Christmas is becoming a blurry memory, and 2019 is well and truly here. Time to be honest and review how well your new year resolutions are going. Have you kept up your visits to the gym, and cut down on your alcohol consumption? Have you started your novel, caught up with all your old friends, and spent more time with your kids? These are the kinds of resolutions people commonly make at the start of a new year, but even if you avoided committing to any changes just because one year had changed to the next, you may still be feeling that you could be living a happier, more fulfilled life.
Self-improvement resources
There’s a mind-numbing quantity of self-improvement guides available online, as well as thousands of self-help books and motivational gurus all claiming they have the answer to transforming your life. Many of these resources do have valuable information and can be highly motivating, while many others are designed to part you with your money to no real benefit. Sorting the wheat from the chaff can be a challenge, and it could take time to find the resources that click with you and offer genuine solutions to improving your life.
The question then, is where do you start?
The most important fact to remember is that your health is the foundation on which all other improvements are built. Without your health, everything else becomes far more of a challenge, and life will continue to be a struggle no matter how much effort you put in at the gym or how many self-help guides you read.
Therefore the best tips for improving your life are based on looking after yourself and optimizing your health:
1. Look after your appearance. Your appearance is integral to your physical and mental health. Not caring about how you look or how clean you are is a symptom of depression, and if you’re struggling with mental health problems, then trying to change your life will be an impossible challenge. Even if one of the aspects of your self-improvement is related to your appearance, for example wanting to lose weight, you can still be more confident about yourself by taking care of how you appear. Have a look for reliable information about how to deal with any aspects of your appearance you’re dissatisfied with, for example, the best oily skin treatment, and treat yourself to a manicure, massage, or new haircut.
2. Be wary of physical pain. Not all physical symptoms require medical treatment, but can still affect your quality of life. If you’ve been experiencing problems with muscle tension, for example, you may be getting headaches or pain in your muscles that is caused by the tension. Don’t put up with it, find out how to relieve a stiff neck before your muscles get any worse.
3. Get a check-up. Visit your doctor and have a physical to make sure everything is functioning as it should. Tell them about any niggling symptoms you’ve been experiencing, or changes in your health so that you can get the right treatment should you need it. Your doctor can also give you the best, most helpful information about lifestyle changes you need to make to improve your wellbeing.
The best steps towards self-improvement you can take are to attend to your own physical and mental wellbeing; then you can move on to other aspects of living a more rewarding life.
