improve yourself every day

Everyone wants to live a great life, nobody wants to live in mediocrity. Just imagine your future self, say 5 years down the road, what will you be doing and what kind of life are you going to live?

We all want to have a better life, yet, we choose to procrastinate, and we don’t consciously work on our goals, targets, and aims that we want to achieve in our lives.

If you don’t live an intentional life, I can guarantee that you will never arrive at your desired destination 5 years from now.

When you’re not proactively working on the things that you want, you become reactive and you respond to everything that comes to you in life.

Take a minute to imagine the perfect life you want.

  • What would you be doing?
  • What kind of lifestyle would you like to have?
  • How much money would you like to make?
  • How about your relationships with the people you care about?
  • Where would you like to travel and what kind of legacy you want to leave behind?

Whatever dreams you have and no matter what goals you want to achieve, you can have it.

Yes, I’m serious. You can be, do, and have whatever you want in life.

But, there is one thing you need to do to live your dream lifestyle, and that is to make a conscious decision right now to improve yourself every day to get there.

Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow

“Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.”

If you want to live a successful and great life in the future, you need to actively work on it right now, not 5 years from now.

It is what you do now that will determine what you get in the future.

Hence, you want to do something to improve yourself every day.

Here’s what I know: If you work on improving yourself every day from now on, you stand a chance to achieve all your goals and make your dreams a reality.

But if you don’t work yourself right now, I’m sure that there is no way you can become the person you desire to be.

Therefore, you must commit to improving yourself from today on. You don’t want to leave things up to chances.

This is your life and you should take charge of it. Be the captain and start crafting, designing, and manufacturing the life you want, from today onward.

Here are 31 little things you can do to improve yourself every day…

Career and Finance

1. Make saving a daily habit 

If you want to improve your financial life, one of the easiest ways is to make savings a daily habit. Yes, save a portion of your money every day. It doesn’t need to be a huge amount, any amount will do, even if it is just $1.

You have to understand that it is the habit that counts, not the amount. If you can make it a habit to save $1 a day, then you can make it a habit to save even more in the near future. But you have to start small and grow from here. Here’s a good article about saving money you should read.

Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.

2. Find a mentor or a coach at work

There is no way you can do everything all by yourself and if you are serious about growth, you need to get a coach or a mentor to guide and support you. Look at top athletes like Usain Bolt, Kobe Bryant, Lionel Messi, etc., they are extremely successful, yet, they still have coaches to guide them.

So, if the best of the best believes in the power of coaching and mentoring, what makes you think you don’t need it? Whether it is in your career, finance, or business, find someone who can guide and support you in achieving your goals.

4. Track your spending and do your budget

You cannot improve what you don’t measure. It is only when you start tracking your spending, you will know where your money goes. You may not like the idea of tracking your spending and making a budget because you don’t have much, but that’s exactly the opposite thinking.

It is because you don’t measure that’s why you don’t have much. When you start to track your spending and make a budget, you will have more. Think about it, if you don’t know how to manage $100, do you think you can manage $10,000 in the future?

5. Practice the 90/90/1 Rule

I learned this rule from the best-selling book written by Robin Sharma, The 5 AM Club. Sir Sharma shares a very powerful method to achieve extraordinary results in life and it is easy to understand:

“For the next 90 days, devote the first 90 minutes of your workday to the one best opportunity in your life. Nothing else. Zero distractions. Just get that project done. Period.”

For 90 days, use the first 90 minutes to work on your #1 goal. Just stick to this powerful rule and imagine what will happen after that. You can achieve any big goals you want by using this rule.

6. Learn to invest or build a side business

I bet you don’t want to just depend on one source of income, right? You want to learn as much as you can and at the same time, you prefer to have multiple sources of incomes, don’t you? This is why you must learn to invest and build a side business when possible.

Read this book, The 10% Entrepreneur, and you will understand how you can start a side business by investing just 10% of your income and your time. Regardless of whether you are working full-time or running a business right now, you should consider putting 10% of your capital and effort into another project.

7. Pay down unnecessary debts

Are you in debt? If you are, work hard to pay it down. You don’t want to get into unnecessary debts. In today’s world, people are spending money they don’t have to buy things they don’t really need.

You cannot achieve financial success if you have the bad habit of spending every dime you have. You need to learn to leverage your debt instead of getting into debt because of your bad spending habit.

Health and Fitness

8. Take the 10,000 steps challenge

Here’s what you can do to make sure you improve your health on a daily basis – walk 10,000 steps. In today’s busy world, people don’t have time to exercise. And this is happening to you, commit to take the 10,000 steps challenge and make it your daily goal.

9. Exercise for 15 to 30 minutes

I know you’re busy, but if you can’t even find 15 to 30 minutes to exercise, then probably you should consider whether you’re being busy at the right thing. No matter how busy you are, you can make 15 minutes to exercise.

If you really think that you don’t have the time to do so, wake up early and exercise in the morning before you go to work. This article on Cosmopolitan.com gives you 15 reasons why you should exercise in the morning.

Don't wish for a good body, work for it.

10. Practice yoga or meditation

Besides exercise, you can also practice yoga or meditation. Again, spend some time to practice yoga and meditate daily. Many studies and research have proven that yoga and meditation are great ways to maintain your overall wellbeing.

11. Enjoy your favorite sports

When we talk about exercise to improve your overall life, people often think about working out, and they forget about sports. You don’t have to go jogging if you don’t like it, do your favorite sports instead. If you like swimming or tennis, do it. I like badminton, and I go for it at least once a week. What about you? What’s your favorite sport?

12. Eat more fruits and vegetables

In order to improve your health and fitness, you also need to be mindful about the food that you eat. Try to take in processed food, eat more fruits and vegetables. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a guideline here about how to eat healthily. You may want to read the article.

Love and Relationship

13. Schedule date nights and family time

When was the last time you have your date night with your partner? How often do you spend time with your family members? You cannot improve your life without improving your relationship. If your relationship with the people you love is broken, it will affect your other areas too. Hence, schedule date nights with your lover and make time for your family.

14. Make time to catch up with friends

Besides your family, what about your friends? Friends are important too, because they are the people who we spend a lot of time with. You don’t want to succeed alone and have nobody to celebrate together, right? Thus, make time to catch up with your friends so that you can nourish your social life.

Relationship is like a rose flower, you water it, care for it and nurture it for it to keep living and blooming.

15. Surprise people you care about occasionally

Giving gifts during special days like birthday and Christmas may not be enough. From time to time, you want to surprise the people you care about. You can bring them out for dinner, buy them small gifts, or simply call and text them. The more you surprise people, the more intimate your relationship with them.

16. Hug and kiss the people you love every day

Yes, hug and kiss the people you love daily. Whether they are your family members or your friends, kissing and hugging can improve your mental states, reduce stress, and help you bond with the person better. In this article, Healthline.com shares 16 reasons for how kissing can benefit your health. Check it out.

17. Make time to get together

One of the easiest ways to improve your relationship with the people you care about is to make time to get together with them. You can arrange a dinner, sports, holiday, or as simple as a meetup will do. The fundamental principle of building a relationship is to spend more time with the one you care about.

Personal Development

18. Wake up early and prep your day

You cannot improve and live a better life if you don’t work on your personal development. And one great method that helps you become more successful is to wake up early to prep your day.

If you study the biographies of successful people, you will see that they choose to wake up earlier than most ordinary people. They get themselves ready, they exercise, and they prepare their day while others are still sleeping. The key is to design a great jumpstart so that you can go through every day with greatness.

Read: 7 Best Morning Routine to Kick-Start A Great Day

19. Plan your day

Do you plan your day? A lot of people go through their daily life aimlessly, and this is why they are not productive and are living a life that they dislike. If you want to achieve greater success in life, you need to practice planning, every day.

You can start by creating a daily to-do list. The point is that you want to go through your daily life with a clear intention. You want to be proactive rather than being reactive. It is alright even if things don’t turn out according to your plan. It is the planning that counts.

20. Set boundaries for work and life

Do you find it hard to maintain your work-life balance? You have to learn to set boundaries and create rules if you want to live a more balanced life. For instance, don’t bring your work home and during weekends, don’t work and just use the time for yourself and your family members.

Learn to prioritize your work and your life. Understand what is important now and what you can schedule and do later. Read my previous article about managing your work and life:

10 Great Tips How to Achieve Better Work-Life Balance

21. Read a good book to improve yourself

So, you want to improve yourself every day? Read more books. Spend 30 minutes every day into reading. Or commit to reading at least a book per month. The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the more places you can go.

Of course, don’t read for the sake of reading, unless you are doing it as a hobby. Read and take notes. Take time to ponder and relate all the information from the books with your life. More importantly, reflect and improve your life with your new-found knowledge.

Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune.

22. Take many short breaks throughout the day

When it comes to your everyday work, you want to maintain your motivation, energy, and productivity. And to achieve this, you need to regularly recharge your body, mind, and soul. Thus, take many short breaks throughout the day.

Taking short breaks is important in order to maintain your performance and to produce great work. If you want to learn more about how to take short breaks to recharge yourself, read my article here.

Fun and Experience

23. Work on a side project

If you want to improve yourself, you need to work on something fun each day. So, find out what are your hobbies and work on them as a side project. Whether it is a small gardening project, to decorate your house, or to start a blog, put in some time to work on the project. You want to have a balanced life and when working on your side project can make you feel livelier.

24. Enjoy a hobby you love

Like I mentioned above, choose to pursue a hobby as a part-time project. Ask yourself, what do you love to do? Do you love to swim? Do you love to read magazines? Or do you like to sing or cook? Pursue your hobby allows you to boost your creativity and it helps you understand yourself better.

A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.

25. Learn a new skill

What one skill can you learn this year? Do you want to learn how to cook? Or do you love to play the guitar? How about gardening skill? Identify one skill you like to develop and commit to learning it.

26. Declutter and organize your space

Besides learning and having fun, you also want to declutter and organize your space so that you can become more effective. You don’t want to have both physical and mental clutter to stop you from reaching your goals and living a healthy lifestyle.

Organization your house is equally important as organizing your workspace. When everything is in place, you feel less stress, able to focus better, and are more productive in getting things done. Want to live in a better environment? Read this article from BestLifeOnline.com and learn how to declutter your life now.

27. Don’t waste time

Sometimes, to improve your life, you don’t just focus on adding new things or doing something new, you can also subtract and do less of the things that are damaging your life. Stop spending all your time in front of the TV and spend less time playing with your phone. I like this quote from Bruce Lee:

If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m saying that you should completely stop watching TV or stop playing games, no. What I’m saying is that you want to be moderate. You don’t want to allow these irrelevant activities to consume your life.

Legacy and Contribution

28. Commit to making a monthly donation

Do you want to make a difference in your life? Then make a difference in someone else’s life. When you help others, the act of kindness makes you feel good. When you feel good, you can live better. You can commit to making a monthly donation every month. Just keep aside a small portion of your income and do it to help others who are in need.

Read: 9 Positive Effects of Donating Money to Charity

29. Help out and volunteer

What if you don’t have much money to spare? Well, then you can volunteer yourself to help out. You don’t need to donate money if you don’t want to. Once in awhile, volunteer to help out and make the world a better place.

Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life's deepest joy - true fulfillment.

30. Share your knowledge and skills

How about sharing your knowledge and skills to benefit others? What are you good at and what do you think you can teach others? If you are good with mathematics or science, you can start a YouTube channel and share your knowledge for free. This will benefit those who want to learn and at the same time, you can also make a side income through advertisement.

31. Make the world cleaner and greener

If you want to improve yourself every day, start by making the world a better place. Don’t litter, instead, pick up the rubbish you see, make the world cleaner, and if you want to, plant more greenery at your backyard.

Your purpose in life is to make an impact. When you help others, make a difference, and support a cause you believe in, it makes you feel good. The feeling of satisfaction makes you feel happier and less stress. So, embark on a giving journey. Help and be good with people. It will make your life so much better.

Conclusion

These are the 31 suggestions you can follow to improve your everyday life and make it better.

Do you think these ideas are good? Do you have any other ideas you want to add? Let me know by leaving your comment below.

This article may contain affiliate links. Meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. As always, I only recommend products and services I trust.

By Shawn Lim

Hi there, this is Shawn. I inspire people to achieve their goals and dreams and to reach for higher success in life. If you want to learn more about me, kindly go to the About page. By the way, have you downloaded your FREE copy of The 90-90-1 Rule? Don't forget to do so. Cheers. :)

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