27 Self Improvement Tips To Change Your Life

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Are you an active player in your life?

Or are your just going through the motions, letting each day pass?

The thing is, we only get one shot at life.

And no matter what cards life deals you, you can live a better life.

This means more happiness, success, profound and meaningful relationships, and more.

It is all up to you. You have complete control over your life.

So are you willing to make an effort to be better, happier, and more successful? Do you want your future self to be better than you are now?

If you answered yes, I have 27 self improvement tips to get you started.

These are simple positive changes to help you improve yourself daily.

You don’t need to start doing all of them.

I intentionally included a lot so you can find the ones that interest you the most.

All that matters is you use these tips as stepping stones to reach your self improvement goals.

When you start taking action to improve your life, it will become a habit, and you will start doing more.

Before you know it, you have greater self awareness and a more positive mindset, which improves your entire life.

KEY POINTS

One of the most important ways to maintain health is to practice the many forms of self-care, including everything from mental self-care activities to maintaining your emotional health and well-being.
By creating a self-care plan for yourself and applying it to everyday life, you can manage your self-care activities and monitor your overall health, which can help you experience the full range of what life has to offer.
Because there are so many self-care activities and ways to protect your physical and emotional health, you can find what works best for you, whether seeking professional help or improving your healthy habits yourself.

27 Self Improvement Tips For Becoming A Better You

#1. Walk

Self Improvement Tips

Walking is the best exercise routine to start a healthy lifestyle.

Not only is it free, but you have no excuse not to do it.

You can do it in the house on a treadmill, which is my favorite.

I love walking and watching re-runs or binging on a new series.

Of course, going to a park and walking outside is even better.

Many do not even consider it actual exercise because what you are doing is getting out and enjoying the park.

Burning calories is a bonus.

Walking boosts your mood primarily because any physical activity releases endorphins.

It does not matter if you like parks or trails. Walking at parks or delving down trails is a great way to lose weight.

If that is not enough, it will also help with depression and obliterate boredom.

However, it is not simply enough to say walk.

The key is to pick one time of the week and walk on that day.

Every Saturday after your cup of coffee, for instance, go to the park and walk.

When you make it a routine, you stick with it long-term.

#2. Eat More Blueberries

Blueberries

Blueberries are a powerful food that improves your health.

First, blueberries are anti-inflammatory.

Researchers have found that inflammation leads to various physical ailments, but what caught my attention was the link between inflammation and dementia.

Dementia is a decline in mental health.

Memory problems, inability to remain focused, failure to regain focus, and more are not necessarily age-related problems as they are inflammation-related problems.

Within the brain, inflammation inhibits cellular communication.

Blueberries are also high in fiber. Finally, they are delicious.

If you do not like them, blackberries, strawberries, or raspberries will also work.

But blueberries are fantastic.

Eat them. Eat lots of them.

As a bonus, you can also learn to garden and grow your own fruit and vegetables.

Not only is this a great way to relieve stress, but it will help you grow as you learn a new skill.

Plus, you will grow your confidence and eat the food you grew!

#3. Adjust Your Diet

While we are on the topic of eating, don’t just stop at blueberries.

Make a change to how you eat, and you will experience drastic changes.

Most of us, including me, eat too many carbohydrates and refined sugars daily.

This leads to many issues.

  • Inability to focus
  • Poor sleep
  • Afternoon slump
  • Poor memory
  • Weight gain

Over time, you will gain more weight, which could lead to diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and more.

I am not suggesting you completely overhaul your diet.

Instead, make small changes so you can eat a healthy diet.

Substitute carbohydrates for healthier options.

For example, eat a cup of Greek yogurt or a handful of almonds instead of a granola bar, cookie, or crackers for a snack.

Eat more vegetables at mealtime instead of loading your plate with potatoes.

I’ve started to look at my plate as a pie chart.

I fill 50% of it with vegetables, 25% protein, and 25% carbohydrates.

Meal Portions

Another trick I do is to brush my teeth after dinner.

A nighttime snack for me is usually all sugar.

So I brush my teeth after dinner, which helps me skip a snack.

Understand, I am not saying I never eat sugary snacks.

I still do. But I eat a lot less.

And when I do eat them, I notice it.

When I try to eat better, I fall asleep faster and stay asleep.

When it is time to wake up, I am awake, not groggy.

I have energy all day long and am better able to pay attention.

You will experience the same if you give it a try.

#4. Take A Class

Community colleges offer a variety of low-cost, continuing-education courses.

From business development to programming to emergency medical training, you can bolster your expertise in various areas and make new friends.

Of course, you do not have to enroll at a community college.

You can take a variety of classes online.

Udacity, for instance, offers online classes for various tech-related subjects.

Udemy offers classes in the form of comprehensive tutorials and seminars.

MIT even offers free classes to anyone with online connectivity.

Since you are currently reading this, you have internet connectivity.

That means you can take the same online course as anyone attending MIT.

Think about that for a moment.

If you find one class you like, you can probably find others you like.

You can even take all the classes necessary to obtain a degree usually.

If you are not interested in what MIT offers, other colleges offer online classes such as learning to cook or getting in shape.

Start an online search, and you will be amazed at what you can find.

You improve yourself with more knowledge and confidence by learning new things.

#5. Carry A Book With You

Books

Carrying a book with you is the first example of how self improvement tips begin a chain reaction toward your evolution.

I tried it. I did not set a goal of reading more.

While I like to read, if you are like me, you might understand that finding time to read can be difficult.

Instead of deciding to read more, I decided to carry with me one of my favorite books.

I could not believe what had happened.

I finished it in less than a month.

It has been years since I read an entire book.

I ended up reading at the dentist’s office. I read at the park when I needed a rest from walking. I signed up for a creative-writing class, and I would read while I waited for class to begin.

I love to read. I am not sure why I ever stopped.

I would never have started again had it not been for the idea of simply carrying a book with me.

#6. Get Enough Sleep

Six hours of sleep, research studies have found, leads to less productivity in the day.

More than eight hours leads to what is now known as a sleep hangover.

Ensure you get just enough sleep but not too much.

Otherwise, you risk not feeling like doing much of anything.

When you find your sweet sleep spot, you will fall asleep quickly at night and naturally wake in the morning, bursting with energy.

Trust me when I say getting better sleep will instantly improve all areas of your life.

#7. Set Up A Consistent Morning Routine

Creating good habits is difficult for most people.

A simple solution to this is to create a morning routine.

Why form a morning routine?

In the morning, you are most focused and have the strongest willpower.

This is why people say to do your most challenging task first thing in the morning.

By creating new morning habits, you set yourself up for success and can use this as motivation to construct other good habits.

And you don’t have to change your entire morning either.

Take little steps by doing small things.

Add blueberries to your oatmeal or cereal. Do some jumping jacks or pushups while you wait for your shower water to get hot or for your coffee to brew.

Spend 10 minutes reading a book.

Keep the new habit small, and it will stick long term.

The added benefit is that introducing positive habits into your life will replace some of your bad habits.

#8. Love Who You Are

Love Yourself

This could be the most important personal development tip on this list.

Learn to accept who you are and love yourself.

For some reading this, this tip can be the hardest one.

But it is critical you do it.

You are who you are supposed to be.

You are not supposed to look like Leonardo DiCaprio or play soccer like Lionel Messi.

Start telling yourself how special you are. Find the talents and qualities that you have that make you unique.

Do this every day. It will be hard at first, but it gets easier as you do it.

Don’t give in and think badly about yourself.

When you do, the negative effects of this impact other areas of your life.

You need to be your best friend and think positively about who you are.

When I started this, it was hard.

I struggled to say nice things about myself. But over time, I found more and more things.

Today, I walk more confidently and have higher self-esteem.

I encourage you to work on loving yourself and seeing the positive change in your life.

One of the things that helped me the most was saying positive affirmations.

There are affirmations for anything you want, from helping with anger to dealing with negative emotions.

Try them out and see how they can positively impact your life.

#9. Value Experiences Not Things

When it comes to spending money, the happiest people seem to spend theirs on experiences rather than things.

The best way to do this on a budget and get used to spending money on experiences is to research a day trip you can do in one afternoon.

A day trip is an experience.

In addition to alleviating stress, it often leads to ideas and experiences that lead elsewhere.

Research to find out where you can go within 100 miles or so. Then go.

Enjoy the day. Travel. Take photos with your phone.

Visit a friend or family member. Visit a new restaurant and try a new dish.

Attend an art fair, or visit a museum. If you have family, have someone choose where to go and what to do.

New experiences, rather than things, help create excitement and alleviate boredom.

They broaden your perspective, and they provide a release of endorphins, which boost your mood and, in doing so, help decrease depression.

#10. Start Meditating

Learning to meditate is probably the most difficult of all the self improvement tips listed thus far.

At first, it was hard to schedule time to meditate because it wasn’t a priority of mine.

Then when I did start, I found it challenging to have a relaxed mind.

Instead of giving up, I found some videos and listened to guided meditations to help me identify ways to improve on this task.

Over time, I made significant progress and can now stay focused on relaxing my mind.

You might not know it, but meditating is no longer considered something practiced by eastern mystics. Researchers are finding that it helps reduce stress.

Meditation does this because it lowers cortisol levels, a hormone known as the stress hormone.

Additionally, meditation will make your brain bigger.

That might not sound true, but it is.

According to research, it will increase the mass of your hippocampus.

As your hippocampus is in charge of memory, it is of little surprise to find that researchers have discovered meditation improves memory.

Additionally, it improves your ability to regain focus if someone interrupts you.

Regarding meditation, people who cannot pay attention have what experts describe as monkey minds.

A monkey mind is the mind bouncing erratically from one idea or topic, or thought to another.

Mediation helps alleviate this.

So quit making excuses about why you shouldn’t meditate, and give it a try!

#11. Set Goals For Yourself And Your Life

achieve goals

Where do you want to be in 1, 3, 5, 10 years, or beyond?

I am also talking about all areas of life, including health, relationships, spirituality, finances, career, etc.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, if you are going through the motions in life, you aren’t truly living.

You need to set personal goals for yourself and then take action to achieve them.

When setting goals, start small, so they become habits.

And only pick one goal at a time.

If you try to overhaul your life in a day, you will fail.

Additionally, make sure whatever goals you set for yourself, you keep them visible.

Read through them daily. Better yet, tell them to a friend so you will be held accountable.

Finally, learn to visualize your goals.

Take 10 minutes a day, close your eyes, and envision your life as having reached your goals.

What does it look like? How does it feel?

If this is difficult at first, use a vision board as a tool to help you get better at seeing your future self.

Visualizing your goals will inspire and motivate you to achieve them.

#12. Accept Failure

This shouldn’t be a surprise to you, but you are going to fail in life.

You will fail at some point in setting and achieving your goals.

You will fail at relationships, when learning new things, and in life in general.

When you do fail, you have two options.

You can give up entirely or learn what went wrong and try again.

The choice you make will have a significant impact on your future life.

If you choose to give up, you will never experience the best life has to offer.

And you will be sure to repeat the same mistakes again.

But if you choose to learn and try again, you will be living your best life.

Stop thinking failing is bad and start using it as a self growth tool.

This will help you to realize failure is a part of life and allow it to motivate you to become a better person.

#13. Have A Mission Statement

Another essential personal growth tip is to have a personal mission statement.

You know that companies have a mission statement. It is what they stand for or, in other words, their purpose.

Here is the mission statement of Cradles To Crayons:

Provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and at play.

What is your purpose?

I challenge you to craft a mission statement for yourself.

Don’t spend weeks trying to create the perfect mission statement.

Understand who you are and what you stand for, and then base it on this.

If you need some guidance, here is a great resource.

Finally, don’t confuse a mission statement with a vision statement.

A vision statement is how things will look once you achieve the mission.

#14. Drink More Water

water-overflowing

Each person is unique and has their own daily requirements for how much water they need to stay hydrated.

When it comes to self improvement tips, that is not the point.

The point is to drink more water more often. Doing so will do a variety of things.

First, it will help your kidneys.

Healthy kidneys might not be one of the most exciting things in the universe, but they beat unhealthy kidneys.

Second, by being adequately hydrated, your skin will glow, your blood pressure will be stable, and you will produce more saliva and mucus.

This last one is especially beneficial when you are sick.

Also, along the lines of personal development, drinking an extra bottle of water or two throughout the day will give you a momentary feeling of being full.

This will help you stave off the desire to snack.

And when you snack, you might eat less because you are full.

Consuming fewer empty calories will help you lose weight and prepare you emotionally to conquer your goals.

#15. Use A Water Pik

Since we are on the topic of water, let’s talk about water piks.

Everyone knows about brushing. Everyone knows that flossing is an important task.

Many people get into the bad habit of not flossing because it isn’t enjoyable and, in some cases, hurts.

To solve this self care problem, consider a water pik.

Water piks are amazing little devices that spray a concentrated stream of water, and you aim that water at your face, specifically with your mouth open, at your gums.

Water piks can clean places toothbrushes and floss cannot, especially if you have tight spaces between your teeth.

Strangely, this little habit can create the conviction that all the little details in your life are in perfect control.

They also instill confidence to smile.

Plus, they make going to the dentist a lot more enjoyable.

I used this device, and my teeth and gums are healthier, and my dentist visits have much less pain and bleeding gums.

Here is the water pik I’ve used for years.

#16. Lift Weights

Being physically active is vital to achieving overall health, including lifting weights.

Of all the self improvement activities you can do, this one has the most impact on your life.

You improve your health and save money in the long run, but you also improve your mood and outlook in the short term.

For the best results, you want to do compound lifts, like squats, bench presses, shoulder presses, and deadlifts.

These exercises work out multiple body parts simultaneously, saving time from completing many different lifts.

When it comes to the weight you use, mix it up.

Some days, use light weights and complete a high number of repetitions.

On other days, lift heavy weights and reduce the number of reps.

Finally, many people fear heavy weights because they think they can’t lift the weight.

Part of personal growth is getting over your fears.

Believe you can, and you will.

#17. Find A Meetup

Meet New People

One often overlooked self improvement techniques is learning from others.

Meetups are typically free of charge and consist of people seeking to get together with other common interests.

There are meetups for games, walking, reading, learning a new language, programming, learning how to do DIY home improvement, and more.

You can find a meetup for cooking, eating healthy foods, watching movies, or weekend game night.

Meetups are important because they are one of the best new methods people can utilize to start or resume a hobby.

Meetups also provide the ability to make new friends and colleagues and share new ideas.

Working with others can help you learn and master a new hobby faster.

And making new friends makes the whole process fun and offers health benefits.

#18. Find A Mentor

One of the most underused self improvement tips is having a mentor in life.

Many successful people have had a mentor to help them along their journey.

It is for this reason you, too, need a mentor.

Find someone you look up to or someone who is successful in what you want to do and reach out to them.

Don’t be surprised if they agree to be your mentor.

Many people love helping others who have the drive and passion for improving.

When you have a mentor, you might realize the things you are doing that are holding you back.

Or you might learn things you need to start doing.

Just be sure that if someone asks you to mentor them, you pay it forward and become the mentor yourself.

#19. Accept Change In Life

Life is not static.

It is not the same thing every day, though some days it feels that way.

Life is constantly changing.

Every day brings a new challenge, a new adventure.

The more you can approach life with the ability to change with time, the more you will get out of life.

When you refuse to change, you stop living and stop growing as a person.

Don’t fight nature.

The better you are at accepting change, the happier you will be.

#20. Accept The Past

Related to accepting change, you also have to accept the past.

What happened is done. You are living in the present and need to live for today.

All you can do is learn from what happened and apply the lessons to your life moving forward.

In some cases, this means forgiving people that have hurt you.

As difficult as this can be, you need to forgive and move on.

You are stealing from yourself by trying to hold on to the past.

You are limiting your happiness and the opportunity that today has brought.

Remember, your past has made you who you are today, but it doesn’t mean it will be who you are tomorrow.

Who you are tomorrow is entirely up to you and how you choose to live life.

#21. Find Positive Minded People

Positivity

While some self improvement tips that are listed are difficult to start, this tip to improve yourself is by far the most difficult.

It is all about getting rid of negative thinking people from your life and surrounding yourself with positive people.

As I said, not easy to do.

But you have to do it.

If all you do is spend time with unmotivated people who aren’t living life, then this will be you.

On the other hand, if you surround yourself with motivated people trying to be their best, you will also find success and opportunity in life.

I saw this play out firsthand.

I had a good friend in college. She was a great student and had so many goals for herself.

After graduation, she moved back to her small town and hung out with her friends from high school.

Most of her friends never went to college. They had go-nowhere jobs and looked forward to partying more than anything.

When I visited her a year after college, I was stunned.

She lost her zest for life and became one of them.

She stayed like this until her five-year reunion.

There she hung out with all her old college friends and saw how many of them were living life to the fullest.

Something happened during that reunion.

She found the courage to move away from her hometown and start a new life.

Now she is happily married and is the Vice President of her company.

The point is that the people you spend the most time with are who you become.

If you are spending time with cynics and unhappy people, you will become this too, if you aren’t already.

Have the courage to step out of your comfort zone to be the best version of yourself.

#22. Dress For The Job You Want

Dressing for the part, so to speak, is both a way to project an idea and a method of positive thinking.

For instance, dressing for the job you want rather than for the job you have helps establish in others the realization that you are someone they can imagine in that role.

Additionally, dressing for the role helps keep you motivated and positive because it helps establish the attitude that you can succeed in a new role.

And it doesn’t end with your career.

Dressing nicely outside your professional life will boost your self confidence and motivate you to achieve more in every area of your life.

#23. Learn About Passive Income

Passive Income

Until now, the self-improvement ideas I’ve shared focused on improving yourself, not your finances.

But your finances play a significant role in your life and, as a result, need to be included in this list.

Specifically, we will talk about passive income.

Passive income is the ability to earn money without doing anything to keep earning money.

For instance, if you sell a book online, that book can sell forever.

Other examples include tutorials or Youtube videos.

If you place a tutorial on Udemy, it can bring in monthly income without any further effort.

Another example is investing your money in dividend paying stocks.

After your initial investment, the stocks you own pay you quarterly dividends. There is nothing you have to do to earn this money.

Learning about passive income is more than just learning about what it is.

It consists of seeing how others achieve it.

By seeing how others can obtain passive income, you will examine how you might leverage your knowledge and skills to develop your source of passive income.

#24. Declutter Your Home

You might find it pretty interesting that simply decluttering your home offers a variety of psychological health benefits.

Researchers are finding that it helps alleviate depression. It also boosts self confidence and helps form a positive outlook.

If you find that implementing any of these self improvement ideas is simply impossible because you do not feel like it, this particular tip is a great first step to being able to start one.

Decluttering your home will make you feel better and motivate you to tackle another tip or all the others.

One particular strategy to declutter is to have a junk drawer.

Toss anything you want but do not use in a designated junk drawer.

The important thing to consider is that the drawer’s size determines how much junk you get to keep.

Do not exceed the size of the junk drawer by using two drawers.

This practice leads to a junk bureau, which, in turn, circles back to a junk house.

Additionally, do not create a junk room like a garage, basement, attic, or shed.

For everything that cannot fit into the junk drawer, donate it.

To take the junk drawer one step further, wait a couple of days and then go through the junk drawer.

You will find many of the things you kept you don’t need and can toss or donate.

Another effective way to declutter is by adhering to the so-called three-day rule.

Imagine being locked in your home for three days. By the end of the third day, what items will you have used?

If you do not imagine using an item within those three days, put it in the junk drawer.

If it does not fit, you have too much stuff that you will rarely use.

Declutter your home, and you will feel fresh, ready, and eager to tackle many more self help tips.

#25. Give Unconditionally

I was going to title this one volunteer, but when many people think of volunteering, they think of donating their time.

But I want you to give in other ways too.

I want you to give your time, but also your belongings and your money too.

When you give to others, you help them, and you benefit as well.

You experience a helper’s high, as research calls it. This leads to better health and happiness.

So find causes you care about and start giving to them in any way you can.

You can even do this on a smaller level too.

Pay for the coffee for the person next in line. Buy a gift card at the grocery store and give it to the cashier to pay for someone’s groceries.

You’ll be surprised at how much joy you get from it.

#26. Deal With Negativity

Finding The Positives

We live in a world where negativity reigns supreme.

And some of you, you think and speak negatively about yourself.

This needs to stop.

Too often, we internalize this negativity and act out on others who don’t deserve it.

Think back to when you had a bad day at work, then hit a ton of traffic.

You get home, and your spouse asks you a simple question. You react by yelling and screaming at them.

They did nothing wrong. You didn’t know how to deal with all of the adverse events.

This might even happen to you.

Someone might cut you off in traffic or give you a dirty look as they jump ahead of you at the grocery store.

You did nothing wrong. They just are having a bad day.

The sooner you learn how to deal with negative thoughts and emotions, the better you will be.

Start working on finding the positive in life, as hard as it may be.

When you feel you are going down a destructive path, pause and focus on positive emotions.

What are the positive things you have in life? Identify these, and the negative feelings will slowly fade.

And when someone does cut you off, don’t react rudely. Know they are having a bad day.

Give them the benefit of the doubt.

#26. Limit Social Media

Limiting your time on these sites will have a tremendous positive impact on your entire life.

These sites have gone from a way to connect with long-lost friends to a place of anger, hate, and negativity.

Ask yourself, how do you feel after you spend time on Facebook, Twitter, or other social apps?

If you are like most, you won’t feel as good or as positive.

And these apps are using you to show you more and more things they think you like to keep you online.

It has to stop.

Here are a few tips to help you quit social media and improve your well being.

First, set a timer for how much time you can spend on these sites.

Try to limit yourself to 30 minutes a day or less.

Next, make it a goal to only go online in the morning.

Doing this gives you time to reset your mind. If you visit these sites right before bed, your thoughts, ideas, and feelings will impact your sleep.

If you want to, make it a personal challenge to stay off for a week.

It might sound hard, but you can do it.

If you feel like you might lose motivation, replace the habit with something you enjoy, like walking with a friend.

In time, you will find you have a positive attitude more often.

#27. Limit Screen Time

Next time you go out, take a look around you.

Notice how most people have their heads buried in their phones?

Even two people out to dinner don’t talk but have their phones out doing who knows what.

It seems like a little thing to pull out your phone for a second to look something up, but we have been conditioned not to put it down.

So here is one of the easiest self improvement tips.

Try not to pull out your phone so much.

Instead, look around and enjoy the beauty of the world around you.

Start a conversation with a stranger.

Or just get lost in your own thoughts.

You never know what new things will come from this, including a better version of yourself.

Final Thoughts

We all want to improve and live the best life possible.

This is where self improvement tips come into play.

If you go through life without trying to improve your skills, you will not be as happy as you can.

So take some time and begin to work on improving yourself.

Learn new skills and find ways to improve small areas of your life.

These small victories will compound over time and lead to more and more improvements.

For instance, decluttering your home might seem like an isolated task.

However, when viewed with all the other tips, it becomes apparent that each tip connects to another.

Each one is a doorway.

Undertaking any of the personal development tips will inevitably lead you toward additional suggestions for more self improvement.

These 27 are just a few of the most important tips.

Along your journey, I trust you will discover a host of others that you can begin to use to help you live the best life possible.

So take a few moments to decide what your self improvement goals are, and find some ways you can begin to work towards reaching them.

A better, happier life is waiting for you.

Read now:Discover how to get out of a rut

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