Using a well-thought-out self-improvement program is a good strategy for personal success, particularly in light of how both the world and you change over time. As an example of that, I was recently reading an ad for Apple’s new iPad and it got me thinking about how often technology changes.
It wasn’t long ago that computers were computers and cell phones were cell phones, but now we have devices that do both jobs and can also be used to read books, receive emails, show videos, and play music. TVs were once hidden away in cabinets for use when we weren’t at the movies. We now have the movies in our homes in the form of huge black flat screens on the walls of our living room with incredible stereo surround sound with booming subwoofers. There have been many changes and most of them for the better.
People are much the same: they have to adapt to change and be able to handle this new technology that keeps coming out. In our work we have to learn to use new technologies and new tools, and the same goes for our private life. Sometimes the change is radical, and those of us who were more ‘practical’ than ‘intelligent’ now have to be both. It’s no use being big with a wrench and dismantling a car engine and putting it back together in an hour: now we need to understand electronic management systems and how computers control fuel mix.
In other words, we have to ‘upgrade’ ourselves: improve our skills and familiarize ourselves with whatever new technology is around the corner. Personal success depends on it, but there are also many other forms of self-improvement that are fundamentally different but no less important to those involved. Much of that is born out of envy and the desire to ‘be like others’ that we admire for what they have achieved rather than who or what they are.
Many are jealous of others for their apparent beauty and want to improve their appearance to resemble them. Others are jealous of the successful businessman, wishing again that they could ‘improve’ to be like him and enjoy his wealth and success. However, is that form of personal success really related to self-improvement? Maybe that beautiful movie star or model is depressed because she has no privacy and is getting beat up every time she tries to live a normal life. Perhaps the entrepreneur is totally stressed and wants to finish everything.
Do you really believe that being like them is ‘self-improvement’ and that your strategy for personal success is to be a successful movie star or businessman? Perhaps they are both jealous of you and your apparent normality. True personal success is achieving contentment and self-esteem, and being happy with your life, at least that’s one definition, although it’s hard to argue against it. If happiness and contentment are not our ultimate goal, then what is? Accumulation of wealth?
However, self-improvement and personal success need not stop you from ‘making it’, as they say, and many of those who have achieved real satisfaction in their lives have become very wealthy, both in monetary terms and in their lives and the way they live it. People like Zig Zigler (“Failure is a detour, not a dead end”) know the secret to self-improvement, and yes, his name is Zigler, with Zig as his schoolboy nickname.
Most people who fail have expected others to fail for them, but in the words of Brian Tracy, “We will always tend to live up to our own expectations of ourselves,” one interpretation of which is that you should have positive expectations of yourself. self before personal. success will be possible, and one of the first steps in self-improvement is to respect yourself and expect to be successful in whatever you are doing. Expect to fail and you will fail.
It is very important that when using self-improvement as a strategy for personal success that you get the right help and guidance on how to improve your motivation and outlook on life in order to develop the correct “self-expectancy” that will lead you to success. latest. success, and accept failure as just ‘a detour’ and not the end of the world!
We can all learn from those who have achieved personal success, and while we cannot emulate the success these people have achieved, we can study their methods and how self-improvement for them was just another step on the road to their ultimate success. We may not be as successful as they have been, but by following and learning from them we can at least improve ourselves and give ourselves a better chance of achieving our personal goals.
In the words of Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right!”