In whatever you are doing.
It’s often easy to look at someone with a lot of success in their life, whatever the endeavor is, and think they were always at that level.
In reality, it is the continual progression towards an ideal that bring successful people to where they are the moment.
The compound effect of improving daily can bring tremendous results. Someone who has never continually strove and stretched towards a more ideal self does not know the potential that can be achieved. They don’t realize that they may even achieve their most lofty dreams if they dared to do so.
But it is not a mindset for the faint of heart, and a lot people, and I’d say the majority of people, stay in a rut or worst they deteriorate.
For a lot of reasons, most do not find the way of being that lends themselves to continual improvement. It takes a nuanced way of thinking and some change in perspective, which, fortunately, can be learned.
Here are the 7 keys to continually improve in anything you are doing in life.
1. Contentment
This may seem strange of me to emphasis contentment in an article that is about continually improving.
But remember that part when I said that the mind set will require nuanced thinking?
Being content is a lot different from being complacent.
A lot of people confuse discontentment with progress. An example of this is the employee at work who is constantly complaining about what can be improved but never seeks to improve anything about himself.
He believes that there will be improvements because he is complaining, and that his complaining will somehow lead to results.
Discontentment leads to resentment, which is a very negative emotion. The person who feels resentful will always feel justified to do so, but it is to no benefit to him.
Solving a problem, whatever it may be, does not need to come from a place of discontentment.
We can only improve upon our situation is we do not have contempt for what already is.
2. Awareness
It is impossible to get to a desired destination without even knowing where it is in the first place!
Seems obvious, I know. But when we have resentment towards the current situation, we tend to lose all sight of what we want and instead focus in on what’s wrong. We want a better situation for ourselves, but we do not aim for it, and thus we do not even know where it is.
This does not lead to improvements but rather, it destroys what we already have. This may be relationships, hobbies, skills, or a job- I know I’ve seen many employees get fired because of attitude problems.
So instead of focusing on the negative emotions, we must focus on what the ideal situation would look like and start to actualizing it by taking actions based on positive emotions.
This is awareness of your own psychological bias’. Most people are bias’ towards the negative, and that’s normal. We are biological beings that evolved to sense threat and react appropriately.
This will take practice to achieve but with enough awareness of our own tendencies towards negativity, we can start to instill more hopeful thoughts into your mind.
These hopeful thoughts combined with the image of what can be will lead to actions that materialize it in to being.
3. Gratitude
What are some things you are grateful for?
It seems like a trivial practice, but doing a gratitude journal can have profound impact on your life.
Focusing on things we do have instead of what we don’t have can lead to positive emotions. Every one has something to be grateful for, no matter how terrible their situation is.
No matter how bad my day is, when I get home and see my dog, Rocky, I feel a rush of gratitude that I have him in my life.
This is a little thing, but because I’ve practiced seeing the things I’m grateful for, it is enough to change my mood towards the positive.
Once again, the importance of taking action in the form of positivity is the only way that will lead to improvement.
4. Openness to criticism
And I mean constructive criticism. Any time you are getting criticism that has the intent to just put you down and offend you, that is to be ignored. Criticism of that sort is more about the issues of the person giving it than receiving it.
We must be honest and aware of how we feel when we receive criticism that has the intent of helping us improve. A lot of the times the ego will be bruised, and we may feel defensive.
But you must look at it this way. This person who is giving us criticism cares about our improvement enough to take time out of his day, analyze what’s wrong, and then have the courage to let us know.
You might have to grit your teeth a bit, but consider the criticism and look into how it might actually apply to whatever you’re doing.
It may very well be a game-changer towards your continual improvement.
5. Persistence
A lot of people give up before they see any results.
Also, a lot of people have a time line for when they expect to see results, and if they don’t meet those expectations, then they give up.
The very few that become great success’ in their craft will show up day in and day out until they see improvements.
Sometimes this may take a long time, but if they are in a worthy pursuit that is part of a healthy system (meaning growth is actually possible), results will come.
Don’t get me wrong, if someone is in a niche that they are very disadvantaged in, the results that come might be minuscule, but improvement is inevitable when one sticks to something.
Once again, we must battle our emotions. When we feel the negative emotion of failure, our mind will rationalize reasons to give up, and maybe conjure up ideas of why the pursuit is not worthy of our time.
When this happens, we must use the previous practices of awareness and gratitude to remind ourselves of where we want to go.
If you truly believe in your destiny, know that with persistence will come continual improvement.
6. A thirst for knowledge
I know a lot of people do not have a natural inclination towards curiosity.
This is an obstacle when it comes to continual improvement, because we never know where the game-changing advice or idea will come from so we must always explore.
Are your bookmarks and “watch later” sections full of content?
It is important that we continue to have positive input into our minds regarding our craft. We can do by having a routine based around consuming more content.
Dedicate one hour a day in reading or watching a video that is informative about your related skill-area.
This needs to be a consistent activity in order to see eventual improvement.
In the beginning it may seem insignificant, but with persistence, anything is possible.
7. Honesty
This means honesty to yourself, and to those around you.
It is hard to improve in anything if we lie to ourselves. The lie will seep into how we think and how we act around other people.
If we need to improve upon how we communicate with our spouse, we must be honest with ourselves, and not put blame on her.
If our company is suffering because of the negligence of an employee we must be honest with him and tell him right away what he is doing wrong.
Without these crucial actions, improvements will be left on the table. We will ignore the potential for improvement because of our turning a blind-eye.
Are you being completely honest with where you need to improve?
Let me know in the comment section, and don’t forget to share on your favorite social media platform!
I’ve been applying all these keys of improvements towards my endeavors at this online university. Learn to make money online in an honest and skillful way.