SELF IMPROVEMENT

 What is self-improvement?

The definition of self-improvement is pretty self-explanatory: self-improvement is the improvement of one's knowledge, status, or character by one's own efforts. It's the quest to make ourselves better in any and every facet of life. 

Self-improvement almost always starts with self-awareness and the ability to transform your habits. If you're serious about transforming your life and improving yourself, you should start with these two points:

• How to stop lying to ourselves: A call for self-awareness - If you're serious about getting better at something, then one of the first steps is to know - in black-and-white terms - where you stand. You need self-awareness before you can achieve self-improvement.

The lie we tell ourselves.

We often lie to ourselves about the progress we are making on important goals. 

For example:-

• If we want to lose weight, we might claim that we're eating healthy, but in reality our eating habits haven't changed very much.
• If we want to be more creative, we might say that we're trying to write more, but in reality we aren't holding ourselves to a rigid publishing schedule.
• If we want to learn new language, we might say that we have been consistent with our practice even though we skipped last night to watch television. 

Why do these little lies matter?

Because they are preventing us from self-awareness. Emotions and feelings are important and they have a place, but when we use feel-good statements to track our progress in life, we end up lying to ourselves about what we're actually doing. 

A call for self-awareness.

If you aren't aware of what you're actually doing, then it is very hard to change your life with any degree of consistency. Trying to build better habits without self-awareness is like firing arrows into the night. You can't expect to hit the bullseye if you're not sure where the target is located. 

• Forget about setting goals, focus on this instead - For most of us, the path to self-improvement starts by setting a specific and actionable goal. What I'm starting to realize, however, is that when it comes to actually getting things done and making progress in the areas that are important to you, there is a much better way to do things. It all comes down to the difference between goals and systems.

Prevailing wisdom claims that the best way to achieve what we want in life - getting into better shape, building a successful business, relaxing more and worrying less, spending more time with family and friends - is to set specific, actionable goal. 

For many years, this was how I approached my habits too. Each one was a goal to be reached. I set goals for the grades I wanted to get in school, for the weights I wanted to lift in the gym. I succeeded at a few, but I failed at a lot of them. Eventually, I began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed. 

• If you're a coach, your goal might be to win a championship. Your system is the way you recruit players, manage your assistant coaches, and conduct practice. 
• If you're an entrepreneur, your goal might be to build a million-dollar business. Your system is how you test product ideas, hire employees and run marketing campaigns. 
• If you're a musician, your goal might be to play a new piece. Your system is how often you practice, how you break down and tackle difficult measures, and your method for receiving feedback from your instructor.

Now for the interesting question: if you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your systems, would you still succeed? For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results?

I think you would.

The goal in any sport is to finish with the best score, but it would be ridiculous to spend the whole game staring at the scoreboard. The score takes care of itself. The same is true for other areas of life. If you want to get better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.