Self-Improvement Archives - Page 9 of 10

How to Build Self-Discipline

The other day, I struggled with self-discipline.

I warred with myself, negotiated, revisited arguments, made imaginary pro and con lists, and eventually realized that no, I could not get out of my daily workout.

This happens pretty much every day, actually.

5 o’clock rolls around — my designated time for exercise — and I start to wonder: do I really need to do my workout today? What if I only did half my workout? What if I went for a walk around the block instead? What if I did some light stretching instead? What if I just stayed on the couch eating potato chips instead?

10 Ways to Build and Develop Resilience

In life, everyone encounters hardships.

Some will be big, and others will be small. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, getting laid off, heartbreak, divorce, or even just putting orange juice in this morning’s cereal instead of milk, there will be tough times.

When these difficult times inevitably arrive, we can either choose to let them swallow us up, or we can choose to keep going and make the best of the cards life has dealt us. Yes, even when there’s orange juice in your cereal.

This is where a very important skill comes in: resilience.

Why You Can’t Focus – and How To Fix That

Do you struggle to maintain focus on important tasks? Does your mind wander as soon as you sit down to work? Do you turn to your phone, or Youtube (yes, WE SEE YOU), TikTok, or Twitter, to distract yourself from a project for your boss? What about watching too much TV or reading so much you never get your homework done? Does working on something for a whole hour sound like an impossible task? Utterly daunting? Totally unthinkable?

Well, you’re not alone. Focus is a difficult thing to master, and many people struggle with it. Even now as I write this, I find myself momentarily preoccupied with a spot of dirt on my laptop, flipping through the pages of a book nearby that I’ve never read, and crossing off the previous days on my wall calendar.

Why Fixing Your Sleep Schedule is one of the Greatest Advantages in Life

In a 2009 Harvard study, Christoph Randler discovered that people who woke up early in the morning were more proactive in solving problems than those who were late risers. He describes proactivity as “the willingness and ability to take action to change a situation to one’s advantage.” Sounds like a great thing to have, right?

Of course, we probably don’t need a Harvard study to tell us that. We all know that early risers seem to be more productive, more energetic, more quick to get things done. We hear time and time again how the most successful entrepreneurs wake up at 5 am. The list goes on…

The Power of Staying Committed to Your Goals

The power of staying committed to your goals is that you actually accomplish them.

Commitment is the key to seeing your dreams, hopes, and, yes, goals, come to fruition. Because goals are inherently difficult to achieve. They take a lot of effort and time. The tricky part is, of course, applying the same amount of effort over a long period of time. Once you are able to really commit in this way, you’ll see massive results.

But staying committed to a goal is tough. How many New Year’s Resolutions have been abandoned mid-February when we lose our motivation? How many half-completed workout programs are there? How many goals have we had that we now don’t even remember anymore because we abandoned them?

What You Need to Know to Conquer Information Overload

One of my first freelance clients was located on the East Coast in Boston, while I lived in Los Angeles. At first, I didn’t think it would be much of a problem. But eventually the time difference started to get pretty stressful.

It always seemed like I was playing catch up. Since my client was three hours ahead of me, I would sit down at my computer in the morning already feeling behind. I’d wake up at 7 am to a cascade of unread emails and notifications demanding my immediate attention. This made it pretty difficult to focus on my work without feeling like my attention was being pulled in a hundred different directions.

In the age of the internet, high-speed connections, email, and instant messaging that goes straight to the devices we keep on ourselves nearly 24/7, information overload is both real and a huge problem. With all the ads to click, blogs to read, and posts to like, it’s no wonder we often feel like the internet is drowning us instead of lifting us up.

How to Master Consistency to Achieve Your Goals

When my brother became a math teacher, he told me that there were three types of students in his class.

The first kind of student did less than 40% of the homework, crammed for the big test the week before, and ended up failing the test.

The second kind of student did about 60-80% of the homework, studied a bit for the big test, and ended up skating by with an average grade.

The third kind of student did 100% of the homework, didn’t study very much for the big test — and no matter what their ability or talent level — usually passed the test with a high B or better.

How to Stop Losing Focus (The Dangers of Social Media)

Do you ever find yourself sitting down to work on a project for your job, study for an important test, or even just get a simple chore done, but find yourself almost immediately scrolling through social media for hours at a time?

While plenty of fun, social media can, unfortunately, keep us from being our most productive selves. Social apps are designed to keep users on them for as long as possible. There’s always a new, funny, or interesting thing to look at. We’re always getting new likes, comments, and notifications demanding our attention. Social media gives us a quick hit of dopamine every time we use it, which is why we keep coming back, and why it’s easy to quit working on a difficult task that may be causing us anxiety, and instead return to social media, which helps us not think about our responsibilities.

How to Stop Overthinking and Overcome Self-Doubt

Imagine for a moment that you are the Captain of a great sea voyaging vessel setting out on a journey to an island you’ve never been to before, but you know has many great riches. The weather is fair, your maps point a clear course, and everything is going in your favor.

However, as you set out on your journey, you discover that your crew members have started to grumble — it seems they have doubts as to whether the island exists, whether the ship can actually make the journey, and whether they really deserve the riches, should they find them. The crew decides to mutiny, turn the ship back around, and head for the port where they came from.

That seems a bit silly, doesn’t it? Not deserve the riches? Even though everything was going well, and you, the Captain, knew exactly where you were going and what you would find there, they still had doubt.

Unfortunately, we do this to ourselves all the time. We sabotage our own endeavors by overthinking the whole thing, casting doubt on ourselves, and reverting back to our old habits.

How to Stop Feeling Anxious About Starting Something New [Ultimate Guide]

Why do we feel anxiety about starting something new? Why do we hold ourselves back from beginning a new job, a new business, starting or ending a relationship, or even moving to a new city? How can we overcome that fear and move forward?

It’s a double edged sword: on the one hand, we have anxiety that the thing we’re jumping into won’t work out well, and on the other hand, we fear we might be giving up something that would have been smart to stick with. These two anxieties gang up on us and make it difficult to make a decision.