“The key to happiness is really progress and growth and constantly working on yourself and developing something.” —Lewis Howes
Self-improvement, improvement of one’s mind, character, habits, and life through one’s own efforts. Life only changes as a result of the improvements you make by the actions you take.
Here are 10 Things You Should Do Every Day to improve your life.
1) Get out in nature
You probably seriously underestimate how important this is. (Actually, there’s research that says you do.) Being in nature reduces stress, makes you more creative, improves your memory and may even make you a better person.
2) Exercise
We all know how important this is, but few people do it consistently. Other than health benefits too numerous to mention, exercise makes you smarter, happier, improves sleep, increases libido and makes you feel better about your body. A Harvard study that has tracked a group of men for more than 70 years identified it as one of the secrets to a good life.
3) Spend time with friends and family
Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert identified this as one of the biggest sources of happiness in our lives. Relationships are worth more than you think (approximately an extra $131,232 a year.) Not feeling socially connected can make you stupider and kill you. Loneliness can lead to heart attack, stroke and diabetes. The longest lived people on the planet all place a strong emphasis on social engagement and good relationships are more important to a long life than even exercise. Friends are key to improving your life. Share good news and enthusiatically respond when others share good news with you to improve your relationships. Want to instantly be happier? Do something kind for them.
Every morning send a friend, family member or co-worker an email (or text) to say thanks for something. There’s tons of research showing that over time, this alone – one simple email a day – can make you happier.
Harvard professor Shawn Achor’s The Happiness Advantage explains:
“This is why I often ask managers to write an e-mail of praise or thanks to a friend, family member, or colleague each morning before they start their day’s work—not just because it contributes to their own happiness, but because it very literally cements a relationship.”
4) Express gratitude
Gratitude is more powerful than you realize. In an experiment, people were asked to spend some time helping a student improve a job application cover letter. After they sent their feedback, the student replied with a message, “I just wanted to let you know that I received your feedback on my cover letter,” and asked for help with another one in the next three days. Only 32% of the people helped. When the student added just eight words—“Thank you so much! I am really grateful”—the rate of helping doubled to 66%.
In another experiment, after people helped one student, a different student asked them for help. Being thanked by the first student boosted helping rates from 25% to 55%. The punch line: a little thanks goes a long way, not only for encouraging busy people to help you, but also for motivating them to help others like you.
Plus, by expressing gratitude:
- It will make you happier.
- It will improve your relationships.
- It can make you a better person.
- It can make life better for everyone around you.
5) Meditate
Meditation can increase happiness, meaning in life, social support and attention span while reducing anger, anxiety, depression and fatigue. Along similar lines, prayer can make you feel better — even if you’re not religious.
6) Get enough sleep
You can’t cheat yourself on sleep and not have it affect you. Being tired actually makes it harder to be happy. Lack of sleep = more likely to get sick. “Sleeping on it” does improve decision making. Lack of sleep can make you more likely to behave unethically. There is such a thing as beauty sleep.
Naps are great too. Naps increase alertness and performance on the job, enhance learning ability and purge negative emotions while enhancing positive ones. Here’s how to improve your naps.
7) Challenge yourself
Learning another language can keep your mind sharp. Music lessons increase intelligence. Challenging your beliefs strengthens your mind. Increasing willpower just takes a little effort each day and it’s more responsible for your success than IQ. Not getting an education or taking advantage of opportunities are two of the things people look back on their lives and regret the most.
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Ernest Hemingway
8) Laugh
People who use humor to cope with stress have better immune systems, reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, experience less pain during dental work and live longer. Laughter should be like a daily vitamin. Just reminiscing about funny moments can improve your relationship. Humor has many benefits.
9) Touch someone
Touching can reduce stress, improve team performance, and help you be persuasive. Hugs make you happier. Intimate contact may help prevent heart attacks and cancer, improve your immune system and extend your life.
10) Be optimistic
Optimism can make you healthier, happier and extend your life. The Army teaches it in order to increase mental toughness in soldiers. Being confident improves performance.
Bonus:
Email a good friend and make plans.
Research says that to keep friendships alive, you should stay in touch every 2 weeks.
Got 14 friends, then you need to be emailing somebody every day and making plans to get together. Research shows the best use of electronic communication, like email or social media, is to facilitate face-to-face interaction:
The results were unequivocal. “The greater the proportion of face-to-face interactions, the less lonely you are,” John T. Cacioppo, author of “Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection” says. “The greater the proportion of online interactions, the lonelier you are.”
Facebook is merely a tool, and like any tool, its effectiveness will depend on its user. “If you use Facebook to increase face-to-face contact,” Cacioppo says, “it increases social capital.” So if social media let you organize a game of football among your friends, that’s healthy. If you turn to social media instead of playing football, however, that’s unhealthy.
“Beginning today, set an intention and a relentless focus on living your life as the greatest person you can be, in all situations.” —Brendon Burchard
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