Stop Ignoring These 7 Inspiring Truths

People know who they have the potential to be.

The challenge is seeing that process through.

Self-development is an art.

It takes time. It requires patience. It asks you to step outside your comfort zone. It is challenging — and that’s the point.

However, the biggest challenge when it comes to self-development is the process itself. People really struggle with the path and all its twists and turns, much more than they do any single obstacle.

But should you learn how to walk that path of self-development, you will learn some tried truths to live by:

1. Any failure can be reframed as a lesson.

Self-development is a mindset.

To one person, a project going poorly or a relationship ending means they failed. To someone else, it is nothing more than another lesson on the path.

By reframing to see the lesson instead of the mistake, you will ultimately learn more and move on to what’s next faster.

Original Article

How To Become Ridiculously Self-Aware In 20 Minutes

Four years ago my sister got me something that would dramatically alter the direction of my life.

In fact, it was probably the most influential gift I’ve ever received.

It would help me find my true calling, become a writer at the Huffington Post, and go on a 5-month road trip across America by myself.

You know what it was?

One of these…

A journal.

A freaking journal.

Here are 4 Life-Changing Benefits Of Daily Journaling

You’d think that sitting down and putting pen to paper wouldn’t be that life-changing of a practice.

In this article you’ll learn four things..

  1. Why journaling’s the secret to not getting angry/upset much anymore.
  2. How it can show you why certain strategies work and don’t work.
  3. How writing can teach you to be more “present” in your everyday life.
  4. How journaling will help you become incredibly self-aware (the MOST IMPORTANT benefit by a long-shot).

Original Article

Self-love is the basis for self-improvement

There’s a quandary I hear people talk about a lot in the self-improvement world which goes something like this: “Should I keep trying to change, or should I just learn to love myself?”

The people posing this question almost invariably feel terrible about themselves, and further, they assume that’s par for the course. It isn’t. In fact this whole “self-love vs self-improvement” thing is a false dilemma, one that badly misunderstands the role of self-love.

This equates loving yourself with thinking you’re just fine the way you are. It treats self-love as a reward for being the person you want to be. It assumes that your self-regard should be based, in some sense, on you being objectively “good.” And conversely, it equates wanting to change with disliking yourself. But ask yourself- is this true of your love for other people?

If you love someone else, surely that means you want the best for them? You want them to be healthy, happy and successful. If you have children, you want them to do well in school. If a friend is unhappy with their life, you want their life to change so they’ll be happy.

Apply the same standards to yourself that you do to others- love yourself the way you love your friends and family. Decide to be better because you deserve better; because you love yourself and want to enable yourself to live your ideal life.

Original Article

How to Supercharge Your Learning and Self-Improvement

One of my favorite pieces of ancient wisdom comes from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus:

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

Sure, that may not be the real reason we have two ears and one mouth, but it reveals a useful pattern that we see repeated in communication in general.

Communication essentially has two parts: transmission and reception. These will manifest differently depending on the medium, but the general scheme is the same.

  • Textual Communication: writing and reading
  • Verbal Communication: speaking and listening
  • Pictorial communication: displaying and viewing

Simply Put, 2:1 Is Key

If we expand Epictetus’s aphorism into a suggestion for how to more effectively communicate, we get something like the following:

When it comes to communication, you should work hard to receive twice as much as you transmit.

In other words, you should listen twice as much as you speak, read twice as much as you write, and pay twice as much attention as you receive. Let me unpack that last one a bit actually, as it’s a bit complex.

When around others, we can either be looking to get attention, or we can be paying attention to those around us. The difference between the two is just like the difference between talking and listening — though it expands far beyond the realm of verbal communication. It’s about your attitude as a communicator — your purpose for communicating. And a 2:1 ratio helps to remind us that we should be communicating in a way that helps to enrich us, and to build relationships.

Original Article