Oct-1-2022

Starting any self-improvement effort, it can be difficult. You may go to the gym for a week and then stop. You might be productive for a few days but start procrastinating when the motivation wears off. You may set a budget, only to overspend a month later.

To prevent this from happening you must build a foundation for self-improvement. Just like you must structure a level foundation before building the house, you have to setup a level foundation before taking on larger self-improvement goals.

Investing in a Foundation

Now that I started getting serious about personal development, I believe first 8-12 months should be used for creating a foundation. This foundation should consist of habits and skills that further personal development efforts. Now, with every new goal set, we now already have a solid support infrastructure to lighten the load of changing our lives.

Taking a year of building a foundation might seem excessive. I’m not saying you put off all other self-improvement efforts until the foundation is complete, just that you make it your primary focus. Honestly in the long run, investing one year building a foundation is nothing considering the tremendous impact it can have in your ability to improve in becoming the best version of yourself.

Structuring Your Foundation

I believe these are the three areas that consistently need the most work when starting to structure your foundation:

1. Getting Organized
2. Daily Routines
3. Physical Health

If you are not organized and surrounded by clutter, both physically and mentally, every goal will be much harder. Not having organization in your environment creates disorganization in your thinking. Clear, focused thinking is necessary for self-improvement, so don’t clutter your mind with junk think about what you’re thinking about and is it conducive to your daily process of becoming the best version of you.

If your daily routines aren’t conductive to your goals, your only rely on willpower for every action. Establishing daily routines raises your level of productivity. The third part of a solid foundation is your physical health because achieving any goal will require to be able to do it. If your body isn’t in great shape, you’ll have less energy to invest every day. Think of your body as the fuel tank for any goal. The better shape you’re in, the more fuel you have to use every day.

You can achieve these goals they are achievable, if you put the right effort and focus in. Even if you can’t achieve greatness in one of the goals (such as a disability preventing you from exercising, or a roommate making it difficult to stay organized), you can still make improvements through hard work. Often personal development goals require luck and timing to achieve, such as writing a best-selling book or boosting your income. However, these three goals are mostly within your control, making them a great starting point.

This is a list you can take to make strong improvements in your foundation also I will be addressing each of these topics in length:

• Establish a morning ritual
• Begin using weekly/daily goals
• Eat a healthier diet
• Exercise daily
• Write your goals on paper
• Maintain a journal to record ideas
• Take one day off per week, work hard the other six
• Run a weekly review
• Give up television
• Organize your internet usage
• Get enough sleep each night

Each of these are something you could implement over the next month in a thirty-day trial. If you select 8-12 of these and accomplish them over the next year you will have a concrete foundation for any future goal.

Maintaining Your Foundation

Building your foundation isn’t a one-time event. Habits will slip and you will need to rebuild them periodically. Your goals may change, forcing you to change your foundation to suit them. But if you’ve spent the time investing in a foundation initially, these changes are maintenance, not a complete reconstruction.

For example, in the past six months, I had fallen out of my typical morning ritual of waking up at 5:30-6:30 each morning. Part of this was due to relying on more group work, where I had to match my workflow to the other members of my team. Part was due to being sick for a few weeks disrupted my old habits.

Cracks will appear in your foundation all the time. What’s important is that you monitor them and fill them before they become too big. I’m certain that when my current group work is complete, I’ll switch back to my normal sleeping habits.

When building a foundation try to run at least one thirty day trial every month, building new habits of organization, routine or fitness. Now, you should probably run 3-4 per year, as to reach most of the habits you want, to change and spend most of your time maintaining the ones Iyou have or investing more energies in pursuing bigger self-improvement goals.

When you a solid foundation, it makes it much easier to make improvements in business, studies or relationships. Once you complete the current projects you should engaged in, planning some aggressive goals for yourself learning and reaching new targets to become the best version of yourself. Because having a fairly stable foundation, can give you focus and move your energy foreword in reaching these goals and not worry about whether you have the time, self-discipline or motivation.

52andbetter/Building a better Foundation