Rapid Improvements

There is one thing that can greatly help you in your self improvement: keeping a journal. Keeping a journal is helpful for your personal growth because that way you can easily review what you have learned through your experiences. There are many things we can learn from our daily experiences, but if you don’t have place to write them down, most likely they will just disappear. That’s why it’s important to have a journal: it makes sure that you learn the most out of your life experiences.

So how should we use the journal? Well, as I’ve mentioned above, the important thing is to write down every lesson and thought that comes across you. Don’t let them go without capturing them. Make sure that they are all captured and stored in a safe place which is your journal. By having this habit of journaling, you will be more observant in your life. You won’t just go through life as it is. Instead, you open your eyes and ears for useful things that you can write down in your journal.

Besides writing in your journal, you should also build the habit of reviewing it. It’s easy to forget the lessons we’ve learned if we don’t review them regularly. The reviewing period could be weekly, monthly, or anything else that works for you.

In the previous post, I wrote about the importance of energy management. You need to manage your energy well if you want to have a productive day.

But what should we do to manage our energy? There are many things you can do for energy management, but one of them you can quickly apply is taking frequent breaks in your workday. If you work continuously without taking breaks, you will soon deplete your energy reserve. It’s essential that you take a break after an intense working session so that you can recharge your energy. If you don’t do that, perhaps you can work intensely for now, but that won’t last long. There’s no way you can keep working intensely without enough time for recovery.

The breaks you take don’t need to be long. You can just take short ones. Walking for a while around the hallway is good enough. Or you can stretch your body while you are sitting in your chair. Or you can just close your eyes for a while. These simple things could help you preserve your personal energy.

Do you want to have a productive day? If you do, then how do you think you can have it? Many people think that the answer is time management. Time management is indeed helpful, but there is something that is even more important than time management. If you don’t have it, it’s unlikely that you will be able to have a productive day.

The key I’m talking about is personal energy management. Personal energy management is what you need to have a productive day. Just think about it. If your energy level is high, you can accomplish much in small amount of time. On the other hand, if your energy level is low, you can only accomplish a little even if you are given a lot of time. It proves the importance of managing your energy. If you can manage your energy well throughout the day, chance is you will be able to make your day a productive one.

If we look closely at our lives, there are many moments in which we have low-quality time. For example, when you are standing in line or commuting (especially with public transportation), you do practically nothing that demand your focus. Instead of letting such moments wasted, it will be wise if you increase the quality of the time.

One way to increase the quality of your time is through audio learning. When you are standing in a queue, for instance, rather than doing nothing why don’t you use the time to listen to some useful audio programs? Through audio learning you can learn about practically any topic you want. By the time you do other activities that demand your full attention, you will have been a more knowledgeable person. Do this consistently and the difference over time will be significant.

Perhaps a question you ask is: how can I get good audio programs? Fortunately, there are a lot of good audio programs that you can enjoy for free. Just go to iTunes and subscribe to some podcasts that interest you.

In the previous post, I wrote about how you should make time for the important things in your life instead of finding the time. So, of course, it’s a good idea to free up your time so that you have more time available for the important things.

One way to free up your time is by watching less TV. Sometimes it’s amazing to see how much time we use to watch TV. Many people spend two to five hours a day to watch TV. Just imagine how much more they can accomplish if they use that time to do important things that have long term impact. Your time is valuable, and letting it be consumed by something non-essential like TV is sad.

I’m not saying that you can’t have fun. What I’m saying is your time is valuable and you should use it wisely. Are you sure that watching TV is the best way for you to spend your time? Are you sure you can’t use the time for something that will be more useful for you in the long term?

Sometimes people say that they don’t have enough time to do the important things in their life. Well, I believe that if something is important, you shouldn’t find time for it. Instead, you should make time for it. There is a big difference between the two. With finding time, you do your activities first and then see if you still have time left. With making time, you make the important thing a priority at the expense of other activities, if necessary. If you make time for the important things in your life, you won’t say that you don’t have enough time in a day.

So learn to prioritize your activities. Which ones do you think are essential? Which ones do you think are not essential? Then make the essential ones your priority. Don’t let yourself procrastinate by doing other activities first. Instead, do the important things first. This way you will have a much more productive life.

There is one secret to enjoying life you need to understand. This secret is so simple that many of people take it for granted and don’t give it the attention it deserves. The secret is being grateful for the things you have. Being grateful works like magic to improve your happiness. By having a state of gratitude within your heart, suddenly things feel much better around you. Not because anything outside of you have changed, but because your attitude toward them has changed.

Being grateful means that you are looking at the positive side of things. You don’t look at the negative side. Yes, most things do have negative side, but by looking at the positive side you increase the chance that you will respond in the right way with confidence. Besides, you also help people around you build their optimism. They can in turn help you when you are down. So, as you can see, being grateful can start a chain reaction of happiness that will take you and the people around you to higher levels in life.

No matter how much you learn about something, there is one thing you must have without which everything else is useless. That one thing is taking action. You need to take action if you want to achieve anything in life. You can’t just sit and wait for things to happen. You need to actually get yourself moving and reaching out for the things you are dreaming of. Without taking action, you are just wasting your time and – I’m afraid – your life. You won’t achieve anything if you don’t take action.

Of course, people may be reluctant to take action because they are waiting for things to be perfect. Don’t do that. There’s no such thing as perfect time to start. Even if you start and fail, that’s fine. Failure is normal. Failure is just your stepping stone to success. It’s through failure that you will learn the right way to do things. By taking action now, you will learn how things are working in the real world, and you can adjust yourself accordingly based on the feedback you get. Those who don’t take action, on the other hand, are just leaving their dreams on the corner gathering dusts.

You need to have big dreams if you want to realize your fullest potential. This is essential because often we underestimate ourselves. While you are actually capable of doing great things, you limit yourself by aiming only for mediocre things. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s sad.

You need to dream big dreams. Have dreams that are big enough to realize your fullest potential, even if you don’t think you can do that much. By having big dreams, you don’t limit yourself with your own mind. Instead, you let yourself go after the highest place possible. The nice thing about it is even if you fail, you will still end up higher than most other people who don’t have dreams. Isn’t that great? So be a dreamer; don’t limit yourself with your own thoughts.

There’s no doubt that we will encounter difficult times in life. No matter how good you think things are, there is always possibility that the opposite could happen. When such difficult times come, it’s important to stay strong and not get discouraged. But how can we do that?

I believe that enthusiasm plays an important role here. Things will be much easier in difficult times if you are enthusiastic. Enthusiasm will make you do things with a positive attitude. As a result, not only will you do things better, you will also feel better about yourself.

So, in difficult times, keep your enthusiasm high. Remind yourself of the bright possibilities you still have ahead of you. Be optimistic about life. Things will feel much easier then.