Ten Steps to a Better You

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Just the other day someone sent me an email thanking me for a Blog post that had resonated with them. I was about to send a brief reply with well wishes when I realised there was more to the message.

“Can you recommend ways in which I can better myself?”

“Boy,” I thought, “This is a tough one given that I don’t know the person concerned from a bar of soap!”

My mischievous nature felt inclined to respond: “Read a further nine blog posts” but then I reasoned that this person might not appreciate my taste in humour.

Then I thought: “If I’m going to invest the time to respond with something meaningful I may as well leverage that investment by creating a Blog post!”

So, dear readers, let me share my reply … Ten steps to a better you.

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– Cam (American musician)[/box]

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Ten steps to a better you (continued)

 

1. Keep an open mind

At New Insights life coaching we believe that the purpose of life on Earth is to grow and develop so that we may become wiser, better, happier and more fulfilled individuals.

A ‘closed mind’ or a lack of preparedness to experience new things, question what you see and hear and embrace alternative views and ideas can be a big stumbling block to your growth and development. It also takes a lot of the fun out of living.

Commit to opening your self up to new paradigms, trying new ways of doing things and finding out more about different cultures, languages and ways of living.

2. Treasure your free will and use it respectfully

It may not seem like it at times but you have been granted the special gift of free will. Use the power of your free will to make choices that will benefit you and help you grow and develop as a person.

At the same time, recognise that you are not the only one with the gift to be and do as you wish. Resolve to use your gift in a way that will not adversely affect the ability of others to do the same. In other words, feel free to do as you please in life as long as what you choose to do does not prevent or adversely restrict others from doing the same.

3. Put yourself first

Know that you cannot contribute most effectively to others, or to life on this planet, if you do not look after and nurture yourself as a priority. The world needs you to be at your very best so you can give it your very best.

If you consistently put the health, welfare and interests of others before your own, you will wither away and slowly become less and less effective in what you do. In the longer term, this benefits no-one.

4. Understand what’s important to you

Spend some quality time getting to grips with your values, or what is most important to you in life. Only when you are consciously aware of your values, and the relative priority you assign to them, can you start to consciously design your life so as to experience that which is really important to you.

5. Choose your beliefs carefully

You can choose to believe anything you like.

Although you may have been taught to believe certain things, especially when you were at an impressionable young age, it is your individual choice as to whether to continue to believe these things.

Have the courage to believe only those things that serve your growth,  development and happiness and to jettison those beliefs that block you, limit you or cause you unhappiness.

Remember that you are like others – a unique individual with free will. Just as you can choose what to believe, so can every other individual. Practice tolerance and understanding of the practices of others. Complain only if they genuinely infringe on your own rights.

6. Listen to your inner voice

Your inner being knows what is best for you.

Call it your intuition, your subconscious mind, your connection to your source, the link to your creator, or whatever works for you. Just know that you have the power within you to find the solutions you seek and create the reality you desire.

Learn to tune into your inner being and listen to your inner voice when you need guidance. Resist the temptation to block out or override your inner voice in favour of the advice, guidance, opinions and pressures of those around you and the outside world in general.

7. Think empowering thoughts

Everything you do or experience in life begins with a thought.

Realise that the quality of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. You will attract into your life that which you consistently think about or focus on.

But understand that there is a time delay between your thoughts and the manifestation of those thoughts. This offers you a window of opportunity to arrest disempowering thoughts and replace them with thoughts that serve your best interests.

It is simply not true that you have no control over your thoughts. You can consciously train yourself to engage in more empowering thinking and thereby change your life for the better.

8. Judge your actions by by how they serve you and others

In any situation, consider the impact of your actions. Learn to align your actions and behaviours with your values. We call this ‘living consciously’ rather than simply reacting automatically to events around you.

Practice constructive actions and behaviours – those that are good for you, for others and the world in general – over destructive actions that may feel good in the short term but that are, in the longer term, counterproductive or negative for you, others and the world at large.

9. Lighten up

If you really reflect on it, life is full of amusing situations, interesting ironies, funny contradictions and reminders of how quirky we all are sometimes.

When life seems crazy, find a reason to laugh about it and enjoy the lightness. Its far more fun than taking everything around you really seriously all the time.

10. Be grateful

When life seems challenging, employ gratitude to help you get by. There is always so much to be authentically grateful for and the payoff comes with those wonderful feelings of joyfulness, understanding, love and peace that result.

Through regularly practising gratitude you can more easily access your inner being and its all-knowing nature!

 

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Find out more about life coaching and becoming a life coach here:

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22 thoughts on “Ten Steps to a Better You”

  1. Thank you Bill, for an inspirational, insightful and practical guideline to self-improvement. We are surely all a work in progress and never stop learning, developing and improving ourselves.

    Point 4, on understanding what is important to you, truly resonated with me. As you so wisely say, our values are the guideposts on our life’s journey, and every decision we make should flow out of our value system. Your emphasis on living consciously made a big impression on me, as it is so easy in life to simply operate on ‘auto’ mode.

    Point 6, on listening to your inner voice ~ amazingly my life has been spared on more than one occasion by listening to my intuition. I do believe that our intuition or higher-self is like an internal lighthouse guiding the way. When we fail to follow that inner guidance, we end up paying the consequences. This happened to me recently when I ignored my inner voice, regarding a relationship!

    1. Diana Lindbergh (Doolie)

      I love the “internal lighthouse guiding the way” . I too have sometimes not listened to my inner voice and paid the price and I truly believe that is one of the ways God leads us by giving us inner peace or lack of it when we need to make an important or any decision for that matter. Every decision is like a fork in the road – when you take the one or the other fork, that decision determines the choices that are then available to you along that road. I have learnt to pray and ask the Lord for His wisdom as when I listen life becomes so much more fulfilling.

  2. Michael Grice

    Bill
    Thank you for another great post. Just as the entire New Insights program has given structure to my passion, so your words and style create clear pictures that express what I sometimes feel. Your top 10 resonates with me very powerfully.
    Thank you for investing your time.

  3. Wow, Bill! Thank you for sharing the gift of your wisdom with your readers. And a special thank you to the person whose question inspired this deeply meaningful response.

  4. Pieter Engelbrecht

    Bill, that is so true. The world would be totally another place when EACH person accepts himself/herself and the one next to him/her as they as individually are. As human beings, we do not know ourselves but want to control/manipulate other people’s lives.

  5. Great tips, especially number 10. There are so many people who’ve got so much going for them, but they can’t use or appreciate it due to not being grateful.

    Thank you Bill

  6. I like your ten steps. I would say that they are not sequential and should be practiced simultaneously. It’s a bit like learning to drive a car at first there are too many things to think about but with practice it becomes second nature. So if you feel as though you can’t remember to do all those things at once, don’t beat yourself up, keep practicing. It will come to you. Thanks for the the reminder.

    1. Hi Patrick – yes in hindsight perhaps the word ‘Steps’ could have been replaced with ‘Suggestions’ as you are quite right that these are not necessarily meant to be followed sequentially. Each will make a big difference alone but they are interconnected 🙂

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