Why and how you should first invest in yourself
Most people want their business to register growth, and that should preferably happen as soon as possible. But how many people would choose, as a first step, to invest in themselves before that?
The market nowadays is highly competitive, as the marketplace for some companies is the entire globe. Which are the secrets great businesses possess? How can you reach the highest number of costumers? How can you improve your own business? The answer is quite simple, by starting small. First, start with you.
What was the last thing you actually did for yourself in the last few weeks? Have you thought about that? If you have found three things you did for your self-improvement in the last two weeks, you are free to leave this article aside and continue doing what you were doing before starting to read it.
Improving yourself can bring you loads of advantages; it will help you feel more confident, in the first place, and implicitly happier. Self-confidence will also come with an extra bonus called happiness. This can be linked to continuous learning – a person having a greater amount of knowledge is considered smarter by the others, hence an increase in confidence is registered.
Moreover, a research finding at the University of Melbourne has shown that highly confident employees are more likely to be promoted than employees with a low confidence level.
Secondly, being exceptional yourself will help in setting a good example to the others – to your colleagues, to your employees, to your family. Living in an environment and influencing it positively might sound as a good idea, and it can, as well, bring increasing results in your personal and professional life.
As a team leader, this is a good way of leading by example – your employees will follow you happily if you are a good leader. If you want to see better things happening around you, you have to be better yourself.
Whether you are wondering how you can make self-investments or where you should start with these improvements, below you can find a few guiding lines.
- Develop your skills
Highly-skilled individuals are essential to companies and employers. The first thing an interviewer wants to know about you is what you can practically do.
Nowadays, there are plenty of tools and techniques one can use for improving their skills – language learning (Duolingo), brain training (Elevate), coding language (Codecademy), and more – and the only effort required is doing some research and starting a plan to keep up to.
Education is paramount to skills development, since it is the main pillar of the entire construction; it has to be continuous, according to the LLL (Long Life Learning) concept.
One way of educating yourself is through training activities – self-trainings or trainings held by other specialized companies – which are bountiful advantageous for the know-how exchange one experiences through them.
Nowadays, there is a great emphasis on knowledge-based management; great companies are searching for people who have the necessary ‘know-how’. Knowledge is power – especially in today’s economy when companies are looking for that precious element, called intellectual capital.
Information can be found everywhere, and you can always stay tuned to the new happenings; however, it seems that people would rather procrastinate. Unfortunately, according to Officetime.net’s infographic, only 1 out of 10 people avoids procrastination and is indeed very productive.
- Treat your mind
Exercise your mind and improve your intellectual skills. Reading is one of the activities that have a great positive impact on your brain, and on your memory, as well.
Statistics have shown that reading reduces the stress level by 68% and the risk of dementia by 35%. This activity is also important for the increase in self-confidence and motivation – as knowledge can be acquired from books.
In addition, you can also feed your mind with culture exploration – discover other people’s way of living, of working, of relaxing. This will not only increase your background knowledge, but will also make you become more open-minded.
- Take care of your body
Your health is as important as your mind, and you will only notice that, if you haven’t already, when illness might knock on you door. Not being powerful enough in order to follow your dreams is indeed a burden.
If you take care of your body accordingly, certain discomforts might be avoided; it is recommended that you have moderate physical activity for at least 150 minutes per week, or intensive physical activity for 75 minutes per week.
Nutrition is also important for your body, as you have to pay attention to the products you buy and to your eating habits, which might bring up certain health problems when being bad habits.
Another specific activity you can treat your body with is relaxation – whenever you feel your body needs it, make some time for it and enjoy your moments.
- Explore creativity
A good way of improving one’s self is by activating and exercising creativity. One useful approach in doing so is learning new languages. You might have learned a foreign language in childhood that you haven’t been practicing for a long period, and re-studying it now might feel easier.
In addition, your self-esteem and confidence can increase for the above mentioned reasons. Travel, discover, write, create something palpable – these are some simple examples of activities you can do in order to explore your creativity, and get the chance to know yourself better, at the same time.
Improving one’s self is essential for confidence, happiness, and overall satisfaction boosting. Improvements in the people around you and the environment you live in can happen if you start with yourself. In order to get better, be better.
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Tags: Improvement, Personal performance
