bythemethod.com blog

If you lack confidence or your self esteem is low then you proabably don’t need me to tell you to improve yourself. You need to understand that you are better than you think you are – the vast majority of us underrate our abilities and how much people like us. You also need to understand that it is important for everyone to build a habit of self improvement because no one is perfect.

You need to decide what you are going to work on

Scientists are undecided on whether it’s possible to work on improving more than one thing at a time. Some say it is best to work on many things others say you can only manage one.

My feeling is that it is better to start small and develop a good habit which then can be made more complex. So if you have never made self improvement a habit start with 1 thing and build up from there.

There are various way to decided which is the best to work on and one blog post is not enough to spell it all out. However what you will always need is to give yourself some time to do it. So pick a date and a time when you are going to do this and make it a top priority.

When you sit down to think make a list of the following areas: Body, Heart, Mind, Soul, Wealth, Relationships 

• Body = the physical part of your life e.g. health, exercise etc
• Heart = your emotional life e.g. happiness, depression etc
• Mind = your thinking self e.g. study, reading etc
• Soul = outside yourself e.g. caring for others, realtionship with God, beauty etc
• Wealth = really belongs with body but it is so often thought about that I give it its own section.
• Relationships = really belongs with heart and soul but again it is so often picked on that it has it’s own section.

Now rate each area with a number between 1 and 10. Where 1 is rubbish and 10 is perfect. You are trying to say how satisfied you feel with each area. This is how satisfied YOU are not your friends or family.

Look at the ratings. Do you see one or two areas where the number is very low or at least lower than the others? This is a good place to start. You don’t have to start here but it is as good a place as any.

Decide where you are with things at the moment

Having picked an area try to work out where you are with things now. This is what I call a ‘waypoint description’. What is wrong in that area? What do you believe this area should be like? What tools do you have to move forwards – you can only use what you have so don’t go wishing for other tools.

Decide where you want to get to

Develop a vision of what you would like things to be like, I call this a ‘passion description’. This is where you are trying to get to. Make it as detailed a picture as you can. You can change this picture in the future but you need something to aim for.

Set some goals/new waypoints

Now you need to work out how to get there and how to get there will involve some basic steps you will need to take. You probably will not get there in one jump so plan several. Then set yourself a goal to move to the next step and do it.

What will all this work do for your self confidence/self esteem?

When you make progress at improving yourself you will start to start to gain confidence. Every time you make yourself better you will start to view yourself better. Confidence is hard to build but easy to destroy. This is one of the ways to build it. Improving yourself should make you feel fantastic. All of those little things that you have punished yourself for in the past do not need to be a part of your future.

Tell us what you are changing

Why not leave a comment here telling us what you working on. Sharing your plans with others is an important way of making things happen and having the nerve to tell others about your plans is a good confidence booster.