RazzWorks

So you want to start working on self-improvement, but you’re not sure where to begin. Well here are some ideas to get you started. The most important thing I would suggest is to pick something simple to start with. If you start small and easy, it will be more likely to stick. Also then you have something to build on. Small successes can lead to big changes if you allow time to be on your side. In other words, let it be the start of a lifelong positive journey of personal development.

THE POWER OF WORDS

Feed your mind

When it comes to a personal development journey, the first and easiest thing to do is read. Reading will actually begin a bunch of positive self-improvement patterns that can create a snowball effect for positive changes in your life. Set yourself a time that best suits you for reading information. You can either choose to pick a time on the clock or pick a time in your day that is the most convenient. I go with the second choice because it’s so much easier for me to maintain. Some people like to read in the morning with their breakfast. Other people who commute regularly choose that time. The main thing is picking a time, whether by the clock or by routine and sticking with it.

As for the type of reading you go with you can choose books that either can be bought, or borrowed from a library. With this method, you usually end up picking a specific thing that you want to work on. However, with today’s technology, we can use the web with our PCs, tablets, or phones. Options are almost endless for finding information and researching.

By this point, you’ve figured out when the best time to read is, and how you’re going to get your information. Next is what do you read. May I suggest, to begin with blogs, see if you can find someone you enjoy reading. Preferably one that also provides you with steps and ideas, and hopefully a method that will suit you and your personality. Sure it would be wonderful if you picked us, however, that is not my point. I would seriously prefer if you find someone that motivates you, whether it be us or someone else. By deliberately choosing someone to follow and read you will help to increase your odds of success.

So reading is only one idea, I suggest it because it is an excellent starting point and is so easy to do that you begin with a super easy win.

Let your thoughts and ideas out

If you’re not already in the habit of writing things down on a regular basis now is a good time to start. Whatever form you want to use for recording information whether it be in a physical journal, notepad, or an app like notepad, word pad, sticky, or any other option. Make sure to start using it all the time. How you write is up to whether you prefer to journal for real, or just make notes.

It’s important for your personal development to get in the habit of writing things down. It will help you to record tidbits of information you glean from your readings. You can write to get your thoughts out, clarify them, and start getting insight into yourself. You can also start jotting down ideas of things you want to do or accomplish. Writing allows you to make a to-do list, and write out goals and dreams. Write the purpose for your goals. Write down stuff you don’t want to forget like names, birthdays, dates, usernames, passwords, email addresses, and so on.

To-do lists and goal writing are the beginning stages of planning. If you don’t write things down, you can easily forget about things, and forget where you’re heading. Writing acts like a map to help keep you focused, and see what direction you’re going. It can also show you accomplishments, and where you came from. It shows a path of progression. Seeing the changes you have made then becomes a form of encouragement to keep going. Writing is another great starting point and is also a nice simple thing to do.

BE AWARE OF HOW YOU SPEND YOUR TIME

In the beginning, there was dial-up

When the internet first came around and communication online started it was great. It was a way to connect with people across long distances. Allowing friends and family that don’t live close a way to communicate without paying for long-distance phone calls. However over time more and more programs and platforms for communication were created. What used to be referred to as chat rooms and messengers have evolved into social media. It’s great that you can have so much information at your fingertips. This has also opened the door to more and more negativity as well. Gossip, horrible events, cyberbullying, hate messages, trolling, and the list goes on.

Now it’s a cyber world

If you want to work on your personal development journey perhaps try spending less time on the internet and more time in the real world. Start with your cell phone. Start reducing the amount of time you spend scrolling through social media platforms. Reduce how much time you spend playing games that have the potential to waste almost half your day or perhaps even more for some. Reducing how often you are distracted by your phone will increase the time you can be working on bettering yourself in more productive ways.

Avoiding the real world is normal

Once you start spending time not glued to your phone you will likely start observing how other people seem to have their heads buried in their phones. In restaurants, you rarely see two people not pull out a phone while they are eating. Instead of communicating with each other, they are texting someone online. It has become so normal that even in tv shows and movies you will see a scene where people in the same house will text each other to let them know it is time to eat.

Reconnecting with the physical world

While you’re working on avoiding your phone, take the time to enjoy your surroundings. Use the time to reconnect with old friends in person, start up a hobby or restart one you use to do years ago.

FIND A HOBBY OR SKILL TO WORK ON

Level up

Working on a hobby and/or skill is great and lots of times is a fun way to work on your personal development journey. Just like playing games, if you work on a hobby or skill you will become better, faster, and more efficient. It doesn’t really matter what you choose as long as it is something you are going to enjoy and also has some challenges to it. This way it will make you smarter, or physically stronger.

You are the Boss Level

What hobby should you take on? You pick. Maybe something like painting, drawing, dance, the gym, a sport, photography, building something, woodworking, crafting, doodling, collecting, the options are endless. Pick something you believe will be fun for you.

PERSONAL WELLNESS

Keep it simple

When it comes to personal development, your personal wellness is an excellent area to work on. When starting always choose something simple. You can always add to it later and make things a little more challenging if you find mastering the simple stuff too boring. The main thing I’m attempting to encourage is to start small and work your way forward so you can continually keep working on your self-improvement skills. It helps to reduce the effect of picking something too difficult, stumbling, giving up, and feeling worse for even trying. That is why I always begin with the easy stuff and suggest for others to do the same.

H2O

One great physical and mental wellness starter in personal development is increasing your water intake to keep hydrated. If you don’t drink water, as a rule, you might want to start doing so. By drinking water, you cleanse out your kidneys so they can perform better by filtering all the other fluids you consume. Water also improves your skin, and blood pressure and keeps your brain hydrated so you can think better and faster.

Beat the heat

You don’t have to drink it all at once. Just have a water bottle handy so you can take a sip now and then. Especially if you’re out doing anything physical, or if it’s warm out. Last but not least is that water has 0 calories, meaning you don’t need to worry if you do drink a whole lot of it.

Watch what you eat

Eating and how or what you eat would be the next great step after water. I’m not suggesting a diet. Personally, I do not believe in them. Rather make easy changes for the long run. For example, one that I’ve started within the last year is reducing how much sugar I consume. I didn’t say quit or eliminate. I simply reduced the amount slowly. I deal with fatigue a lot, therefore I’m also a coffee drinker. Over time I reduced how much coffee I drink along with reducing the sugar I put in my coffee. Currently, I drink the majority of my coffee black.

No effort

Make little changes like reducing carbs and eating some healthier options. If you generally only eat one big meal a day, try adding a small meal in the morning like a piece of toast, or fruit. If you eat at night you could work on perhaps decreasing how close to bedtime you eat. Or maybe reduce the size of the portion a little bit. Whatever changes you choose to make, make them small, something that requires almost no effort that will stay with you as a life change. In other words, not a diet but a personal life choice.

PHYSICAL WELLNESS

Walk

Again you want to start with something simple and easy, that you can add to later if you choose. The simplest example would be to go for a walk. If you don’t normally go for walks, you can start with a walk around your yard. easy peasy and done. Upgrade to a walk to the end of the driveway. Upgrade to a walk across the street. If you use a treadmill and you are a walker anyway, then upgrade how long you walk. Connect it with reading, or watching your favorite video.

Go 4 it

What level you are at doesn’t matter much as long as you’re doing something and enjoying it at the same time. Also, you want to make it part of a routine or habit so it also becomes a long-term life change. Going for a walk will help free up your mind as well, which will help reduce stress and anxiety giving you a chance to think and breathe. So not only is it great physical wellness it’s also mental wellness and emotional wellness. So go for it, give it a try, and enjoy your day.

MENTAL WELLNESS

World of stress

At some point assuming you’re serious about your personal development journey, you’ll need to work on your mental wellness. It is vital to work on your mentality if you’re going to be able to maintain success in self-improvement. The world itself is stressful at times and also when you’re working on yourself you can run into difficulties, hurdles, and plateaus.

Step back to think

You need to learn to step back and take a break from all your efforts. If you don’t take a break you run the risk of trying too hard and burning out. You need to remind yourself that stopping to rethink new ideas is not quitting, it’s just working out a new approach. You may also need a break so you can remind yourself why you choose to do what you’re doing so you can continue to enjoy the process instead of turning it into a job.

Have fun

Also, take the time to enjoy the moment, spend time with friends and family, and go out and do something enjoyable. When taking a break from working on yourself enjoy the experience. Try new things, have fun, recharge your batteries, and this way you will be providing yourself with positive energy, attitude, and mentality, to be able to continue your journey of self-improvement.

EMOTIONAL WELLNESS

Feelings

Perhaps you want to work on how you feel or how others make you feel. This is a good choice for self-improvement, especially if things bother you a lot and cause you to end up angry or depressed.

Be in the moment

One way of working on this is to become more self-aware. Learn to be more in the moment. This is when you take the time to see the things around you in the present, seeing things as they are. Even taking the time to feel your emotions. If you plant yourself in the present you are better able to see the beauty that is around you, and that can help you to feel more positive about yourself. Being more aware of how you feel then allows you to better control your emotions. Eventually, you start learning to not allow your emotions to control you.

Humor

One of the ways to help control your emotions if you’re feeling down is humor. Watch a funny video, read a joke book. When you choose to do something that will help make you feel better, you begin to take control. By learning to decide what to do, like go for a walk, or listen to some comedy you are teaching yourself how not to become overwhelmed and stressed out when someone or something rubs you the wrong way.

Be aware

Next, you will start realizing when certain moods are appearing and you become more aware of your thinking pattern. When you become aware of your thinking pattern you can start changing your inner dialogue to something more positive, knowing this sensation will pass. The next thing you know, after some time and practice, you don’t get stuck as long in negative emotions. During times of sadness, you can accept, feel them, allow them their time, and then switch to more positive behavior.

Slow and steady

So working on emotional wellness as a personal development strategy is most worth doing. Just like everything else, take it slow and just keep working at it a bit at a time. After continued practice, it will become a habit and you become more and more emotionally healthy.

PEOPLE

Toxic

Be aware of other people when you begin self-improvement. Some people can be a supportive blessing however other people are not. Start reducing the negative people around you as best you can. Start spending less and less time with them because they will only drag you down. Wherever we go, we’ll encounter negative people.

Positive

Hang out with people who are positive-minded, and supportive of your efforts. If you hang out with unhappy people, they will make you unhappy, then you start feeling discouraged. If you hang out with happy people or positive-minded they will rub off on you, and motivate you to do even better.

Optimism

Start being more optimistic yourself by encouraging others. Give people honest compliments on things you like about them. Be helpful towards others, and lend a hand. Encourage people to go for walks with you. The more you work on reaching out to people the more positive you will become. And that alone would be an improvement that also enriches the lives of others around you.

Gratitude

Also, be thankful for the people around you who do encourage you and lift you up or support you in some way. When you’re grateful you’re also optimistic. I can’t think of a more simplistic way of self-improvement. Try it, see for yourself.

HABITS AND ROUTINES

You have, I have, we all have

Everybody has habits and routines whether they realize it or not. If you think you don’t, try keeping track of what you do from the time you get up until you go to bed. Do this for a week and you will begin to see a pattern. If you brush your teeth every morning, that’s a habit or routine. If you stop to get a coffee at least once a day, that is a habit or routine.

This is not the routine you’re looking for, move along

A more challenging personal development idea could be to change, adapt, decrease, or start a new habit or routine in your life. Some people begin by trying to stop a bad or unhealthy habit/routine. If this is a route that you’re going to choose, may I suggest, instead of stopping cold turkey maybe begin with reducing, or switching the habit to a better one? This method will help to increase your odds of success. Personally, I think it best to do it slowly and make it a life change. After all most negative habits or routines that people try to get rid of are ones they have been doing for years. Examples like drinking, smoking, eating too much, procrastinating, not exercising, and so on.

New is better

Starting a new habit or routine is a better option in the beginning because if you do it slowly and pick something you can enjoy it will increase your odds of success. Things like starting the habit of walking, drinking water, reading self-improvement articles, and/or being kinder to people. Doing those things first builds a series of successes to help with reducing any of your negative habits or routines.

Good morning sleepy head

When it comes to personal development and the business of habits or routines we choose the most logical place to begin is with your morning. Because we all get up at some point and start the day. It doesn’t matter if your morning is 5 am or noon. Morning to you is your morning regardless of the time on the clock. It allows you to begin making tiny changes for your self-improvement. Once you have learned the new habit or routine of your choice in the morning. You now have a positive habit that you can add too. Making small changes in your morning can lead to huge changes over a long stretch of time. I personally go with the idea of everyday work on improving something 1% better in any way possible. I used to be a person who did not get up until around noon for years. Now I rarely sleep past 6 in the morning. Some mornings I’m up at 3 to start my day. I don’t concern myself with the clock, rather I get up when I’m rested. If I got up too early and need a nap later, I go ahead and take a nap. So what, it’s my day. I never in my life ever thought I’d be a morning person. So who knows what will happen down the road in your life. Just go ahead and start working on your routine or habit and take it slow and easy. It took years for you to become who are so don’t expect to change overnight. Just make changes that you know you can easily do and keep doing it, and success will be on your side when you play the long game.

LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN

I know sometimes it can be tricky trying to figure out where to start the process. I hope this list will help you to begin the journey. As I mentioned at the start, with beginning self-improvement, it’s best to choose something small, and easy. Treat it like building blocks for success leading to a long life of personal development.