Self-improvement

"Be all that you can be" is an Army slogan that is all about self-improvement. It is at once a challenge and an invitation. It challenges one to take all the potential and turn it into reality. It is also an invitation to become totally, uniquely and fully you.

This means we are only responsible for reaching our own level of excellence. It is not about becoming like anyone else, that's why the "self" is in self-improvement.

What if?

What if you changed? What if you were intentional about your life? What would be different?

What if you loved your life with Christ? You were intentional about your relationship with Him and it became everything you always heard it could be?

What if you liked who you were becoming? You'd
still have lots of room for growth, you'd still be a work
in progress but you knew that being intentional about really becoming God's design for you was actually working.

What if you learned to love like Christ loves? You'd still mess up at times, but imagine what it would feel like to not be so angry and frustrated, and unhappy.

What if you decided to become you?

Picture the future

Stop for a minute and picture yourself five years from now. You've been growing and changing, working on your self-improvement and you've made tremendous progress. What are you like then?

If you can get a picture of your best self in mind then you now know which direction to go.

The great news is you have a fantastic partner in this process. In Philippians it says, "I am confident of this very thing, that He that started a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."

God has a plan for growing you, all you have to do is join Him.

Where do you want to improve?

God designed each one of us to be uniquely ourselves. We have our own quirks, intelligence, passions, interests, talents, physique, area where we live, circle of influence, and temperament. Now our part then, is to bring Him glory by being fully ourselves and that needs our attention. So, where do you need to improve?
- grow in your relationship with Christ
- learn new communication or conflict skills
- learn how to deal with emotions better
- need to go back to school and learn a trade or get a degree
- need to find new interests, hobbies, and outlets for talent
- want to explore whether you have a talent in a particular area
- want to advance at work
- need a new line of work
- parenting
- marriage and other interpersonal skills
- learn to set boundaries
- learn to walk through your day with Jesus

Just do it

Wherever you need self-improvement, you can do it. Just start. Pick an area then commit to improving it.

Remember imaging your best self. Well, that is a journey. Every day is a step closer and every improvement affects every other area. If you work on better communication then that will affect all your relationships, your work, your boundaries and your self-confidence. You will be making forward progress every day that you get up and move toward your goals.

Stop wandering around your life

If you have a good idea of where you want to work on your self-improvement then you can set goals to get there. Most likely you will make some course corrections along the way but you won't be wandering around in your life anymore.

So, write out where you want to be and who you want to be in five years. Now what do you have to be doing four years from now, three years from now, two years from now, one year from now, six months from now, three months from now, one month from now, next week from now and today to get there.

That is how we set goals. You can break each area down into a 5 year plan like this.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Don't let yourself get overwhelment, just take a bite at a time.

Self-improvment is a journey not a destination. In five years you will see other ways to continue to move toward successful living in all areas of life. As you succeed, you will be encourage to move even farther forward.

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