6 Self Improvement Tips To Try Today
There are endless self improvement tips online, and most of them have some merit if you are willing to stick it out. But where to start? Oftentimes, self improvement is about creating easy, small habits that end up creating real change over time. The self improvement tips in this blog post are meant to help provide you with personal growth ideas that are easy to start and maintain, and don’t create more stress.
Self Improvement Tips: Drink more water
Unless you’re already making an intentional effort to get your 64 ounces a day, you can instantly and drastically improve your life by simply taking the time to drink water more frequently and more consistently. Many of us already know that mild dehydration causes headaches, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating, but did you know that it is proven to make tasks feel more difficult than they are? When you are trying to improve your life: whether it be losing weight, advancing in your career, or meeting new people, there is no reason to make the challenge feel more difficult than it already is by being dehydrated. Women are believed especially susceptible to the effects of mild dehydration, so drink up ladies!Self Improvement Tips: Use “The 5 Second Rule”
All of us procrastinate on one level or another, because our brain is programmed to do so. Our brains naturally repel change and getting out of our comfort zone, and if we let our brains hold us back, we miss out on rewarding moments like finishing a project early, reaching our fitness goals, or enjoying the morning sunrise.
If you haven’t already heard of The 5 Second Rule, Mel Robbins has a great solution to procrastination that is all about tricking your brain out of pushing off uncomfortable tasks (like getting out of your warm bed and putting on your running shoes.)
The key is to count down from five whenever you feel yourself procrastinating on something. You’ll be surprised that when you get to “one”, you feel a rush of adrenaline that moves you forward and gets you to do that thing you are procrastinating on. This is because the act of counting down gets your brain focusing on the countdown and provides you with the adrenaline and sense of urgency you need to boost yourself into action. Try it! Next time you are tempted to hit the snooze button, countdown from five, and then launch yourself into the new day with intention and purpose.
Self Improvement Tips: Stop calorie counting
Behold, the easiest personal growth tip of all time! Just like you can improve your life by putting more H20 into your body, you can improve (and completely change) your life by being more conscious about what you are eating and why. However, calorie counting oftentimes is not the way to do it.
That’s because this can be a very shallow, depressing, and naive way to think about food. Food is our energy source, and it is inherently good, so why do so many people view it as the enemy? Developing a mindset where you cherish and appreciate your food, whether it is a milkshake or a salad, may help you to stop the feelings of shame and the cycle of punishment/reward that tends to underpin overeating.
This summer, instead of worrying about calories or clothing sizes, try focusing your energy on understanding what your food actually represents: where it comes from, how successfully it’s going to fuel your body, and what long term effects it will have on your health. Most importantly, remember that food is a gateway to wonderful experiences: adventures, encounters, and new discoveries.
Use your food to raise your voice. If we choose to eat clean label products that are free from artificial ingredients (like the ones you’ll find at Saffron Road!) we are helping to create a cleaner, fairer, more sustainable world. When you eat this way, you will realize that there is so much more to food than calories and trans fat, and hopefully, you will feel deeply satisfied knowing the deeper meaning behind what you eat, and get healthier in the process.
At Saffron Road, we are devoted to ethical standards of humane animal welfare and check out how we raise our livestock with care.
Saffron Road is all about better eating and better living. Read our blog post about our recent sustainability efforts with our packaging, and get a coupon for our sustainably packaged simmer sauces here!
Self Improvement Tips: Block out your day for tomorrow, then act on it.
Despite having 24 hours in a day, we often go to bed with several items on our daily to-do list left unchecked. This is because writing a to-do list doesn’t give you a realistic idea of when or how your tasks are actually going to get done, which leads you to overstuffing your list or unnecessarily wasting time.
Calendar blocking is a much more effective strategy for time management, and it involves transforming your to do list into blocks of time on your weekly calendar so that you know when things will get done, and how much time you are able to spend on them.
The challenge is to get started, so when you are done reading this article, go into Google calendar and click on the date for tomorrow. With your to-do list in mind, create blocks of time for every task that you need to accomplish, keeping in mind coffee breaks, fun activities, TV time, or whatever else you spend your day doing that you don’t usually account for. Being realistic about your time blocking is the key to being successful with it, so if you’re going to binge watch Netflix from 8-10pm, don’t pretend that you’re going to spend that time writing your first novel. Just block it in! Amy Landino gives a great tutorial on calendar blocking on her Youtube channel that you can check out to get started.
Self Improvement Tips: Start a gratitude journal
You’ve heard it before, you’ll hear it again, but gratitude really is believed to be the key to happiness. While simply reflecting on the things that you are thankful for has a positive effect on your mood, taking the time to start a gratitude journal, and taking it seriously enough to write in it everyday, is a great way to solidify the importance of gratitude in your life and make it a consistent daily practice, and this is why it is one of the most frequently offered personal growth tips.
Practicing gratitude for what you have is not something to be taken lightly. Without doing this, we tend to overeat, overspend, and overreact to challenges or minor mishaps in our day. We are also proven to be less kind to our family, more entitled, and worse decision makers. In other words, hanging out with ingrateful individuals is a drag! Creating a daily gratitude ritual isn’t just an important step in improving your life, it can also help improve the lives of those around you.
Self Improvement Tips: Go for a walk
Right now! Yes, now! If you’re reading this, you probably have 5 spare minutes to get up and go stretch your legs. It will make you feel better, and might even start a healthy daily habit of a daily walk. Walking can help reduce blood pressure, lower your stress levels, and prevent chronic disease, and if you can get outside in the sun, it’s even better. (But wear sunscreen!)
Self Improvement Tips: Gather together
Whether its calling an old friend, inviting a college student over for a long-overdue home cooked meal, or organizing a family reunion, there is no doubt that reaching out and building your community is an essential step to self improvement. At Saffron Road, we work everyday to help our customers start their own “Journey to Better™”, and the power of food to connect and heal humanity is at the core of this journey. We are all about taking extra steps to maintain strong bonds of family and friendship, whether that be through food or through any other medium.
Got some self improvement tips you live by? Share them with us in the comments!
