This is Yang, a junior and a new writer at The New Dealer! I will be creating articles in the realm of opportunities you should know about, finance, psychology, philosophy, politics, and a lot of other topics. Anyways, you’re here either because once you saw this title you were like- SELF-IMPROVEMENT, I LOVE IT, or you were just curious what this article was about. Either way, here is everything you need to know to get started on this journey. 

What is Self-Improvement?

Self-improvement is weird… it’s ambiguous and no one knows what it really is. I personally think it comes in 3 main forms: Health, Productivity, and Intra/Interpersonal Skills (Communication within and communication without). Health refers to treating one’s body well, whether it’s through exercising, eating healthier or sleeping efficiently. Productivity refers to increasing how well you order your time and spend that time. For instance, you could try timeboxing, pomodoro technique, or use a calendar app. Intra/Interpersonal skills refer to thought, emotional management and effective communication with others. 

How do you get involved in Self-Improvement?

Most successful people, think Bill Gates or Jeffery Bezos, to Warren Buffet and Charlie Monger, have built healthy and intentional habits. You need to first, have the desire to improve, and secondly, know how to build and break habits. Habits are the foundations of what we do. When you wake up, what’s the first thing you do? You probably automatically go brush your teeth, eat, etc. What if you added daily gratitude every time you finish brushing your teeth. That would provide a stimulus for you to remember what to do.

Among habits like drinking more water, journaling, waking up early, exercising or meditating. Some of the habits and skills that are most important are: 

1. Reflections. Guess how long I mind wander every day? 3 minutes? No 10 minutes? NO. 20 minutes? NO! I mind wander for an hour every day. But no, you should not start with an hour, trust me, it gets disruptive. However, mind wandering allows for creativity and idea generation. You can incorporate this in your life by enforcing boredom: Don’t play music while showering, don’t play games while on the toilet, and DON’T watch YouTube while eating. Your mind will reflect and wander by itself once it gets bored. 
2. Discipline. Whenever you know doing something is right, let’s say not binge-watching Netflix, but you really want to. Notice that urge, feel it but tell yourself. NO, I will not let my urges and emotions control me. Immediately go do your work, and eventually the emotion will disappear, and it will be easy to carry on.
3. Design your Environment. While trying to improve, it is terrible to surround yourself with people that don’t support you. For instance, being in a community where everyone is smoking makes it hard to stop smoking yourself. Instead, change your environment to support your growth. If you want to start exercising, it might be good to try to make friends that ask you to hang out at the gym, or it would be helpful if you joined a school team.
4. Read. Reading is a way of cheating in the game of life. Instead of having to go through experiences to gain knowledge, you can get it simply by learning from other people’s past mistakes. I do not know of a single successful person that does not read. However, make sure you are implementing the things you learn, not merely absorbing it.

Any Books I would recommend?

You can tell a person is into self-improvement when they know, How to Win Friends and Influence, Meditations, Think and Grow Rich, Never Split the Difference, etc. Although many of these books are great, Atomic Habits and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People TOGETHER, are a winning combo you should read. Atomic Habits talks about how important habits are and how to build them and along with 7 Habits, which gathers the 7 strongest habits in the universe– you will be well equipped in your self-improvement journey.

So, if this sounds interesting, don’t just read this and live the same life. Start something new, go borrow one of the books or try one of the habits like reflecting!