The 5 Best Way To Become a Better You: Part 1

Part 1: Self Assessment

Who are you?

I have been working over the past year on affective ways for becoming a better me.  This equates to becoming the better you.  Self improvement is something we should all constantly visit, revisit, visit, and revisit again.  It’s a never-ending refresh of living our life, evaluating our life, and actually improving upon ourselves through managing our lives.  This is something that is very tough for a lot of people.  People like me, as well as people like you (who are honest with themselves) don’t like to critique ourselves too much.  Those who do spend a lot of time critiquing themselves tend to do this in an unhealthily way.  Don’t take this the wrong way, but critiquing yourself isn’t the same as beating yourself up and dwelling on what you do wrong.  It is simply looking at what you can do better in a constructive point of view.  I began reading more time management books and as diverse as each one was, they all seem to link back to self-awareness.  How aware are you about you?  Understanding how you function is a key aspect of everything you do.  How well can you perform at work, if you don’t know how well you can do a task?  How well can you raise children if you don’t understand how you interact with kids?  How well can you be a good spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner if you don’t understand what your likes and dislikes are?  Well, you get the picture…  I started my self assessment by first understanding just what I liked to do personally.  I defined just what it was that made me smile in my personal life.  Once I identified what that attribute was, I asked myself how could I apply that to other facets of my life (work, family, friendships, etc…).  Oddly, I found myself being able to make some links.

However, step 2 for me was actually learning how I spent my time.  I began to monitor every aspect of my life and just how much time was being spent where.  Being the technical guru that I try to be, I knew I didn’t want to do this in a time-consuming way or any archaic way that involved writing and logging things on paper as well as calculating stuff.  So, given that I use an Android based phone I went to my Google Play store and downloaded a time tracking application.  My selection was an application called Gleeo.  Obviously, you can research other time tracking applications for iOS (iPhone/iPad) devices, but this one I researched and felt it was better suited and user-friendly.  I began to record and monitor just how much time I was spending in my life.  It was then I learned just what was important to me, and also how much of my life was inefficient.  I began to become self-aware of how inefficient I was and what areas of my life needed to change to become efficient.  Part 1 of “Preparing for Success: Becoming a Better You” involves understanding the who, what, and when part of our life with more emphasis on understanding the ‘when’ aspect.  Time management is a driver for may elements of our lives.  Try understanding why your boss is upset that you are constantly late for work, or every time you plan a date, you are constantly late.  It may not be so obvious to you, but I can assure you that the people around you can attest to this being a negative driver.  Take the time to understand how your life is being spent, then use self-evaluation to adjust yourself to the challenges and changes of life.  Life is dynamic.  Actually life is extremely dynamic.  There is a reason other than the physiological relationship of science that we get grey hair.  Things are changing all around us.  If the satisfying life that we use to have isn’t so satisfying now, even when nothing has changed for us, it is more than likely that self assessment (or lack of) is the problem.  We simply don’t realize the need for change because we don’t spend a lot of time looking at life as a whole and how we are fitting into it.

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