4 Self-Improvement Challenges You Can Start Today

September 8, 2021

There are many things that make self-improvement tough. It requires motivation and discipline, both of which can be in short supply sometimes. It can also feel overwhelming. After all, where on earth do you start in revamping your career or your finances? Just taking a first step can make a big difference. Below you’ll find four easy first steps you can take today.

Debt

If you don’t have outstanding debt, then you are in the minority. Most people are carrying some form of debt besides a mortgage, such as credit card debt. Today, take one step to try to reduce your interest rate or make your debt easier to pay off. Maybe that’s setting up an automatic withdrawal. Maybe it’s calling your credit card company and asking for a lower interest rate. If you have multiple student loans, take a few minutes to use a student loan consolidation calculator to find out if you can save money by consolidating them with a private lender. You’ll definitely have an easier time paying them off with just one payment to make instead of several.

Career

Are you feeling frustrated or unappreciated in your current job, but you can’t seem to find the time to do anything about it? Today, update your resume and send it to a company you are interested in or a recruiter. If you are considering changing fields, look at the top ranking careers worth going back to school for, and see if you must obtain any licenses or certifications or retrain in some way.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is more than just a buzzword. It’s a deceptively simple practice that helps ground you in the here and now. You can practice mindfulness this very minute or as soon as you finish this article. Just take a couple of minutes to sit still and notice what is happening around you with your five senses. What do you hear? How does the air smell? Pay attention to your breathing. Taking little moments like this throughout the day to just stop, even if it is only for a minute, can help you stay calm and centered.

Goals

Goals can be tricky in that many don’t know how to make a plan to reach a goal, or they are so overwhelmed by the everyday that having goals seems laughable. There are a lot of sources online and offline that can teach you how to articulate specific, measurable goals and work toward them, but here is a quick exercise you can do today. Take 10 minutes to write down the things you want to have more of or that you value most in your life.

Maybe you’ve written down spending time with your family, reading books and cycling. Now think about how much of your life you spend doing each of these things. What else is occupying your time? You still have to go to work, but what can you eliminate that keeps you away from filling your days with the things you love the most? This preliminary exercise can help you start thinking about what you really want and how what you do each day is connected to the overall arc of your life.