written by
Iain Smith

Little And Often

Mindset 2 min read
Self Improvement Is Like Washing

What if you were to avoid washing for 31 days, but then on the last day of the month spend three hours in the shower? Or take a really long soak in the tub? Really go to town with all the bubbles and having a right old time with the loofah?

Well, you’d be red raw and squeaky clean alright but for the four and a half weeks before that … not so good. I certainly wouldn’t want to sit next to you on an airplane!

So the advice for personal hygiene is do it little and often. It's good advice and most of us live our lives by it.

Little By Little

It’s the same advice for self improvement. Little by little, day by day, regular repeated actions have clear tangible results.

Whatever you are focusing on, daily habitual activity in that area will embed and maintain or improve things.

'The aggregation of marginal gains' is the possible title of a book that will surely never sell a single copy, but the concept is a good way of ensuring steady and continuous progress.

Instead we go large and expect immediate change. Too many times we find ourselves guilty of, say, no exercise for weeks on end and so we feel fat and slovenly.

Then, randomly inspired, we hit the gym hard. Too hard. And injure ourselves. And then don’t go again for six months. Repeat to fade.

Much better to go regularly and work out to a manageable degree.

Your Area Of Focus

It's the same for all sorts of areas of life that get ignored and slowly become unmanageable:

  • Painting in the home
  • Continuous Professional Development
  • Sorting out your files - physical and digital
  • Updating the budget and finances
  • Reviewing staffing
  • Going through old photos
  • Revisiting or renewing the business plan
  • Deleting old emails

Who Are You Accountable To?

One of the reasons I write my weekly top tips email is very selfish. I do it as a way to ensure that I regularly focus on some form of useful positive learning.

It’s my version of regular self improvement washing. (Does that work as a metaphor? Almost.)

Having to write the email acts as leverage. I need to do it. It's a sort of accountability buddy.

And so every week I spend a little bit of time thinking about one beneficial idea. It could be about:

  • Setting goals
  • Improving quality
  • An inspiring quote
  • A useful language pattern
  • A perspective that can change how you feel

Doing this each week ensures that I am reminded about things I want to be embedding into my way of life. I'm being habitually reminded about good practices I want to adopt and own, for work and home. My regular personal development ablutions if you will. 

Iain helps organisations get more done, in less time and reduce stress. He delivers inspiring training courses across the UK and abroad. You can contact him here.

He writes a weekly top tips newsletter that you can sign up for on this very page, or by visiting his website.

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