How To Quickly Improve Yourself The Right Way

DO’s & DONT’s: The Right Ways To Quickly Improve Yourself

DO: Set SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)

• One of the single most important first steps in your journey to quickly improving yourself is to set goals (both short and long-term). Make a distinction between the longer-term goals and the shorter ones. In the beginning, I often find it useful to make a list of your long-term goals first. Be as specific as possible. It doesn’t matter how long the list is as long as you really want to do these things.
• You can then start to prioritize these long-term goals. Number them in order of most least important. Or categorize them in a way you understand what needs to be done sooner rather than later.
• Once you’ve done this, you can start on the short-term goals. These are a little bit more tricky. They require you to break down the long-term goals into manageable sections. So if for example, you want to become proficient in Python programming. Find out what needs to be done to develop this skill. Break it down. What goal can you set each week or month to steadily move towards this goal? You need to be as realistic as possible here. If it’s not attainable then you won’t follow it. So don’t place impossible things on the list for you to achieve in the given timeframe.
• People often overestimate what can be done within a week, but underestimate what can be done in a year. So something more realistic is “Okay, I’m going to set aside 1 hour per day to work on this skill”. Even just doing this will drastically change how you organize your time. If you continue consistently for 3 months, you will have nearly 100 hours of experience in that skill. This is the best way to quickly improve over short periods.

DON’T: Procrastinate on High-Priority Tasks

• • When you have a very high-priority task. It is best to do this kind of thing first. By not prolonging the task, you are practicing discipline and avoiding last-minute stress, simultaneously progressing toward your goal.

DO: Engage in Daily Self-Reflection

• • Each day, in the morning or at night, take a small amount of time to review your actions and decisions. Feel free to write what you’ve learned, what you could have done better, and any improvement that would make you more streamlined with your objectives.

DON’T: Constantly Compare Yourself to Others

• • It is easy to see these highly successful people online. But behind every person, there is a process. A long journey that they have worked through on their own. It is easy to overlook this and think they were able to quickly improve to their current level overnight. But this is simply not the case.
  • Instead of comparison, be happy for their success and know that one day, that will be you if you continue consistently with reaching your goals. Make sure to celebrate your own milestones and the uniqueness of your journey. Everyone’s path is different.
  • I remember never celebrating my achievements because they felt too small. So I didn’t for a while. But then after some time, I saw the beauty of the journey. Once you reach a certain point, you start to see how much you’ve improved and the difference becomes more apparent. So don’t give up hope, it just takes time.

DO: Cultivate a Supportive Network

• • When you are working on yourself or trying something new. It’s important to actively seek out and build friendships with people who inspire, challenge, and support you. It’s great if you already have this, but if not, creating a positive environment will help foster growth and enable you to quickly improve at a much faster rate.
  • Some people will always disagree with what you’re doing or won’t understand, and that’s okay. Because you will have built those relationships with people who understand and will support you no matter what. From personal experience, some negativity is unavoidable, for example from parents. You simply have to believe in what you’re doing and once you succeed, you can prove them wrong with the results.

DON’T: Overcommit and Risk Burnout

• • When you start focusing on self-improvement, you can lose track of other aspects of your life. Dedicated to quickly improving at the fastest rate possible. However, taking breaks is key to the cause. You cannot work non-stop without them. It’s just not possible. You have to learn when to say no and when to do other things. Maintaining a healthy balance prevents burnout and keeps your productivity levels high.

DO: Establish and Maintain Healthy Habits

• • While it’s great to achieve your targets, goal after goal. You are a human being with a body that requires certain things to maintain your physical and mental well-being.
  • One of these if you don’t already have it on your list of goals is consistent exercise. Put this on your list now if it isn’t already. Integrating consistent exercise, eating healthy, and sleeping a sufficient amount will enable you to function with peak performance.
  • All three are so important and you don’t realize until you start lacking in one area and suddenly you’re not performing at that same level. Make sure to stay on top of them.

DON’T: Neglect Your Mental Health

• • Pay close attention to your emotional and psychological well-being. If you need to seek professional help for anything, then do so. Incorporating mindfulness into your routine will allow you to manage your stress effectively.

DO: Actively Seek Constructive Feedback

• • Criticism is always hard on the receiving end. However, it is vital to embrace feedback from mentors, peers, and other trusted sources. This is not to say all feedback is good feedback. Some are completely awful. But the right feedback will seriously change your life (Find a mentor, trust me, it’s a game changer).
  • So long as the feedback provided gives you an opinion on something and why (and the why is reasonable). Then this can be used to your advantage. It can be used to pinpoint areas for quick improvement and accelerate your growth both personally and professionally.

DON’T: Fall for Quick Fixes or Shortcuts

• • When you want to improve, change your life, career, or environment. Do not, and I repeat, do not look for quick fixes or shortcuts. Things like “Get-Rich-Quick With My Amazing Course” for only $9.99. Don’t waste a second of your time on these things. The promise of rapid success without effort is always a scam. You give them your money and that’s their get-rich scheme, not yours.

To Summarise

So maybe this wasn’t exactly what you were looking for when you read the title of this article. But applying these skills has certainly changed my life and I hope they change yours. Don’t go for the get-rich-quick schemes. Instead, invest in yourself. Utilize these concepts of how to improve quickly in the right way. Build that trust in yourself so that when you say something, you actually stick to it, and once you can do that. You’ll be unstoppable. Focus on developing sustainable skills and habits that require dedication and hard work for long-term improvement and control of your life.