Make Improvement Intentional

Improvement is within the reach of anyone, no matter how experienced or green, educated or ignorant, rich or poor. To start improving today, do these two things:

1. Decide You Are Worth Improving

To improve yourself, you must believe you can improve. Author Denis Whitley has a wonderful definition for personal development. He says that it is the conviction that there is value in your dreams. “Personal development,” he says, “is the belief that you are worth the effort, time, and energy needed to develop yourself. It gives you permission to invest in yourself so you can develop your own potential.”

You can invest in yourself. You don’t need anyone’s dreams but your own. And you don’t need to become anyone other than yourself at your best. The great philosopher Thomas Carlyle once wrote, “Let each become all that he was created capable of being.” I can’t think of a better definition of success. Life challenges us every day to develop our capabilities to the fullest. We’re successful when we reach for the highest that’s within us—when we give the best we have. Life doesn’t require us to always come out on top. It asks only that we do our best to improve at whatever level of experience we are currently on.

2. Pick an Area to Improve

There is a funny story about a wealthy Texan who died. When his attorney asked the entire family to gather for the reading of the will, relatives came from near and far to see if they were included in the bequests.

On the day they were assembled, the lawyer somberly opened the will and began to read:

“To my cousin Ed, I leave my ranch.”

“To my brother Jim, I leave my money market accounts.”

“To my neighbor and good friend, Fred, I leave my stocks.”

“And finally, to my cousin George, who always sat around and never did anything, but wanted to be remembered in my will, I want to say, ‘Hi, George.’”

Most of us either want to improve nothing, like George, or we are so impatient to become all that we can that we try to improve all that we are at the same time. Those are both mistakes. We need to focus. Noted psychologist William Jones advised, “If you would be rich, you will be rich; if you would be good, you will be good; if you would be learned, you will be learned. But wish for one thing exclusively, and don’t at the same time wish for a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly.”

You will have plenty of time to improve other areas of your life.

Focus on the one now that makes the most of your strengths and is closest to your sense of purpose. Take the advice of Earl Nightingale who suggested spending an hour a day improving in that area. Then take it slow but steady. We always overestimate what we can get done in a day or a week. But we underestimate what we can get done in a year.

Just imagine what you will be able to get done in five years.