According to James Clear, “We often lie to ourselves about the progress we are making on important goals,” he continues to say, “If we want to lose weight, we might claim that we’re eating healthy, but in reality, our eating habits haven’t changed very much.” This could not be any truer. Think about your lifestyle. Are you actually holding yourself accountable?
Now you are probably asking yourself, Why do these petty lies matter?
These lies matter because they are preventing us from realizing self-awareness. Self-awareness is so important for our mental health and in the way we control our emotions. Self-awareness and self-improvement go hand in hand. If you are aware of the things you are slacking on or the things that trigger your emotions, you can better focus on improving those things.
Things To Do To Improve Self-Awareness
If you really want to improve something or get better at something, it is better to visually see where you stand. You might think you are at one level, but you could actually be at a different level. “You need self-awareness before you can achieve self-improvement” (James Clear).
1. Journaling
Writing in a journal is the best way (for me) to visually see where you are at in your life. You can use a bullet journal to track your workouts, food, or water intake. You can also use a journal to track your moods throughout the day. This will help to see your overall mood for the month. Also, using a journal will allow you to go back a flip through your progress so you can see where you were once before your journey through self-improvement. You will be more AWARE in order to IMPROVE.
2. Write down your goals
Writing down your goals for the day, week, month, or even year will help hold you accountable. You can’t deny crossing off a goal or a task is the most satisfying thing ever! By the end of your time frame, you will be able to see what goals were met and if some were not met, you can break down why they were not met and what you can do to improve for next time.
3. Perform daily self-reflection
This goes along with journaling. It is easier to write down throughout the day how you are feeling so you do not forget. For me, I am so forgetful, I could forget what I wore the day before. I don’t know how it happens, but it is so easy for me to forget the little things. If you are trying to improve your behavior or mood, write down when you are most happy that day or when you are most sad and reflect on it. Maybe there was something that triggered your emotion that you could either avoid or try harder to grasp.
We need to better focus on ourselves so we can better take care of our physical and mental needs. You are important too. If you want to change something you need to hold yourself accountable. If you are feeling very stressed all of the time, figure out why you are stressed and how to cancel it altogether. Please check up on yourself, and always remember, Be a better you for you.
Lot’s of Love,
Jess ♡