Self-Improvement Archives - The Art of Improvement

Build a Resilient Brain to Overcome Any Obstacle

When you are rejected, resilience is there. When life goes wrong at all – guess what? The resilience within picks you up, ready to fight another day. It’s found in the gritty, everyday situations you encounter on a daily basis, whether that’s forcing yourself out of bed or finding your seats in a dark cinema room. It takes inner strength to do what you need to do, let alone achieve success and happiness.

Success and happiness are quantified in different ways. Success may derive from reaching career goals, and happiness could come in the form of meaningful relationships. Whatever it is, the ability to rely on resilience lies at the core. As a result, it mustn’t be neglected. Building a resilient brain helps you overcome obstacles and thrive in life because it allows you to make risky decisions and take risks, all with the knowledge that no matter what happens, you will be okay. Acquiring that isn’t as easy as it seems, but not impossible. Resilience, after all, is a skill you can learn, not necessarily an inherent personality trait.

A Complete Guide to Becoming Highly Productive

Productivity guides are a hot commodity. If you’re a productive worker, you’ll likely get commended. After all, the more work you produce, the more valuable you are, right? While that may be true in a lot of ways, productivity isn’t just for business purposes. A productive person isn’t merely the employee of the month, they’re productive in every sense of the word. A productive friend shows up when needed. A productive partner listens and plans dates. A productive person looks out for themselves and ensures they’re not slacking when it comes to self-care.

Yes, a lack of productivity in a work environment is not a favourable position to be in. Looking further, if you’re not actively working to improve your life, whether that’s via self-betterment or relationships, it can lead to a lack of self-esteem and dwindling confidence. These traits help make productivity a formidable yet sustainable presence in your life, so their absence is potentially very damaging in any pursuit of a long-term goal.

Building Iron Discipline: Achieve Your Goals with Unwavering Willpower

What do you think of when you hear the words, “Iron Discipline” and “Unwavering Willpower”? Superheroes? Some guys at the gym? A trusted Mentor?

Such qualities of great strength, endurance and self control can often seem out of reach. It might seem as if it’s something others are able to achieve, but may be too hard to find for ourselves. If you’re looking outside of yourself, you may struggle to find what you’re looking for, because those qualities come from within.

How to Tap into the Hidden Potential of Your Brain

Have you heard the notion that humans use only 10% of their brains? It’s a common theory, but actually it isn’t really true! The average human brain is full and actively engaged with all of its parts. However that doesn’t mean it’s unable to do more!

By creatively adapting new pathways through skills, knowledge and experiences, you may find hidden potential you never knew existed. But how do you do that?

Supercharge Your Self-Confidence: Avoid These 5 Sneaky Habits!

Confidence is much like the wind. It wields immense power and can sweep you away at a moment’s notice, yet it can fall flat in an instant. Its speed and ferocity change day by day and can alter the way you live your life in small and dramatic ways.

For instance, one day you may feel flat, only for a wave of confidence to wash through and propel you forward into a previously unanticipated state of being. Then there’s the gentle breeze – a stable confidence that continually nudges you in the right direction.

Habit Stacking 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Building Powerful Habits

Most people have regular routines and habits they do each day. And most of the time, we do them without thinking too much about it. Things like getting out of bed in the morning and having coffee, brushing our teeth, and getting dressed are common habits we do without a lot of preplanning.

Habits are established by consistently connecting neural pathways in our brains that create strong bonds. According to research at Oxford University, the average adult has 41% fewer neurons than the average newborn baby. So why aren’t babies smarter than adults?

How Small Actions Can Create Big Ripples In Your Life

Do you ever wonder how you got where you are? Have you considered the circumstances and events that brought you to this point in your life?

In his book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron Ralston recounts the steps and choices he made that led him ultimately, to a life-threatening situation that changed his life. If anything had been different, it could have resulted in an entirely different outcome.

The Power of Micro-Goals

Picture yourself for a moment. It’s 12:30 am on the 1st January. You and your friends are cooling off from the countdown and start thinking about the future. What goals do you have? Are they short or long-term? How achievable are they?

It’s not just when setting New Year’s Resolutions, either. We tend to focus on what the end goal looks like rather than the journey required to get there. It’s all well and good picturing yourself in your new apartment or job, but not focusing enough on the small wins required to reach that stage could prove detrimental in the long run. After all, day-to-day life doesn’t consist of big, life-changing actions. It’s the ‘grind’ – small, consistent actions that propel you towards bigger targets.

So, to keep those in mind, it’s worth remembering the difference between short-term and long-term gratification. Let’s say your goal is to get in shape for the summer. It’s challenging to turn down a delicious takeaway, for example, because the long-term gratification gained from choosing the healthy option is too far into the distance to perceive and benefit from. Short-term gratification – the taste and ease that comes with a takeaway – is immediate and therefore more desirable for your present self.

Why Successful People All Embrace Failure

What do successful people all have in common? Money? Fame? Fantastic lifestyles? Maybe! But one thing that really sets them apart from everybody else is failure. That’s right! Successful people embrace failure as a way to succeed.

It might seem counter-intuitive to think failure can aid in the path to success, but when you hear the reasons why successful people find failure to be helpful, you might start to rethink how you view failure in general.

How to Bounce Back from Hard Times

Life is full of challenges. Not everything we attempt or wish for will materialize the way we’d hoped. But seeing failure and adversity as part of the process can help put things into perspective.

Business woman Arianna Huffington said,

“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”

Being resilient is not necessarily something you’re born with, but you CAN learn it. Even if you didn’t have the environment or opportunity to build skills of resilience as a child, it’s not too late.