We all want it don’t we? We want to get better every day!

No one wants to be the same for their whole life. In fact, if we do, we’ll just fall behind. We all know that friend who didn’t know as much as we did but got ahead of us quickly. It’s not because they were smarter, but it was because they improved themselves every day.

You too, can improve yourself if you follow these tested methods:

1. Jump outside

Not literally, but outside your comfort zone. You need to get a bit anxious. Without anxiety, you’ll just fall asleep from boredom. I’m sure you can relate.

On the other hand, too much anxiety hinders your performance levels. It will cause you to overthink, overreact and just ruin everything. I’ve seen this to be true in driving too; anxious people make dumb mistakes while driving. They panic over nothing, hit the brakes so hard over something that’s miles away. They swerve into the wrong lanes, and drive too slow which makes them become as dangerous as an idle obstacle in the road.

What you should do is have an optimal amount of stress. Enough to keep you alert and active but not too much as to ruin your performance – somewhere in the middle. Make sure to get out of your comfort zone and try new things. You will perform better and learn more.

“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.” – Denis Waitley

2. Hang one of those “Do not disturb” door signs

One minute distractions are longer than you think! You’ve most likely been in the same situation, someone knocks on your door while you’re in the middle of something and asks you for just a minute. The “minute” turns out to be 5 minutes.

Once that’s over, you take another 2 minutes to remember where you stopped. Then you get back to work and you’re still thinking of what they told you for another 5 minutes. In fact, you’re probably thinking about what they said for another hour and there goes your working time.

When working, make sure you lock your door, tell everyone not to distract you when you hang your “Do Not Disturb” sign on the office door. Also, make sure to put your phone on silent (not vibrate), flight mode or off.

3. Build a super team

Today’s most successful startups seem to be built by one person in the beginning but that’s not the case. Startups like Facebook, Twitter, Slack, Uber, Airbnb were actually built by a team of talented people. Although for Facebook you may see Mark Zuckerberg in the front, that’s just how the media makes it look.

But in reality there was a powerful team behind it. Facebook wouldn’t be where it is if Mark was the only person working on it, same with all the others.

Look for talented people who share the same vision. Vision isn’t enough to build a solid team and one person isn’t enough to build a successful startup.

4. Outsource like a maniac

Just because you have a team, doesn’t mean you should do everything. Even the best teams can’t do everything. Things like branding, copywriting, legal services, need to be outsourced. With the internet, you can now find a load of talented cheap freelancers online. When there’s something out of your skillset, just outsource it and let your team focus on what they’re good at.

5. Use a calendar, not a to-do list

Why not? Because to-do lists are actually procrastination tools! Let me ask you something, when you use a to-do list, what tasks do you usually do first? The easiest right? Because of the way to-do lists are structured, it makes you want to tick off tasks. It doesn’t differentiate between high priority and low priority.

You’ll check off those easy tasks and then leave the hard tasks in the end. The only problem is your energy levels are down now. It’s getting late so you put it on the next days to-do list and the process repeats.

What you should use is a calendar like billionaires do. Everything you write down on your to-do list should be transferred to your calendar as events. Make sure to schedule tasks that require mental effort first and physical later on. When you do this, you’ll know exactly what time you’ll work on each task and how much free time you have left.

6. Check if you’re on track

Are you sure you’re on the right track? Did you make sure your plan is working or are you just mindlessly executing? The problem with most people is that they don’t review their progress. They just plan out a “solid” strategy and then mindlessly execute it without checking whether it’s working or not.

If you want to be better than most entrepreneurs, then you should review your progress at least every month – preferably every week. Look at the data and ask yourself, “Am I getting the results I expected?” then take action accordingly.

7. Learn from other’s mistakes

Learning from your own mistakes should be an automatic response. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about learning from mistakes that other people made. Why? Because, you can’t afford to make every mistake in your life.

Your time in this world is limited and there are so many mistakes you could make. You can’t experiment everything and you shouldn’t experiment everything.  It’s a waste of time especially when other people have done those experiments before you.

It’s all documented on blogs, books, lectures, courses, videos and forums. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t learn from other’s mistakes. Walking through the minefield of life will be a lot easier when you have a map with the mines you should avoid. Not to say you won’t trip, but life will still be a lot easier than if you didn’t have one.

“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” – Benjamin Franklin

Now it’s up to you whether you apply this stuff and improve or just hit the back button. It’s time to differentiate the true action takers from the readers. It’s time to improve and get better in a world where most people just talk and do little.

That leaves us with one question, Are you a reader or a doer? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below!