There’s a dark side to the self-improvement industry. If you’re into any form of self-improvement (self-help, personal-development, personal-empowerment, etc.), there’s a good chance that you’ve been affected by it.

What is it?

Working on improving yourself can actually affect your self-esteem in a negative way. You see, when you decide that you want to improve something, you can get caught up in focusing on what’s wrong with you.

In order to decide you want to change something, you first need to acknowledge that there’s something in your life that you don’t like. This acknowledgment is important, but it’s easy to end up keeping your focus there. Keeping your focus on your problems is a guaranteed recipe for getting yourself down.

Does this mean you shouldn’t work on improving yourself and your life? Of course not, wanting to improve is a worthy endeavor.

So, how do you endeavor to improve your life without ending up feeling bad about yourself? Remember why you want to improve your life and also acknowledge what is already going well.

Remember Why Do You Want To Improve?

You have the power to choose where you put your focus. If you want to change something, first acknowledge that there’s a problem, then decide how you would like to change it.

Once you know where your want to go, keep your focus there instead of the problem itself.

Remember to Acknowledge What’s Already Going Well

Take some time to look at yourself and your life and acknowledge what’s already good about them. If there are areas of your life that are going well, appreciate yourself for doing such a good job.

Taking time to do this regularly will help you remember that you are a capable person and deserve to congratulate yourself. Really, go ahead and do it now, you deserve it!

Conclusion

Improving yourself is a worthy goal, but don’t get caught up in focusing on the problems in your life. Avoid any potential blows to your self esteem. Keep your focus on your goals and remember to regularly spend time acknowledging what’s already going well.

I strongly believe that all areas of our lives are intertwined and have an effect on each other. But this interconnectedness is the most obvious in the area of our own health.

If you are unhealthy:

• You have less energy to improve your other areas of life like mental, spiritual, relationships, and finances.
• Physical pain and ailments slow you down.
• You feel more depressed and angry.

But this also works the other way. As you improve your health, every other area is also going to be affected in a positive way.

Have More Energy To Work Towards Your Other Goals

When you feel tired, sick, and achy, it’s hard to find the energy to work toward your goals in the other areas of your life. Taking action is hard if you’re just too tired to do it.

If you begin to improve your health, your energy levels start to increase and aches and pains will start to fade away. This new found energy and sense of well-being can then be used to start making the desired changes in the other areas of your life.

Feel More Positive

When you exercise and eat healthy foods, a chemical called serotonin is released by the body. Serotonin helps control your mood and just plain makes you feel good. By eating right and exercising regularly, you can make sure that you are getting regular doses of this feel good chemical.

Don’t worry about getting addicted to it. It’s all natural and non-harmful when you get it naturally from living a healthy lifestyle .

Gain Confidence

Success breeds more success. As you see regular improvements in your exercise achievements and in your health in general, your confidence will also naturally increase. Seeing yourself improve and succeed in the area of your health will give you more confidence that you can also improve and succeed in other areas of your life.

Not only will your confidence increase, your self esteem will increase as well. Healthy living leads to a healthier appearance. Your weight will begin to move to a healthier level, and your skin and eyes will begin to have a healthy glow to them. As your physical appearance improves, you will start feeling better about how you look. How would your life change if you felt good about how you looked?

Conclusion

You can make some dramatic changes to your life in a short period of time if you immediately do a complete overhaul of your diet and start exercising daily. However, this fast and hard approach doesn’t work for everyone.

Often these types of changes are just too dramatic for people to stick too. If you can do it, I encourage you to do so. But if it doesn’t work out, don’t get discouraged. This is normal and there is another way.

You can take slow and steady baby steps instead. Start by making one small dietary change and adding just one hour of exercise to your week. Make sure you choose an exercise that you enjoy.

Give it a month and then make one more change and add a bit more exercise to your week. It’s easier for your brain to accept small incremental changes, so use that to your advantage.

In just a few months you will have made several dietary changes and added a good amount of exercise to your routine.

As a personal example, I recently got over my addiction to coffee. Now I’m working on alkalizing my body. Small changes each month, but over time, all these small changes will really begin to add up.

Start improving your health today and over the next few weeks and months you can be sure that you will start to see improvements not only in your health, but in many areas of your life.