1. Pick the knowledge you need

When we want to improve at something, we often go to the internet to look for resources. The good news is there are a lot of resources available. The bad news is we don’t know which is a useful one. The clickbaity content might often tell you the things that you already know or the things that you don’t need.

It’s easy to get lost in this pool of resources. That’s why it’s important to get familiar with what exactly you need. Being as specific as you can will weed out unnecessary resources.

For example, If you want to learn writing, be specific about the type of writing that you would like to learn (copywriting, content writing, scriptwriting, etc). Also, choosing a niche (self help, health, technology, etc) will narrow down the results to help you pick up the exact knowledge you need. You can apply the same technique if you want to learn through books.

2. Build the feedback loop

Daniel Kahneman, the author of “ Thinking Fast and Slow” has said, “ How quickly you learn new things depends on the quality and speed of feedback loop you built for yourself”.

The feedback loop is exactly how you find out your weaknesses and strengths. What happened yesterday, happened! You can’t change the past but you can extract the lessons from your past to build the future you deserve.

It’s common for people to repeat the same mistakes over and over and having a feedback loop in place will turn these mistakes into lessons. A feedback loop will help you to improve yourself at an accelerated rate because it will give you a way to be consistently aware of what works and what doesn’t.

3. Get comfortable with failures

If you are willing to get yourself out of your comfort zone, you must be comfortable with failing. When we try new things, we usually have a fear of failure. This fear of failure restricts us from giving our 100% which in turn increases our chances of failure.

Failure often puts you in a confused state of mind which is totally normal. But in this state of confusion, we overlook the data we can access now to make better decisions next time. Failure is not bad, it’s the greatest teacher you will ever find.

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” – Paulo Coelho

4. Circadian rhythm

A circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.

When you want to change your life, you need to know how your energy levels change throughout the day. What do you like to do at certain times of the day and what you don’t is the first step to approach productivity.

Build the schedule that you can follow and not the one that looks good on paper. Why wake up at 4 a.m. and work out if you can give your best in the gym at 7:00 p.m? You don’t have to follow someone else’s schedule just because they are famous. You need to build one that is tailored for you and modify it as you progress.

5. Don’t work, PLAY

Being harsh on yourself will hardly do any good for you. If you don’t find happiness in what you do, you are bound to get bored quickly.

Build the schedule that looks ideal to you, mix it with your current schedule and that is the schedule you should approach in the beginning stages. Basically, choose a small swimming pool to swim in first and then move on to a large one.

Also, when you feel like you are burning out, take a break. You can always shift the gears and pick up the pace but when you feel by heart that you need to cool down, do it. Remember, you’re trying to improve yourself not trying to sell insurance.

6. Divide and conquer

Every one of us has good ideas, every one of us knows what to do. We also know that doing certain things is how our life can actually take shape. But, when it all comes down to taking actions, we quickly look for instant rewards.

Sadly, that’s not how it works but you can hack your way by dividing an action into small sub-actions. For example, If you want a write a 2000 page article, writing 100 pages twice a day will complete the task in 10 days without stretching yourself. Make the actions so small that it should not feel like work but remember there is no substitute for doing, drill that in your mind.

“The goal is not to be perfect by the end. The goal is to be better today.” – Simon Sinek

7. Question everything

What you are right now is a product of how society made you look at the world. Their thought, their beliefs build your perspective and your perspective builds your mindset.

Some of these beliefs are literally nothing but myths. If you don’t question it and believe everything, you are not living your own life. Every single thing that you are made to believe, question it. It’s the easiest way to flush out mental waste.

8. Attitude drives you

When you want to improve, it’s obvious that you will face some level of confusion. You might think everyone is judging you, you might think that this is too hard. There is a lot of confusion but it’s just an act of negative thoughts.

You can defeat these negative waves by manifesting a positive attitude. If you want to be a winner you have to act, think and fight like a winner. Visualize yourself as a winner, talk to yourself on why you are the best in the business to feed that positive attitude in your mind. Talk to yourself or read success stories.