Self Improvement Concepts
Self Improvement can be difficult and can certainly begin to wear you down if you
are not prepared. The better prepared you are, the better chances you stand of improving
and succeeding. To help you get started, we have listed some of the basic concepts
of self improvement.
Skills
For starters, it is helpful to consider that almost everything you accomplish in
life is accomplished because you possess specific skills. The flip side of this
is equally important. Everything you fail at in life is caused by a lack of specific
skills. Understanding the connection between your skill set and your successes and
failures allows you a solid starting point. You needn’t beat yourself up over your
failures, you simply need to focus on the correct skills, and then practice and
master those skills if you want to succeed. Building your skills is the cornerstone
of self improvement.
There are two other concepts that help to understand self improvement. Those two
concepts are “Your Workload” and “Your Environment.”
Your workload
As you begin the self improvement process, you will find many goals piling up on
your plate. You will accumulate more “to do” items that you will attempt take on.
All of these “goals” and “to do” items combined form what we refer to as “your workload.”
It is important to understand that the larger the workload you are have, the more
“skills” that will be required of you.
Your circumstances
The final concept that is helpful to understand is your circumstances. Your “circumstances”
can be thought of as “the environment” in which you find yourself while attempting
to accomplish your goals. At times, you may find everything around you is working
in your favor to help you get this goal. In other words, you are swimming in money;
people are very helpful and supportive, etc. This can be thought of as “favorable”
circumstances. However, if you find yourself being attacked or someone is stealing
your money, then these circumstances would be unfavorable. Because there are many
circumstances that will effect your life,it is important to take that into consideration
on your road of self improvement.
The complete picture
Understanding these three concepts: Skills, Workload, and Circumstances, allows
you to prepare for how much effort you must apply as you move down the road of self
improvement. You can visualize these three concepts together by visualizing your
“workload” as a giant ball that you are pushing. Think of your skills as the mental
muscle that you use to push this giant ball. And finally, visualize your “circumstances”
as the terrain upon which you are pushing this giant ball. Together, this picture
allows you to understand self improvement as it is applied in the real world.
Your Skills = Your mental muscles (the man pushing the ball)
Your Workload = Your life’s To Do list (the size of the ball being pushed)
Your Circumstances = Your terrain (the slope upon which you push)