Level Up: The Art of Continuous Self-Improvement
Life is not about your rather average state of being, but about being something, anything, more than you were yesterday. Just like a blank character in a video game that can gain (experience, skills, newly gained strength and value in doing things in the video game every day), you can be something. Improving yourself is not being perfect it is simply being intentional in how you want to improve.
A Real Start: Marcus’ Untimely Shift
Marcus had a rather traditional, from-we-can-see, always successful life. He experienced a sort of comfortability with his job, he received a paycheck for it, and each week was generally going to be a almost-standard when each week Sunday rolled into Monday, jobs get done = no change in hourly rate.
Most Thursdays he had conference calls, his youth coach would call him if the students co-captain could not make the “team workout,” and his calendars would sync with HR each second Wednesday of the month for an appropriate “staff development” course.
Sure enough, the rub was he thought he could mentally notice that he thought he felt like nothing was missing. He even noted there was not much that was particularly bad about his life—not that it was all just a plain flatline that kind of excited him.
One night, after a long day of sorting through all the crap he didn’t want anymore, he stumbled by an in storage notebook that had not seen paper in some time—he had nearly forgotten it existed but when he dragged it out, his eyes smacked the cover like a fly and opened it readily, easily, and it settled on some assumed, “old goals” he had listed for himself as a younger man. The last page he opened—a hundred odd or so blank pages—the page read: “Things I want to do before I am 30.“
Three things he noted as goals among many:
- Travel to South America
- Learn a second language
- Start a passion project
Now 35, sedated by time and a new little one at home, he realized he never did any of those. He shifted from staring down at the notebook with a sad smile, where he softly closed it, into a decision that had no guilt. Instead, he chose to take a small first step. That night he literally, not physically, downloaded a phone application for free, and began to practice Spanish for five minutes. No pressure. No large investment. The objective, or hope might be an appropriate word, was not to change his life. It was to begin.
Months later, Marcus found himself meeting new friends that were a part of the local hiking group. A year later, made a small side business selling maps he made by hand. His life damns sure did not change overnight—it was he who changed.
1. Build a Growth Mindset
Before you can start anywhere, you have to grow change in your brain. If you don’t think your growth is possible, then it’s impossible. If you can honestly give yourself permission to start with “I can change” then you’ve just opened the door to endless possibilities!You simply start by examining your own self-talk, so you have to first examine how you will challenge your own beliefs that limit you.
Where you may say “I am not good at this.” you should say ” I’m not good at this YET.”Our brains are muscles, the more we train them, allow ourselves the brain space to reshape to another thought pattern, the bigger they get!-
2. Learn Intentionally,
Not On Demand**Reading 100 books in a year, taking 30 online courses in a year, you don’t have to do that to learn intentionally. You just have to learn intentionally, you just have to learn something that ignites you or something that takes a small step to something big for you. Try this:
Take a Learning Theme (creativity, finance, leadership etc) each month
Read 1 book/podcast/video series for that month.
Take light notes and create a plan that results in ~1 action a week. Long story short, if you don’t do something with your knowledge, your knowledge is just knowledge.-
3. Make the Most of the Small Actions You Take
One of the missteps we make around self-improvement, when it comes to time we only want the big things, and the truth is that isn’t even an option (if it’s big, it doesn’t matter!) These people that make the very big leaps, did not get there because of the one or two very big leap(s) they made, they made all kinds of betterment actions regardless of size, how small meaningful action is.
- So you want to write a book?
- Write 100 words a day!So you want to be more healthy?
- Walk 10 minutes a day!So you want to save money?
Track 1 expense this week! The great part is that you can have SOME action, you don’t even have to do good action!-
4. Get Comfortable with Discomfort
The moment you stretch outside of your norm to grow you, speaking in a meeting, learning a brand new skill, having the gumption to say “hi”, discomfort is just stretching! Confidence is not built by having the time(s) that you prepared for, confidence is built by the actions we take, so why not?
5. Reflect to Refocus You can’t grow if you don’t know what you’re growing from; there are no guarantees you will know, if you are not reflecting, so that you are being true to yourself. For a simple weekly reflection, ask yourself the next three questions:
– What did I grow in you this week?
– What challenged me this week?
– One thing to grow in next week?
Reflection is knowing the path, taking intentional action everything else really isn’t helpful.
6. Along The Way, Be Nice to Yourself Awareness is great.
Just because you are growing does not mean you need to burn yourself to the ground – growth is how you can get to where you want to get to, while managing your mental wellbeing and emotional health. You are going to screw it up. You are going to have bad days. That is ok. You know it is ok – tell yourself how you would to a friend who is doing their best to improve – you are trying to support not destroy.
7. Honour Your People Your environment builds your mentality
You want to be around people who are about growth, have your back in your growth, and, also want you to help them grow too. You do not need a crowd of people, just a lot of *value*! If you are not growing in your environment, be the first domino! You may even be shaking things up a little bit!.
Your Life, Your Levels There is no better time to get started, and, there is never going to be a “perfect time.” You do not need to even have it all figured out. Just like Marcus, all you need to do is get started – and that is get your body, your mind, in motion. You need to take one step, one action in your direction. Which could be one habit, one change in attitude, or, maybe, even just one act of bravery. Personal growth is not a race. You will not cross a finish line.
Ask yourself:
What is the one area of my life I will take the lead in leveling up this week?
And, diligently take action! No more waiting. No more “somedays”, today is the day.
