Many people want to more or less improve their lives, but most of them never actually do it. They may be too lazy, unmotivated, or just lack skill and discipline. This is why creating a self-improvement plan is important, if you want to improve your life in any way.
Today, I’ve come up with a self-improvement plan guide that you can use in any situation you want. It’s like a template that you can use to create a perfect plan for yourself. A plan that serves you the best and provides the desired results.
Creating a proper plan helps you to stay on track, face difficulties, and put your effort into the right things. Without it, it’s easy to become distracted and eventually fail everything. The urges to stay in your comfort zone and other distractions may end up winning if you don’t have clear firm boundaries.
When executing, you’ll probably notice changes in your confidence in just a few days! After a week, you’ve probably achieved lots of different goals. What about a month? A year? Well, there are no limits my friend. Let’s start.
The most important part of your self-growth plan: The decision
Again, many people want to improve, but they never do it because they’re not decisive and just “kind of want it”. They don’t want it as much as watching Netflix and eating junk food.
This is why making the decision is so important. Ask yourself, what do you want to improve in your life? Imagine the great rewards that wait for you if you manage to do that. Above all, what makes your current situation painful enough to break out of it?
You’ll have to dig deep into your darkest sources of motivation and pain points. What are they? What do you have to achieve to be satisfied? Why it’s crucial to deal with them?
These are very powerful questions that you can ask yourself to help you with your decision. The decision to take this seriously, and commit to a self-improvement plan that serves you the best.
After all, you just have to decide. Are you going to improve your life regardless of challenges? Before even thinking about anything else, make the decision that youäre going to do it. This helps you to stay on track and not give up.
The basics of your self-improvement plan
Once you’ve decided to become the best version of yourself, it’s time to focus on the relevant things. At this point, you’ve maybe come up with certain goals and ideas, but let’s take a look at some “basic things” that you should never neglect.
Taking care of these basic things will keep your body and mind as healthy and productive as possible. Here’s what I call the holy trinity of improvement:
- Proper nutrition
- Constant exercise
- Enough sleep
Your body is a vehicle that you’re using to drive towards your goals, so take good care of it. Here’s why these three things are so damn important.
Nutrition
To get anything done, you must maintain good energy levels. Trust me, doing anything that requires effort while being hungry and exhausted is a disaster.
Make sure to eat healthy foods. Nutrition is a broad topic, but you don’t have to understand every single detail. Eat all kinds of foods that provide you enough carbs, protein, fats, and vitamins. Drink enough water to avoid dehydration.
Even when you’re eating 90% of the time healthy and you’re never working hungry, you’re good to go. Good nutrition keeps your body and mind healthy and therefore maximizes your productivity.
Exercise
Often improving yourself requires mental energy. Doing regular exercise keeps your body fresh and gives you a nice burst of dopamine to improve your mood. This is why I recommend doing some kind of exercise 4-6 times per week. Especially if one of your goals is to be in better shape.
As you probably know, mind and body are connected and their well-being affects the other one. When you work out, you’re also giving your mind time to recover from work with physical activity. Working out has tons of health benefits such as a healthier body, reduced stress levels, and increased self-esteem.
Sleep
Needless to say, a human needs enough sleep to operate on its best level. This is why you should aim to have 7-9 hours of sleep every night. Without enough sleep, your body and mind don’t recover and you can’t be as productive. We have all probably gone to school or work with too little sleep, so you know how it feels to be tired and moody. Don’t let that happen.
By remembering and executing these three things, you’ve already done a great amount of work. By doing them, you’re already executing a certain self-improvement plan.
Brainstorming ideas
The tips you learned in the previous chapter are fundamentals that you should always follow when improving yourself. Once you know how to execute them, it’s time to move on to things that serve you the best.
At this point, you’ll have to ask yourself what your goals are. Brainstorm different goals and ways to achieve them. They can be anything from getting fit to becoming more confident.
Here are some examples:
“I want to get in a better shape” – Exercise six times per week, eat 90% of the time clean, and hire a personal trainer if necessary.
“I want to be more confident” – Consume free content online about confidence, and start executing those tips in your social life.
“I want to be a person who’s attractive and respected” – Start paying attention to your looks, learn the basics of social skills, and start implementing them in different social interactions.
“I want to improve my studies/career” – Focus for 3-4 hours per day on your work. During that time, mute your cell phone and get rid of all the distractions.
It’s that simple. Decide what you want, how are you going to get it, and take action! Remember to take care of the three fundamentals that I mentioned before, and they’ll naturally affect any goal!
Executing your self-growth plan
Now when you’ve done the planning, it’s time to move on to the hard part: executing it. If you’ve done things properly to this point, you should have made a solid plan and a decision that you’re going to do it.
At this point, you just have to get started. Start as soon as possible to avoid getting stuck inside your head. Your plan isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. You’ll learn to modify and execute it in a way that brings results (more about that later).
You’re probably going to face different challenges like urges to stop, laziness, and so on. When facing these situations, remember why you started. What made you do that decision? And imagine how great you’re going to feel after you’ve resisted the temptation to give up.
However, if you relapse, don’t be too hard on yourself. Avoid relapsing as well as you can, but remember that it’s ok to commit mistakes. You’re making way more progress than people who aren’t trying.
Modifying your self-improvement plan
Sometimes you may need to change some parts of your plan. If you keep failing and overwhelming yourself, you’re either violating the basic fundamentals or trying to achieve too much at the same time.
The key is to take action and see how you feel. If it’s too easy, spice your plan with more tasks. If your self-improvement plan is overwhelming, consider cutting off something less relevant.
You can’t be sure until you try it, so just do it and modify your plan if you need to. You should have enough goals to set you out of your comfort zone, but not enough to cause overwhelm or burnout.
How to structure your ideal day for your self-improvement plan
It’s a good idea to stay organized and structure your day. When you have a clear schedule, it’s easier to maintain enough sleep, discipline, and so on.
On top of that, you’ll reach maximum productivity and results.
The morning
If you’ve been consuming content from different business and self-help “gurus” you’ve probably noticed that they talk about waking up early. So, should you get up at 5AM? It depends.
See, waking up early can give you a headstart for the day, but it’s useless if you get only five hours of sleep. What matters more, is how you spend your time, especially the first four hours. With this said, wake up at a time that fits the best for your schedule and allows you to get enough sleep.
The first hour is important because it set’s your mood for the day, so be sure to use it well. Here’s what I recommend doing every single morning:
- Make your bed immediately
- Drink a glass of water
- Keep your working environment clean
- Have a healthy breakfast
- Practice gratitude, mindfulness, and/or journaling
- Set goals for the day and get to work
I know, small things like this may seem irrelevant but they matter. Making your bed every morning sets you in a productive mood immediately, and taking care of small things trains you to take care of the big ones.
Don’t believe me? Maybe you believe a U.S Navy Seal Admiral. Check out the video below, because this man explains it so well:
The first 3-4 hours
The first 3-4 hours of your day are the most productive ones, so be sure to use them well. After you’ve completed your morning tasks, jump to the hardest/biggest task of the day.
Within the first 3-4 hours, you’ll have the best focus because you haven’t exhausted yourself yet, and there’s lots of time to get things done.
What you should do here, depends entirely on your goals. If you want to get super fit, consider doing an intense exercise right in the morning. If your goals are something with your career or studies, pick the toughest task right away.
Remember to shape your schedule in a way that allows you to complete the most important things right away in the morning. For example, if your school or workday starts at 8 or 9AM, it may be a good idea to get up super early. But only if you get enough sleep!
The mid-day
Once you’ve spent your first hours completing the biggest tasks, it’s time to move to easier ones. This is because you’ve already used a significant part of your mental energy so you can’t operate at your highest level.
This can be anything that doesn’t require so much effort. Things like learning something fairly easy or working out. Or, this could be your day at school or work after you’ve completed your most important tasks before that.
The key is to move on to easier tasks during the day, so you can complete all of them in the best way possible.
Final hours
At this point, you’ve probably used something like 5-9 hours of your time storming through the different tasks. Now, it’s time to reward yourself and give yourself time to recover.
Do something you enjoy. Hang out with friends, watch your favorite show on TV, or do anything that helps you to relax.
Some self-help/business gurus promote the idea that you should get up every morning at 5AM and hustle until 10PM. In my opinion, that’s bullshit. You’ll end up burning out because you’re not giving yourself time to recover.
Sure, you could do that for a while, but a normal human will lose their ability to be productive and fuck up their mental health. Remember, it’s better to work smart than work hard. One hour of super productive, deep work is better than three hours of half-assing.
One more thing to remember is to stay organized. Chunk your day into the different parts, so you’ll have a clear idea about when to work hard, and when to chill out. Doing this prevents you from relapsing, waking up too late, and taking too long breaks.
It’s also a good idea to wake up at the same time every day. It’s not mandatory but definitely helps you.
Final thoughts
Alright, now you should have a clear understanding of how to create and execute a self-improvement plan that serves you in the best way possible.
It’s hard to give any exact plan because everybody has different goals and dreams. However, I believe this template with the different fundamentals can be used by anyone.
It may be hard to start, but remember that you’ll gain different benefits in just a few days! I can almost guarantee that your confidence and self-esteem will rise within a short period of time because you know that you’re disciplined and determined.
And what about a week? A month? An entire year? There are no limits to how far you can go with improving yourself. At this point, it’s all about consistent action.
With this said, see you in the next post!