get-ready-to-get-things-done-

in-2010-with-teuxdeux.html). I start my day with a list of tasks I want to

complete and this helps make me stay focused. In comparison, the days when
I dont do this end up being extremely unproductive. For example, part of my
to-do list for today is to write a guest post at LifeHack.Org, and this is why Im
writing this now! Since my work requires me to use my computer all the time, I
use Free Sticky Notes (http://www.freestickynotes.com/) to manage my to-do
lists. Its really simple to use and its a freeware, so I recommend you check it
out.
17. Set Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) (/articles/productivity/goal-settingfrom-the-inside-out.html). Im a big fan of setting BHAGs. BHAGs stretch you
beyond your normal capacity since they are big and audacious you wouldnt
think of attempting them normally. What are BHAGs you can embark on, which
youll feel absolutely on top of the world once you complete them? Set them
and start working on them.
18. Acknowledge your flaws. Everyone has flaws. Whats most important is to
understand them, acknowledge them, and address them. What do you think
are your flaws? What are the flaws you can work on now? How do you want to
address them?
19. Get into action. The best way to learn and improve is to take action. What is
something you have been meaning to do? How can you take action on it
immediately? Waiting doesnt get anything done. Taking action gives you
immediate results to learn from.
20. Learn from people who inspire you. Think about people you admire. People
who inspire you. These people reflect certain qualities you want to have for
yourself too. What are the qualities in them you want to have for yourself? How
can you acquire these qualities?
21. Quit a bad habit. Are there any bad habits you can lose? Oversleeping? Not

21. Quit a bad habit. Are there any bad habits you can lose? Oversleeping? Not
exercising? Being late? Slouching? Nail biting? Smoking? Heres some help on
how you can quit a bad habit (/articles/lifehack/how-to-quit-a-bad-habit.html).
22. Cultivate a new habit (/articles/productivity/18-tricks-to-make-new-habitsstick.html). Some good new habits to cultivate include reading books (#1),
waking up early (#8), exercising (#9), reading a new personal development
article a day (#40) and meditating. Is there any other new habit you can
cultivate to improve yourself?
23. Avoid negative people (http://celestinechua.com/blog/dealing-with-energyvampires/). As Jim Rohn says, You are the average of the 5 people you spend
the most time with. Wherever we go, there are bound to be negative people.
Dont spend too much of your time around them if you feel they drag you
down.
24. Learn to deal with difficult people (http://www.dumblittleman.com/2009/07/9useful-strategies-to-dealing-with.html). There are times when there are difficult
people you cant avoid, such as at your workplace, or when the person is part
of your inner circle of contacts. Learn how to deal with them. These people
management skills will go a long way in working with people in the future.
25. Learn from your friends (/articles/productivity/with-a-little-help-from-your-friendshow-to-tap-into-the-hidden-potential-of-the-people-who-surround-you-everyday.html). Everyone has amazing qualities in them. Its up to how we want to
tap into them. With all the friends who surround you, they are going to have
things you can learn from. Try thinking of a good friend right now. Think about
just one quality they have which you want to adopt. How can you learn from
them and adopt this skill for yourself? Speak to them if you need to for sure,
they will be more than happy to help!
26. Start a journal. Journaling is a great way to gain better self-awareness. Its a
self-reflection process. As you write, clarify your thought process and read

self-reflection process. As you write, clarify your thought process and read
what you wrote from a third persons perspective, you gain more insights
about yourself. Your journal can be private or an online blog. I use my personal
development blog as a personal journal too and Ive learned a lot about myself
through the past year of blogging.
27. Start a blog about personal development. To help others grow, you need to
first be walking the talk. There are expectations of you, both from yourself and
from others, which you have to uphold. I run The Personal Excellence Blog,
where I share my personal journey and insights on how to live a better life.
Readers look toward my articles to improve themselves, which enforces to me
that I need to keep improving, for myself and for the people Im reaching out
to.
28. Get a mentor or coach. Theres no faster way to improve than to have
someone work with you on your goals. Many of my clients approach me to
coach them in their goals and they achieve significantly more results than if
they had worked alone.
29. Reduce the time you spend on chat programs. I realized having chat
programs open at default result in a lot of wasted time. This time can be much
better spent on other activities. The days when I dont get on chat, I get a lot
more done. I usually disable the auto start-up option in the chat programs and
launch them when I do want to chat and really have the time for it.
30. Learn chess (or any strategy game). I found chess is a terrific game to learn
strategy and hone your brainpower. Not only do you have fun, you also get to
exercise your analytical skills. You can also learn strategy from other board
games or computer games, such as Othello, Chinese Chess, WarCraft, and so
on.
31. Stop watching TV (/articles/productivity/ten-reasons-to-turn-off-your-tv.html). Ive

not been watching TV for pretty much 4 years and its been a very liberating
experience. I realized most of the programs and advertisements on
mainstream TV are usually of a lower consciousness and not very
empowering. In return, the time Ive freed up from not watching TV is now
constructively used for other purposes, such as connecting with close friends,
doing work I enjoy, exercising, etc.
32. Start a 30-day challenge. Set a goal and give yourself 30 days to achieve this.
Your goal can be to stick with a new habit or something youve always wanted
to do but have not. 30 days is just enough time to strategize, plan, get into
action, review and nail the goal.
33. Meditate (reboot-your-brain-with-practical-meditation.html). Meditation helps to
calm you and be more conscious. I also realized that during the nights when I
meditate (before I sleep), I need lesser sleep. The clutter clearing process is
very liberating.
34. Join Toastmasters (Learn public speaking). Interestingly, public speaking
(/articles/communication/7-little-tricks-to-speak-in-public-with-no-fear.html) is the
#1 fear in the world, with #2 being death. After I started public speaking as a
personal development speaker/trainer, Ive learned a lot about how to
communicate better, present myself and engage people. Toastmasters is an
international organization that trains people in public speaking. Check out the
Toastmaster (http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub/) clubs nearest to you
here.
35. Befriend top people in their fields. These people have achieved their results
because they have the right attitudes, skill sets and know-how. How better to
learn than from the people who have been there and done that? Gain new
insights from them on how you can improve and achieve the same results for
yourself.

36. Let go of the past (what-do-you-need-to-let-go-of.html). Is there any grievance

or unhappiness from the past which you have been holding on? If so, its time
to let it go. Holding on to them prevents you from moving on and becoming a
better person. Break away from the past, forgive yourself, and move on. Just
recently, I finally moved on from a past heartbreak of 5 years ago. The effect
was liberating and very empowering, and I have never been happier.
37. Start a business venture (/articles/lifehack/developing-business-skills.html). Is
there anything you have an interest in? Why not turn it into a venture and make
money while learning at the same time? Starting a new venture requires you to
be learn business management skills, develop business acumen and have a
competitive edge. The process of starting and developing my personal
development business has equipped me with many skills, such as selfdiscipline, leadership, organization and management.
38. Show kindness to people around you (29-ways-to-carry-out-random-acts-ofkindness-every-day.html). You can never be too kind to someone. In fact, most
of us dont show enough kindness to people around us. Being kind helps us to
cultivate other qualities such as compassion, patience, and love. As you get
back to your day after reading this article later on, start exuding more kindness
to the people around you, and see how they react. Not only that, notice how
you feel as you behave kindly to others. Chances are, you will feel even better
than yourself.
39. Reach out to the people who hate you. If you ever stand for something, you
are going to get haters. Its easy to hate the people who hate us. Its much
more challenging to love them back. Being able to forgive, let go and show
love to these people requires magnanimity and an open heart. Is there anyone
who dislikes or hates you in your life? If so, reach out to them. Show them love.
Seek a resolution and get closure on past grievances. Even if they refuses to

reciprocate, love them all the same. Its much more liberating than to hate
them back.
40. Take a break.(/)Have you been working too hard? Self-improvement is also about
recognizing our need to take a break to walk the longer mile ahead. You cant
be driving a car if it has no petrol. Take some time off for yourself every week.
Relax, rejuvenate and charge yourself up for whats up ahead.
41. Read at least 1 personal development article a day. Some of my readers
make it a point to read at least one personal development article every day,
which I think is a great habit. There are many terrific personal development
blogs out there, some of which you can check here (/articles/productivity/50personal-productivity-blogs-youve-never-heard-of-before-and-about-a-dozenyou-probably-have.html).
42. Commit to your personal growth. I can be writing list articles with 10 ways, 25
ways, 42 ways or even 1,000 ways to improve yourself, but if youve no
intention to commit to your personal growth, it doesnt matter what I write.
Nothing is going to get through. We are responsible for our personal growth
not anyone else. Not your mom, your dad, your friend, me or LifeHack. Make
the decision to commit to your personal growth and embrace yourself to a lifelong journey of growth and change. Kick off your growth by picking a few of
the steps above and working on them. The results may not be immediate, but I
promise you that as long as you keep to it, youll start seeing positive changes
in yourself and your life.
Id love to hear your thoughts on this article or anything about personal growth.
Feel free to share your thoughts in a comment below and Ill get back to you! If
you have any other suggestions to add to the list, please share with us too!
Image kevindooley (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/)

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