Become your personal best

We humans are curious creatures. As such, I was wondering how wonderful being our personal best would be and came up with the following list.  Hope the pointers are of help in your search for finding the best in yourself. If you have more ideas please feel free to leave a comment. 

1.       Make a personal life plan

Making a life plan involves determining your life’s purpose and setting an action plan to achieve that purpose. It ensures you arrive at the right destination.  These terms might sound very deep to some people, but it is true that successful people have a clear idea about who they are, what they want, about their goals and where and who they want to be.

A personal life plan would give you clarity, balance and peace of mind because it enables you to focus on those areas of life that matters. Be proactive in living your life rather than being reactive, don’t sit down and watch your life unfold; instead plan your life and live it the way you always dreamed of.

2.       Be an opportunist

 This involves trying to find opportunities even in the worst of situations. Things do not always turn out the way we intended them to be. Instead of blaming the situation and yourself for the failure, try finding some positive aspects in the situation. Ask yourself, ‘how can I use this situation to better myself?’ and ‘how can I use this situation to my advantage?’

3.       Do a brain dump

Sometimes the hassle and bustle of daily life can leave us feeling exhausted and drained. We feel like that there are so many things that we need to do and we struggle to keep all the details in our heads. This can range between important things like making an important payment to mandate tasks such as remembering to clean your wardrobe. A brain drain involves sitting down with a piece of paper and a pencil and writing down all that you need to do. Some people advice to also write about feelings during this brain dump. After writing everything down, group them according to level of importance. Now you don’t need to hold all that information in your brain, it’s free to do the more interesting and important work!

4.       Network

Acquiring and maintaining your own network of people can be quite challenging especially if you are not a people person. However, it’s one of the most important tools that a person can possess. Keep in touch with your friends, family and with those people who inspire you. Having people to rely on in times of need is one of the best things in life. 

Remember to vary the types of people who you have in your network. The more varied your contacts are, the more powerful your network. 

5.       Update your knowledge base daily

 

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -  Benjamin Franklin

Ask yourself ‘what have I learn today?’ and what you can do with that piece of new information. Try making reading a habit. Read about things that interest you, is related to your career and is recent. Don’t forget to throw in a random piece of article into your reading list, because it allows you to broaden your horizons and learn something new. For example, if you always read gal’s magazines like cosmopolitan or vogue, why not pick up a sports magazine next time? It would surely give you something to talk about on your next night out with guy friends. 

6.       Dare to dream and dream big

You could be the next Steve Jobs, Mother Teresa or George Clooney, anything and everything is possible. 

Always share your dreams with those around you. Sharing your dreams with other people is a certain way to start the ball rolling and it gives a kind of reality and conformation to your dreams. Once you share your dreams with someone, you will be accountable for them and would be obliged to do something about those dreams. In addition, your friends and family are sure to give you the moral support and motivation you deserve. 

7.       Accumulate good habits and let go of the bad ones

 If you do the same thing every day, it will become a habit. We should try to make excellence a habit in order to find ultimate success. Aristotle says its best, ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.’

8.       ‘Be yourself – everyone else is already taken’ – Oscar Wilde

Be yourself and be true to yourself. Be authentic and original. You should remember that there is no other YOU in this world. You personally have brought some kind of character to the world, to your family, to your workplace.

 Don’t let others perception about how you should behave be a guide to your actions. Stop comparing yourself to others and follow your own style. 

9.       Confidence is the key

“The main cause of failure is the inability to deal with self-doubt.” – Bill Bartman

If you believe in yourself and portray that confidence to others, people around you will come to perceive you as someone who is capable and reliable.

10.   Be persistent

Don’t give up too easily. For example, you might be working on a project for weeks, and your hopes might start to run low when you fail to see the desired results. One day you decide to give up and do. But who knows that the next day is the day when your big break was about to come? Success and accomplishments usually takes lots of undivided dedication, commitment and work over long period of time.