In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at five significant ways that any woman can practice daily self-improvement.
From remaining calm instead of panicking during challenges to being optimistic about life in general and in specific situations that sometimes make you feel negative toward yourself and others to meeting the challenge of staying healthy in a world that’s increasingly unhealthy, we invite you to come along.
Finally we’ll explore 8 Tips to Improve Your Time Management Skills and 9 Amazing Tips on How to Improve Your Listening Skills.
Let’s get started!
The Best Ways to Improve Yourself: Remaining Calm
Mst (if not all) people panic when we find ourselves in a difficult situation. There’s no shame in feeling so when we encounter a problem, for it’s just our instinctive flight-or-fight response kicking in.It would be damaging to you and your life, however, if you respond to all of your problems by panicking. Indeed, it surely isn’t one of the ways to improve yourself or your life.
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Panic is defined as a feeling or state of terror that can render you not able to act or think normally. Hence, if you panic when you find yourself in a difficult situation or when you encounter a problem, you won’t be able to deal with it until you calm yourself. Once you do so, you’ll be able to act and think normally once again.
When you learn how to remain calm in any difficult situation or when encountered with any problem, you’ll be able to overcome hardships with relative ease, improving yourself and your life.
We know how hard it’s to remain calm at the face of hardship, so here are some tips for how to remain calm when in a difficult situation or when encountered with a problem:
Don’t magnify the situation or problem
More often than not, we see hardships as worse than they really are. For instance, no matter how bad you felt after your boyfriend left you, you didn’t die. Magnifying your problems does nothing but make yourself feel even more awful. The worse you feel, the harder it’ll be to deal with your problem and feel good once again.
Accept that experiencing hardship is an unavoidable part of life
No matter how much we would like our lives to be perfect, they never will be because nothing is perfect. Hence, experiencing hardship is just part of the journey. If you accept this, it’s likely you won’t feel as if the rug has been pulled from under you when you find yourself in a difficult situation or when you encounter a problem, enabling you to deal with it calmly and successfully.
Adjust to change
Another way that you won’t feel blindsided by hardship is by learning how best to adjust to change. It’s said that there’s nothing permanent except change, so it would be unrealistic for you to assume that your life will forever remain the way it’s now. If you still feel so, it’s likely you’ll panic every time someone or something in your life changes, causing significant adverse effects to your overall well-being.
There’s no way that you can avoid difficult situations or problems. But you can deal with them. In order to do so, you’ve to remain calm. Keeping your cool even at the face of hardship improves your chances at overcoming it. Always remaining calm at the face of any hardship will make you an even better person, enabling yourself to improve yourself and your life.
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Given the tips for learning the ways to improve yourself and your life starting with remaining calm as often as possible, we hope to help you do so.
The Best Ways to Improve Yourself: Being Optimistic
If asked about life, it’s likely most (if not all) of us would mention how we wish we could make our lives better. We would say so because wishing to improve one’s life by way of one’s acts, like improving one’s self, is human nature. Trace mankind’s history and you’ll find numerous pieces of evidence of this fact. But not everybody can do it easily because it’s easier said than done.
For instance, there are so many ways you can improve yourself that starting by choosing which one would be the most effective way for you may be overwhelming, discouraging you from doing so. But we believe everybody should have a shot at making his life better, so to help you do so, allow us to discuss being optimistic, one of the best ways to improve yourself.
An optimistic person may be described as somebody who shows or exudes his sincere feeling or belief that good things will happen to him in the future. We know that life in general has become very difficult, with the financial crises, global warming, the unrest in certain regions, etc., so we understand if you find such an individual ridiculous. But, in order to actually receive the gains that such a person believes in, you’ve to be optimistic.
A pessimistic person may feel so hopeless that he would not be able to trust anybody or anything. His awful feeling renders him unable to see the good in his life, blinding him from the opportunities for improving it that may come his way. Such blindness causes him to not be able to grab these opportunities, miring him in stagnation.
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The longer he remains stuck, the harder it’ll be for him to feel better and thereby change his life for the better. There’s no way that this person can do so if he doesn’t believe he can. In order to believe so, he has to be optimistic.
To help you start being optimistic, here are some tips:
Let go
As painful as your failures may be, don’t wallow in self-pity. Feeling sorry for yourself prolongs your suffering, magnifies it, affects all of the aspects of your life in adverse ways, and renders you not able to feel good once again.
Stay away from negativity
Negative people, harmful practices, and depressing situations fuel your awful feeling, so you should stay away from them in order to see the good in your life and thereby feel good once again.
Make a conscious effort to remain optimistic
Faking it never works because doing so only gives you a temporary sense of relief. You’ll feel bad once again when you find yourself in another difficult situation. One way to truly feel good about yourself and your life is by remaining focused on good things and people, like your hobbies and friends. Doing so distracts you from negativity, enabling you to remain optimistic.
Improving your life starts in your mind. Have clear mental images of how to do so and believe you can significantly improve your chances for success. This requires being optimistic. Having discussed the above-mentioned way to improve yourself, we hope to help you improve your life today.
The Best Ways to Improve Yourself: Staying Healthy
It’s likely you eat junk food whenever you find yourself in a difficult situation or you’ve a problem. Doing so would be okay because you should be at liberty to do whatever it’s that cheers you up when you’re sad.
But if you eat junk food too much when you’re down, you’ll end up with even more problems. Indeed, if you’re unhealthy, you’ll fail to improve yourself no matter how hard you try.
No matter how comforting it’s to eat junk food when you’re sad, such food isn’t good for you at all and can cause you more harm than you’d imagine.
For instance, junk food is laden with chemicals that are potentially harmful when consumed in large quantities. The adverse effects of these substances include weight gain, sickness, and impaired mental and physical performance. There’s no way you could improve yourself and your life while suffering from these adverse effects.
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The same goes for other harmful habits or practices. Take, for example, partying frequently. No matter how good doing so makes you feel, it’ll cause you a lot of harm. The dangers include fatigue due to lack of rest that could make you sick and adversely affect your life. If you continue partying even if doing so has rendered you unwell, you’ll never be able to improve yourself or your life until you dial it down a bit.
There are many ways that you can stay healthy. To save you from the chore of sifting through all of them just to find the most suitable ones for you, here are 3 of the ways that we believe are the most effective:
Eat as much healthy food as you can daily
When we say healthy food, we aren’t only referring to rabbit food. You’re sure to get sick if you eat nothing but vegetables. Such plants do contain high amounts of natural vitamins and minerals, but these plants can’t provide you with all of the vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy.
The vitamins and minerals that vegetables lack can be found in other food, requiring you to have meals that consist of all of the food groups. To make sure that every meal you’ve is healthful, do your best to make them consist of as much of the other healthy food as possible, like lean meat, fish, fruits, fruit juices, etc.
Exercise regularly
No matter how much healthy food you eat, if you don’t exercise regularly, you’ll still be at risk of becoming unhealthy. While eating healthy food provides you with all of the vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy, exercise is a physical activity that makes you stronger and healthier physically and mentally. The better you feel, the sharper your mind is. If you feel this way, you’re sure to be able to improve yourself and your life.
Learn to enjoy yourself in moderation
It’s okay to party and drink in moderation, as doing so keeps your life balanced. No matter how healthy you may be, if you stop enjoying yourself, you won’t be truly happy, making all of your efforts to stay healthy a waste.
It’s said that you’ve to be the change that you want to see in the world. We believe that seeing one’s self change physically for the better by way of staying healthy is a good start. Witnessing yourself undergo this change is sure to make you feel better than you may have ever felt before, encouraging you to consider the other ways to improve yourself that could lead you to improve your life.
8 Tips to Improve Your Time Management Skills
Feeling overwhelmed with too many things and can’t seem to get anything done? Are you multitasking and finding out you don’t have enough hands and ‘spreading yourself too thin’ all the time? Perhaps you can improve on your time management skills.
Below are some helpful tips on how you can manage your time better:
1. Get organized
You’ll spend lots of time ‘fire-fighting’ or trying to ‘survive’ chaos in your life if you don’t adapt a system where you can easily manage your time. Get organized by having a system that works for you best. First, organize things physically, assigning items to certain places in your work and at home. Then, organize your life by de-cluttering it with non-essentials. Say goodbye to commitments that don’t serve you anymore. The same goes with people who just take up your time unnecessarily.
2. Write down your lists at the start of the day
After you’ve had your coffee/tea and breakfast, make a list of things-to-do during the day, and if you need to shop,write down a to-buy-list. With your to-do list, arrange them in order of priority; in case you run out of time, you know you’ll be able to do the most important ones. Keep this list handy where you can easily check it the rest of the day; index cards are good for this because of their size. Check off your list as the day goes by.
3. Keep a diary/ calendar
As soon as something comes up, like an important doctor’s appointment or an exam, write it down on a diary or calendar, to be sure you won’t forget about it. Keeping a diary also helps you stay organized with dates, giving you a chance to plan ahead. Upon seeing a birthday coming up, you can include a gift on your shopping list to save a trip outside the house.
4. Have the right tools on hand
There are many tools available to keep your time and schedule easier to manage.Having a watch is basic, but other things can help, such as apps you can download on your phone, tablet, or other gadgets. The Palm Pilot, which is an electronic organizer, became popular in the 90s because of its portability. There are many task manager apps nowadays for both Android and iOS devices that can help you organize your daily tasks. These are normally found under the category ‘productivity,’ and some can be downloaded for free, such as Any.do, Wunderlist, Googlekeep, and RememberTheMilk.
5. Enlist help
If you’re already overwhelmed with too many chores and your house is already starting to look like a scene from the TV show ‘Hoarders’, then it might be wise to enlist professional help. There are many professional organizers that you can hire either per hour or per project.
Most people who hired organizers in the past are happy with their decision, saying that it gave them that opportunity to start on a clean slate and have someone take on what they felt was ‘insurmountable’. Professional organizers not only organize houses, but they can also provide valuable tips on how to organize your life.
They will also assist you on how to adapt habits to ensure clutter doesn’t take over again.
6. Keep a schedule and routine
Having a schedule is one thing; keeping to it’s another. Unless of course there’s an emergency, try to stay within your schedule. If you allotted 2 hours for a task, don’t spend the whole day doing it, especially if you’ve other more important things to accomplish later in the day. Your personal life shouldn’t suffer either. Set an alarm to remind you to adjust your pace and know when it’s time to end a task.
7. Learn to say ‘no’
Resist saying yes to everyone and spreading yourself too thin; it’s exhausting and you don’t want to be burnt out in the end. It’s good to be pleasant and diplomatic, but you can’t always be saying yes to everyone, even to family and friends. Explain to them that ‘while you would love to come over and help, you’ve to keep to your schedule for the day in order to meet deadlines and perhaps can come over some other time.’ Try it; they will understand.
8. Delegate
If you find you’ve too many tasks that need to be completed, delegate to others. If you’ve colleagues at work who can do a task better than you, give it to them. At home, if some chores can be assigned to someone else, delegate it to them.
If you don’t have anyone to delegate tasks to like a partner or a close friend, keep a list of numbers of child-minders, house sitters, and a local handyman. There are websites that offer such services, such as TaskRabbit where you hire ‘Taskers’ to perform services for you like cleaning, house repairs, moving, and even being your personal assistant.
It’s good to be organized and have a schedule and to-do-lists nearby, but to ensure having a smooth day, you need to stay focused.Stay within schedule and keep distractions at bay by constantly reminding yourself of what you want to achieve today.
9 Amazing Tips on How to Improve Your Listening Skills
If you’re dying to say something while someone is talking to you, then it’s a sure sign that you’re not really listening. Want to know what it takes to be a really good listener?
Below are some tips that will help anyone improve their listening skills:
1. Make eye contact
Making eye contact when someone is talking to you should be a given. But you’ll be surprised at how many people still do not. People who avoid eye contact can come across as dishonest and disinterested, so make an effort to always look the person you’re listening to straight in the eyes.
2. Drop everything
While listening, are you eating, watching TV, playing a game on your tablet, or doing something on your computer? Whatever you’re doing, drop it for now and just listen to the other person talk. They will appreciate it and you’ll really be able to listen and be present for them as opposed to only partially listening.
3. Listen with your whole body
Engage your whole body, not just your ears and eyes.Your posture and body language is very important!Keep your spine straight, whether standing up or sitting down, and tilt your torso a little so that it faces the person you’re talking to. Lean forward to show interest.
4. Let the other person finish talking
Be patient and let the other person finish what they are saying. Never cut, butt in, interrupt, roll eyes, or make hand gestures to signify to the other person that you’re getting bored or impatient. Giving them your time means you’re really listening.
5. Listen more, talk less
Resist taking over most of the conversation as the other person will surely not appreciate a monologue. A good rule of thumb if you’re unsure is to talk 25% of the time and listen 75% of the time.
6. Withhold the judgement
Even though the person cannot hear your internal dialogue, it’s best to keep it quiet altogether. Really listening means you’re offering a space to allow the person to get their message across and be who they are. They will be able to sense if you’re judging them or not. Be generous and allow them this space as this is what listening is about: you’re providing not just your ears but also your time and space.
7. Don’t take notes
It’s hard to break a habit formed from many years of schooling, but this idea of taking down notes when a person is talking to look smart or professional is already obsolete.
If it’s a meeting and details need to be recorded, then opt for a digital recorder that is easily accessible with today’s smart phones, tablets, and other handy gadgets. Multi-tasking is to be avoided at all costs when listening. Taking notes is a major distraction; focus on the person talking instead.
8. Stay in the moment
Don’t think about what the other person is going to say next or what you should say next in order for you to look or sound smart. It’s okay to pause after the person has spoken and think first what you’re going to say next; as a famous quote says: “It’s better to remain silent and be thought of as a fool rather than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
Fight the urge to always be ten steps ahead of the conversation; you are not really listening if you’re thinking or planning your response.
9. Stop the mind chatter
While supposedly ‘listening’, our mind sometimes strays and ends up in a totally different place, situation, or ‘la-la’ land. Make a conscious effort and not let your thoughts run and drift away from the person you’re with. Focus and pay attention to what the person is saying. Anchor yourself to where you’re and who you’re with and tell yourself: “ It’s important that I listen to this person right now.”
Listening skills can be learned, and this list shows you how easy it’s to become a good listener if you just make a little effort to be there for the other person. Having this basic skill is important if you want to maintain meaningful relationships both at and outside of work.