Personal Growth
become a better version of you.
Improving yourself is the central theme of personal growth. The improvements you make can be in the physical (through activities like sports, weight lifting, yoga, swimming) or mental (discipline, time management, studying).
Thinking about self-improvement as an investment makes it much easier to understand why improving existing and picking up new skills are important. A lot of these skills can be transferred and it doesn’t matter into which field you venture they will always be of use to you.
In this post I will focus on the mental side of things in areas that form the base for many others. As I am currently looking to transition onto a different career path I will look at organizational skills, time management and productivity. In addition to those I will also look at improving discipline.
Why would you want to improve yourself?
It Is Not the Strongest of the Species that Survives But the Most Adaptable
The quote by Charles Darwin is the only advice you need to hear when you decide to question whether or not you should work on improving yourself.
A better version of you leads to more opportunities. Increasing you skill set opens more doors. A better understanding of your weaknesses helps you define areas to improve and increases your chances to succeed.
Improving yourself mentally is something that cannot be underestimated.
The incorrect approach when thinking about self-improvement is to do it because you want to be better than another person. The most important reason for any action along these lines should be to become better than the person you are now.
Your only competition in this race is you.
In which areas do you want to improve?
At the start of this path there is one question that will be at the forefront of your mind:
In which areas do I want to improve?
If you do a quick sweep on the internet the items I listed below and hundreds of others will jump up. You can go for all of the options (with time being your only limitation) or you can focus on specific options that are related to the direction in which you want to excel.
My areas of concern, the direction of my life and future career path that I have in mind made me choose the following areas.
1. Discipline
2. Organizational skills.
3. Productivity and time management.
Build stronger discipline.
Being disciplined allows you to achieve a lot of things. You get out of bed at 5 am to go to the gym. Writing your next Substack or preparing your tweets for the week happens because of your disciplined approach to life.
Success is a direct result of good discipline.
People compare discipline to punishment. This is not correct. You aren’t punishing yourself by getting up at 5 am in the mornings. You are not punishing yourself to avoid eating junk food when trying to get in shape. It might feel like punishment because it is something that you aren’t comfortable with.
Growth happens outside the comfort zone.
Discipline is the good soil from which all the other efforts and habits that you cultivate will grow. How do you become more disciplined?
Set goals for yourself.
To increase your discipline you should establish consistent habits like getting up at a certain time of the morning. Be on time for work. As you continue these habits bleed over into other territories.
Be mindful of the areas where you lack discipline. If you tend to over indulge on social media while reading articles online set a timer for yourself and stick to it. When that alarm goes off close the social media apps and focus on the task at hand. Repitition helps you build habits.
The good thing is that discipline reaches into all areas of your life. You start to apply it automatically to each new challenge. It keeps building on itself.
Organizational skills
If you ground zero is disorganized and you cannot find the pen you used five minutes ago there might be a problem with your organisational skills.
The space where you want to create your best work possible shouldn’t be in disarray. There shouldn’t be any useless items lying around and it should be as clean as possible. The cluttered and disorganized table can be a metaphor for your mind. You cannot find things effectively unless you get your table organized.
The same applies to your mind.
If you are not able to organize anything it becomes a problem when you try to manage blocks of time and pieces of content. You cannot put the scissors back on the peg board but you want to organize your time to create content? You’re unlikely to succeed.
To organize yourself better you should build your own system. Create folders on your hard drive that have names relevant to what you are working on. Keep track of what you have already completed and what is still outstanding. This is necessary once you start doing client work.
Lists and calendars are useful to aid in your journey to become better organized. Lists can be done many different ways from the trusty pen and paper system to a digital version like Notion. This lets you create a version that is centralized and accessible from all your devices.
The calendars on smart phones are ideal for reminders. Google Calendar or Notion offers options to keep track of important dates, deadlines and other upcoming appointments. Use the tools at your disposal to help you stay organized.
Productivity and time management
Time is your most valuable resource. Spend it wisely by managing your day and get the most out of it by being productive. It doesn’t feel good if you sit down for a 2 hour work session but don’t accomplish anything.
Productivity is important to the person starting out a web3 business. Your efforts need to be concentrated to where you can be the most effective. Aim to produce quality above quantity.
Block out sections of your day where you focus on your web3 business. Make time to write, read, be active on social media and just as important manage your time in such a manner that you have enough breaks during the day to avoid burnout.
Discipline plays are big role in time management. If you are better at sticking to schedules you will be more productive. Tracking your time and setting goals that you wish to accomplish in your blocked time is a great way to see progress.
Plan ahead. Since you have already blocked out time for certain actions and events you prepare yourself mentally for the work ahead. When you sit down to work you know the time ahead of you has been allocated and needs to be used effectively.
Planning ahead should be done in other areas of your life. If you know you’re going out running tomorrow prepare your gear the following evening. Being prepared and ready gives you less change to find excuses not to do something.
Practise makes perfect
As you practise the skills mentioned above the better you become at them. Consistency is important when talking about personal growth. Once you start improving you don’t want to stop the journey.
You will find that each of these skills is related to the others. Discipline goes well with time management and productivity. When you are productive it builds your discipline. Staying organized keeps you more productive and you work on discipline building as well.
In closing
Personal growth is about asking questions about what you want for yourself in life. It can be physical improvements such as fitness related or lifestyle changes. Or it can lean more towards the mental aspects and even move onto spirituality.
Regardless of your choice make sure that you commit to it 100%. It will be one of the better choices you make in your life because you are investing in the future you.
Thanks for reading.