Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

When it comes to self-improvement, most people jump too high and fall equally hard. We set hairy, audacious goals because anything less than that is not sexy. It’s not appealing.

• “I’ll work for two hours without any distractions”

• “I’ll lose 20 pounds in five weeks”

• “I’ll learn a new language in a month”

• “I’ll write ten thousand words every day”

• “I’ll sell 90% of my possessions by next week”

We like going to the extreme but we can hardly handle it. These high standards often come from the media — you see people making headlines. You see James Altucher selling all his possessions in his two apartments and living out of AirBnBs.

And you think you should do the same.

In reality, it’s the worst strategy.

You don’t want to face the ups and downs. Instead, you want to always go up over the long-term.

To do that, you need to identify the smallest change you can make to proceed. This is what James Clear calls the art of continuous improvement.

If you just improve 1% every day, you’ll be 37 times better by the end of the year. The math is in your favor.

Here are ten ways you can implement this idea in your life and get out of your comfort zone. Do this enough times and you’ll learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Meditation

Meditation can be the most uncomfortable one on the list. But, it’s worth it.

Your happiness is directly proportional to how present you are in this moment. And the best way to train your mind to be present is meditation.

Don’t fret. I’ll not tell you to learn a specific technique or to sit in an uncomfortable posture.

All you need is to close your eyes for two minutes, right now. Do that once a day for a week. Increase the time by ten seconds every day. Remember, tiny changes lead to big results.

Focus on consistency rather than length. If you can’t do it for two minutes, do it for one. But do it.

Once it becomes a habit, you can increase the time effortlessly.

Change your workout routine

The body is surprisingly good at adapting to its surroundings.

If you walk every day for five miles on a flat surface, it’ll get used to it within a week. It’s important to switch continuously.

Again, aim for the smallest change possible. Instead of walking five miles, hike for three miles. If you lift weights, change your rep structure — ascending, descending, reverse pyramid, German volume, etc. Do high reps with lightweight instead of low reps with a heavyweight.

These small changes won’t matter and you won’t notice the difference. But in the long run, they add up to form giant waves of momentum.

Fasting

It’s about time you give your body a break from digestion. I’m not telling you to do an intermittent fast or eat one meal a day.

Just go for four hours without food. If you can’t, you need to eat natural, satiating foods so you don’t jump for snacks between meals.

Let the feeling of hunger come and go. Hunger does not mean you need food. Instead, a hormone called ghrelin controls hunger, which is time-based.

In other words, it does not make you hungry when you actually need food, it makes you hungry because it’s used to getting food at that time.

When I realized I don’t need to eat whenever I’m hungry, I lifted a huge weight off my shoulders.

After two months of a weekly 24-hour fast, it still feels uncomfortable. That’s how strongly we’re attached to food.

It’s not about losing weight, or longevity — though they are good side-effects. It’s about building mental strength.

Touch Typing

Typing faster can literally change your life. Let’s say you type 30 words per minute. You can then write 1800 words in one hour.

If however, you can type up to 60 WPM, you can get to 1800 words in half the time. If you save one hour every day by doubling your typing speed (a very modest assumption), you can save 15 days in a year. That’s half a month every year, only if you save one hour.

If you’re in a job that requires a lot of writing — emails, code, articles, etc, you may be writing close to 5000–10000 words every day. This saves you two-three hours every day, which leads to a month saved every year!

I hope you’re convinced. My current writing speed is 72 WPM with 80% accuracy which makes the adjusted score 57 WPM. I did it with ten minutes of practice every day for two weeks.

Even if you achieve 45 WPM, you beat 75% of the people. If you achieve around 70 WPM, you beat 95% of people.

It’s the most beneficial thing you can do that is the least uncomfortable in the list.

Selling

If you’ve never sold something face-to-face or on a call, you should.

Above all, it teaches you the value of empathy and rejection — something you’ll receive in bucket-loads.

Most of us running an online business forget the importance of selling. But everything depends on it.

I know the fear of knocking on the door or picking up the phone. But the more you wait, the more difficult it becomes.

And you don’t need a sales job to sell.

Sell your spouse on that new painting you want to buy. Sell your boss to give you a raise. Find something— there’s always something to sell.

It can easily change your life.

Learning to Code

I learned to code during high school. No one taught me. I had taken economics and accounting as my subjects. Still, I learned how to code with tons of tutorials and courses.

It helped me start my company, working with national clients in India. It helped me get a job during the pandemic.

But you don’t need to do that. If you’re a marketer, for example, learning simple CSS will go a long way.

You’ll not be dependent on your developer for every tiny change and you’ll be hard to fool when it comes to pricing. As they say, hire when it hurts.

Learning how to code has a gazillion benefits. It refines your thinking and makes you appreciate the creative process.

It’s also fun. I often mess around the CSS of different blogs, hiding the ads and banners that I don’t like. If the font is not right, I change it. I can literally design my own web experience. I can write chrome extensions to do anything I want.

That’s powerful.

Proposing solutions

Next time someone asks you where to have dinner — have an answer for god’s sake. Don’t reflect the question.

I get it. I too hate making extraneous decisions. But sometimes you have to. The other day, my phone stopped working. I’d repaired it a hundred times and so it was time for a new one.

But, I didn’t want to decide. To check the RAM, camera, memory, price, battery, and lots of other things are not my cup of tea. Same with what to order in a restaurant. Same with talking to business clients.

It’s a terrible habit to escape making decisions. Instead, as Tim Ferris says, learn to make quick, irreversible decisions with little damage.

For example,

• “Let’s order X, Y, and Z and if we’re still hungry we’ll see what we can eat” **instead of **“What would you like?”

• “Let’s finalize this device and if it doesn’t work, we’ll return it” **instead of ** “What do you think? Is the camera fine?”

• “Let’s schedule a call for Monday and if it doesn’t work, I’m available on Thursday” **instead of **“When are you free?”

It’s uncomfortable to make decisions. But some decisions have to be made. The quicker you can get away with them, the more time you save, and the more confident you become.

Bathe in Boredom

Boredom has become foreign to us. It’s impossible to be bored. We constantly numb ourselves with distractions — social media, Netflix, pornography, YouTube, the news, etc.

As Mark Manson says, “They say necessity is the mother of invention. Well, boredom is the father.”

It’s the easiest, most accessible tool to unlock our creativity. And so, pick one thing to abstain from — it can be TV, Netflix, music, or your phone in general.

And then go cold turkey. Simple. Bathe in the boredom. Feel the itch and let it pass.

---

Are you serious about becoming the best version of yourself? Get your free 5-day email course to Master The Art Of Personal Transformation