These days my list of things I’m working towards is ever-evolving. I know off the top of my head what that list is, and I can’t really foresee a time when I will not have set improvement goals like this. Once you get a real taste of improvement it becomes addictive – you begin to enjoy the challenge and the rewards of constant refinement.

 

However, should you feel somewhat lost of confused about what you want to work out here are some of my favourite principles and habits to work towards in work, relationships, and in your attitude towards yourself. Choosing any one, or multiple, of these points and working to maximise them is bound to have a positive effect on your life. Consider this post positive inspiration for improvement ;)

 

 

Your work is not just your current job or your career. It’s the sum total of every thing you affect and make in the world, which could be called your creation. It is important to consider how you might want to regulate your work and your actions when “at work.”, or in other words, when you are manifesting and creating.  

 

 

There is no finer trait than the quality of produce. Quality is what separates a treasure from junk, and a masterpiece from a good thing.

 

If you want to strive for one single maxim in the things you create, let it be quality.
 
There are several interesting things about quality. One is that you can almost always ask people how you can make your work higher quality and they can give you some useful answers. Another is that no matter how high quality your work becomes, it can probably get even better.

 

You can also almost always ask yourself deeply and with honesty what you think about the quality of something you are making and receive a good answer on how to improve it.

 

The quality of a thing knows no upper-limit. What exactly is a perfect piece of art or a perfect product? There’s always an ideal which you can strive towards and improve upon your current manifestation.

 

 

Good performance is a habit. Even if you are washing dishes at a Greek restaurant but you want to be an astronaut – maintain high performance. 

 

It’s a common mistake among aimless dreamers that as soon as they get their own company or a new job that suddenly they will become a hard worker and high performer.

 

Trust me, the guy who does a crummy job cleaning toilets will not magically pick himself up to perform highly even if he is gifted a position as an executive at a top-notch company.

 

The reality is that the human system is habitual. If you are used to doing crummy work all day every day then that’s exactly how you’ll naturally feel like performing even if you start up your own company or land your dream job.

 

On top of that, how you treat one aspect of your performance will become a general habit in other areas of your life. That means if you are used to kicking it off at work, then you’ll tend towards slacking off when it comes to other things as well – such as how you treat yourself, how you treat your friends, how you clean your living space.

 

This isn’t fantastical. Think about it. Have you ever seen a “pirate builder” (that's a dodgy builder who rips people off with shody work) who didn’t look like a greasy mess? That’s because he has a low-quality habit when it comes to his building work, and as such has a low-quality habit when it comes to personal hygiene too.

 

At the opposite end of the coin I have a friend who’s a top-notch electrician (actually I’ve never seen his work, but he seems very proud of it and I believe him) and he takes good care looking after himself, his dreams, his hobbies and his friends too. 

 

 

Know what you need to do – if necessary then plan your day. Focus on the task at hand and put-aside distractions unless they are critical. Performance is highest when you focus on a single task at a time. Multi-tasking is not as productive and the work your produce is not of as high quality.

 

Eben Pagan, a well known millionaire success guru, comments that “…there is nothing purer than re-focusing on a task at hand when a distraction presents itself.”

 

Don’t mix work and recreation because both become marred by the other, and both are equally important enough to have their own dedicated time.

 

Set aside time for work and time for relaxation. 30 minutes work, 30 minutes relaxation, if you want. I know some people who do a week’s work followed be a week’s recreation – whatever floats your boat!

 

 

The power of strong social interaction can not be underestimated. A good strong social circle can open up every door you’ll ever need. The power of humanity is contained in social communication and interaction. This is not an area anyone can afford to let slip by. 

 

 

If there’s one thing which immediately boosted my social circle more than anything else it is this principle – which I’ve shamelessly stolen from Dale Carnegie. 

 

There is little a person can do which lowers them more in the eyes of the surrounding people than whine and rant. I used to do both in massive quantities. 

 

Whining means to cry about your own story. “Things are so hard for me, this is bad for me, this situation is unfair, etc etc…” Just drop it, it sends you backwards. Even if someone gives you support for saying those things, it’s still not worth it. 

 

If things really HAVE been hard for you and you really DO need some support – whining to whoever happens to be around is not the way to do it. Call up one supportive friend, arrange a private time when you are both alone, and see if they can offer you any advice.

 

Ranting means to angrily vent about things you don’t like. “This is absolutely ridiculous! I can’t believe what a shambles this is! I could do much better than this! Etc.” If you have a genuine criticism or complaint, ranting is NOT the way to get it across.

 

When making a genuine complaint remain calm, reasonable, and dispassionate and most likely things will turn out well for you.

 

 

To give more value than your getting doesn’t mean to literally be giving some physical thing. It means to be worth at least as much to your friend as they are to you, or even when you first meet a stranger it means that you give to that person something more than they expect from you.

 

Value just means something the other person finds valuable. Often this will actually come in the form of emotions and emotional stimulation, such as being the person who always lifts the mood – rather than any kind of actual service. It can also come in the form of connections – being the person who everybody knows and knowing each other through you. 

 

If you always aim to give more than your getting your life will improve drastically almost over-night. Trust me, try it. 

 

The only place you can go wrong with this is in “thinking” that your giving but in not actually offering higher value. An understanding of social value and of how to give it is crucial, that’s the real skill here. You don’t just go around being “the guy/girl who compliments/sucks-up to everyone.” That’s not value, that’s dull. 

 

 

Never ever rest on your social laurels. There are tons of opportunities to meet new people and you should take them all up. Always keep expanding your social network. Every opportunity you get to meet new people, take it. Don’t make assumptions about what some person might be like, take a moment to get to know them before you draw any conclusions. 

 

The quietest most poorly dressed person in the room may be the guy who deep inside has a burning ambition stronger than anyone else and all they need is someone like you to help them realise it.

Have the courage to go up and talk to people. Not everyone you meet will be receptive – their loss.

 

 

I don’t believe in happy-clappy “everything is good all the time” thinking. I believe in realism, and so does Dan Peña who, coming from a working-class and military background, created a multi-billion dollar empire.

 

However, in social expression always tend towards the positive – and in observation always assume the positive.

That means when things go wrong you do not start saying – “This is terrible! What do we do now?”

 

Instead take an attitude of – “well, it’s not so bad.” Or even better begin thinking of a solution immediately – “ok… now we’ll have to do this instead.”

 

This is a fantastic habit to have. The next time something apparently major goes seemingly terribly wrong immediately look on the bright side and either offer a solution or re-appraise the situation in a positive light.

 

You may find that your mind and emotions tend towards the negative, ignore that and re-appraise again. If you do it right you’ll almost certainly get comments from the people around either during or after the event about how well you seemed to handle the situation.

 

 

With so much improvement the most appropriate place to begin is yourself. In-fact most of the time when people are wanting to change something external almost always the changes must begin to be made internally.

The way you think of the world is a reflection of yourself. Likewise, you are representative of what you will be. It isn’t just “you are what you eat” It’s “you are everything that you are.”

 

It’s so important to work on yourself that there’s a whole booming industry based around that idea – sometimes it’s called self-improvement, sometimes it has other names, but it highlights the importance of looking to yourself first and foremost before you look to the world.

 

1. Respect and love yourself

 

First and foremost you must love and respect yourself. Self-respect means that you value everything about yourself. Self-love means that you look at yourself in the mirror and feel warmth and caring about your own well-being.

 

If you don’t have those things, you need to start getting them. Here’s a good way to start developing loving-kindness towards yourself.

 

Loving-kindness meditation begins with cultivating compassion and kindness towards yourself. The reason being it’s simply not possible to have strong feelings of this kind towards other people if you don’t have them first for yourself.

It’s not being selfish. Trust me, there is little more of a drain to the people around than a person who thinks little of themselves – especially if they have a large and boisterous ego but hidden low self-esteem. On the other hand someone who truly respects themselves is a great asset.

 

 

Eat well, keep up a good level of fitness, keep as well groomed and clean as possible, and maintain as high a level of presentation as you can. 

 

This is not about dressing in a suit on a daily basis, it’s about representing appropriately who you are. If you’re an artist with dreadlocks and a beard, then I’m not saying you should shave it off and scrub up – I’m saying that you should maintain a high standard of the image which you have chosen. 

 

Image is an important first impression about who you are and people WILL judge you on it. You can make use of this fact, or you can ignore it. If you ignore it then it is you who is missing out. If you make use of it, then it can play in your favour.

 

Health is a no brainer. Eating good food and staying in good shape increases the efficiency of your brain, allows you to sleep less, will cause you to live longer, causes you to have a greater sense of well-being and happiness, etc. There’s a thousand reasons why you should maintain good health – here’s something to help get you started on a good diet.

 

 

Trust your instinct – if you know what you’re aiming for then you will deeply already know which path to take. Which point did you read and it seemed to make the most sense or you thought it was the cleverest? Always go with what resonates.