National Self-Improvement Month

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By Terry Orr

Self-Improvement - improvement of one's status, mind, abilities, etc. by one's own efforts.

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There is always something we would like to change about ourselves—job satisfaction, health, physical fitness level, intellectual development, eating habits, or relationships—The hardest part isn’t figuring out what to change…it’s making that change stick!  Most people fail to reach goals because of one of three reasons.

1. Unrealistic expectations
2. Environment is not conducive to change
3. We give up too soon

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Each morning while preparing for the day and cleaning up – I spend some time reviewing yesterday’s activities and how I handle things in general. If there are things needing work, I put those into my list of things to day and improve on.  I also smile and am thankful for another day.

We all know someone like this.
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You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest ways, improve yourself. ~ John Ruskin

On Google search on self-improvement books with 297 million hits – I have read many books on this topic over the past five decades – but nowhere near that many.  I have mentioned in the past articles that the one author who influenced my life was Dr. Stephen R. Covey who passed recently.

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Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

It was the sacred rule among the Pythagoreans that they should every evening thrice run over the actions and affairs of the day. ~ Dr. L. Watts

Never neglect an opportunity for improvement. ~ Sir William Jones

The safest principle through life, instead of reforming others, is to set about perfecting yourself. ~ B. R. Haydon 

Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Everyone has naturally the power of excelling in some one thing. ~ Proverb

Perfection does not exist - you can always do better and you can always grow. ~ Les Brown

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. ~ Zig Ziglar

Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. ~ Willam Faulkner

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Top 10 Tips for Self-Improvement

10. Get off to a Good Start.  Getting up early and eating breakfast! You will have much more energy throughout the day to follow the rest of these tips if you do!

9. Keep a Schedule.  It is a very good idea to write down the tasks you need to achieve in each day. As you complete them, tick them off. You should not, however, feel like you are bound to your list.

8.  Take a Break and have Fun.  If you spend too much time in front of the computer, at your desk, or doing whatever it is that your occupation requires, you should take a break.

7.  Be Generous.  Generosity has a tendency to come back. You can be generous with your smiles, your advice, and many other things. Always try to find a way to help others.

6.  Accept the things you can’t Change.  When something bad happens in our lives, we try to fix them or change them. But sometimes we can’t. Often this leads us to spend hours moping and falling in to depression.

5.  Learn a New Language.  Learning another language is one of the best ways to improve your grasp on English.

4.  Brake the Chain.  If you have a lot of patterns in your life, try breaking them – do something different every day.

3.  Face the Fear.  Every day you should do something you don’t want to do – or feel uncomfortable doing. This varies in degrees for everyone, but we all have little things we can start out with.

2.  Forget Goals.  I still have goal and things in life to be accomplish – but since retiring, they no longer drive my daily routine.

1. Don’t Procrastinate.  This is a hard one for most folks – something we need to work on (sometimes daily for me).

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Whatever area of your life that you are looking to improve – jot is down, think about how to do it and then “Make it Happen”.

Good Luck!!

Drink Water and Eat Dairy!

The story goes something like this, folks were standing around complaining about so much rain they were getting and one of them asked the Pope what he thought about the rain.  The Pope responded with just one word, “Life.”

March in the National Nutrition Month and I have been writing a series of articles about Healthy Habits as they are part of our foundation of life.  Without them, we handicap ourselves in all area’s of our lives.

Today’s article is Healthy Habit 10 Drinking Water and Eating Dairy.  Both are essential to our bodies being healthy and functioning properly. 

Glass of Refreshing Water

• Your blood is over 80 percent water and needs water to make healthy new blood cells.
• Your bones are over 50 percent water and, you guessed it, need water to make healthy new bone cells.
• Drinking more water actually helps lessen pain in your body by getting your lymphatic system moving. The lymphatic system is a network of nodes, tubes, vessels, and fluid that move waste out of your tissues. It requires water to function properly.
• Water helps to eliminate wastes and toxins from your body through the lymphatic system, kidneys, and intestines.
• Water lubricates your joints and helps reduce joint pain and protect against wear and tear.
• Water regulates your metabolism so if you’re overweight chances are you may need more water.
• Water balances body temperature.
• Water helps to ensure adequate electrical functioning so your brain and nervous system function properly. 
• Water alleviates dehydration .
• Every cell and organ in your body requires adequate water to function properly.

Dairy Products

March is National Nutrition Month by improving your bone health and adding protein, potassium and vitamin A and D to your eating plan, all be eating dairy.

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that the average adults eats 3 cups of dairy each day, and the healthiest milk group choices should be fat-free or low-fat and should be a good source of calcium, such as:

• Low-fat cheese in a sandwich
• Yogurt dips with vegetables
• Low-fat shredded cheese on soups and salads
• Evaporated low-fat or fat-free milk in recipes that call for cream
• Prepare instant oatmeal with low-fat or fat-free milk in place of water. Top with dried cranberries and almonds

Annual Physical

Yesterday was my time to face the music with my doctor of more than twenty years and yes, she had some rather stern words for me about my overall health and lack of exercise.

Cousin Ereline and I were chatting recently about good topics that we should consider of inclusion in our blog with our overall theme about helping others and we agreed that ‘health’ and ‘healthy habits’ seem pretty important. 

While surfing the Internet the other day, I found this article on 13 Healthy Habits to Improve Your Life  ( http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/13-healthy-habits-to-improve-your-life ) - simple, common sense habits that we should all practice.

13 Healthy Habits to Improve Your Life

• Healthy Habit # 1: Eat Breakfast Every Morning
• Healthy Habit # 2: Add Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids to Your Diet 
• Healthy Habit # 3: Get Enough Sleep 
• Healthy Habit # 4: Make Social Connections
• Healthy Habit # 5: Exercise for Better Health 
• Healthy Habit # 6: Practice Good Dental Hygiene 
• Healthy Habit # 7: Take Up a Hobby
• Healthy Habit # 8: Protect Your Skin
• Healthy Habit # 9: Snack the Healthy Way
• Healthy Habit # 10: Drink Water and Eat Dairy
• Healthy Habit # 11: Drink Tea
• Healthy Habit # 12: Take Daily Walks
• Healthy Habit # 13: Plan

 In future updates we will get into more details of these healthy habits and seek your comments. 

How many of these habits do you practice?