1. Never stop learning.

Do not be like all those foolish men and women out there who think and believe that they know everything and so they have closed their mind off.

Do not miss out on becoming your better self just because you refuse to learn from your friend, your boss, your family, your mistake, your ego, your enemies and your life.

Be it developing a particular skill or improving how to better talk to a person, learning should be part of your life.

2. Increase your skill every day.

For example, I know that by writing every day, I have a much better chance of being a good writer than writing few times a month or even a year.

3. Learn to prioritize.

At the end of your life, what will you have if you have money, power and material possessions but you have lost the love of your family?

Nothing.

Learn to put your family first.

Your family should always be the main course of the dish. And they should never be traded for anything in life.

4. Learn to balance every aspect of your life.

The happiest people I know have divided their time and place it accordingly to their family’s time, friend’s time, careers and self-improvement.

They know that excelling in one of these and leaving the others stranded somewhere does not make them happy.

5. Practice taking your alone time every day.

On that time, reflect on the day you are having, think on what you are accomplishing for the day and just be silent and be.

Use this time to recharge.

6. Learn to remove distractions from every aspect of your life.

When you are working, do not try to multitask. Give all your attention to the task at hand.

When you are with family, turn your phone off and just be with your family.

When you are communicating with someone, be present mentally and physically in the moment.

7. Practice focusing.

If you want to be great at doing a particular task, learn to focus your entire attention on that task only.

Imagine this scenario:

While I am writing this answer, I am at the same time talking to my friend or texting on my phone.

Do you think my writing will be great?

No. Of course not.

If I keep doing that, I will never produce a quality work.

If you want to get the very best result from a particular thing, give it your full concentration.

8. Practice organizing.

The clutter on your desk is probably the #1 thing that is preventing you from doing your job well.

You know why that is?

Because it steals your attention.

Start organizing today all the papers on your desk according to the level of urgency and importance they have to the task you are currently doing.

Keep this practice every day and take it to your home as well.

9. Learn what garbage in and garbage out implies in your life.

Anything you allow to enter into your mind, it forms and creates you.

You cannot expect to be a positive person when you are watching the news on TV all day long.

You cannot expect to develop yourself when you are surrounded by people who keep dragging you down.

So change what you enter into your mind.

Read self-improvement books. Listen to inspirational audios. Watch TED Talks on YouTube. Find people who are smarter than you and be with them.

10. Remember your inner circle influences you.

As Jim Rohn said:

‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with’.

So, do not wait for some day to check who your friends are and how many of them are frenemies.

If the people you surround with are not empowering you, they are doing the opposite.

Let go of those who are not on the same wavelength as you.

11. Start communicating effectively today.

Today try listening instead of talking. Get a book on improving communication skills and start reading today.

Getting along with people is the most difficult skill that exists.

If you learn how to communicate with your fellow human beings, you would be the most sought-after friend, sister, brother, father, mother and person that is out there.

Make improving yourself in this skill your life long goal. It is worth it.

12. Practice doing your most important and difficult tasks early in the morning.

Every successful person I have met tells me that the morning is the time where they accomplish many difficult tasks. The reason they tell me is that, as compared to the whole day, the morning time is where the energy of a human being is at its peak.

So, start copying the methods used by successful people today. And you will be rewarded in the coming years.

Do not be like a person who was just dragged through the entire day and he said at the end of the day:

‘I have not done a single thing today’.

13. Learn to check your progress along the way.

Make a schedule to check where you are on your goals. See what goals you have accomplished. What goals you have not yet achieved. And what new goals you want to set for yourself.

Have a schedule for every week, every month and every year.

Without checking and reflecting, how will you know where you are and how to progress?

14. Recognize a fact – your past does not determine your future.

Take every failure from the past as a lesson.

You would not have known how strong you are if not for those failures. Take every experience in your life (the good ones and the painful ones) as your stepping stones to your future.

The time to not let the past determine your future is now.

15. Learn the skill of carrying a light weight wherever you go.

Holding grudges, resentment, anger and similar destructive emotions leave us with the kinds of wounds that do not leave bruises behind.

They are the knife in the gut, slicing straight through you every time you choose to carry either one of those feelings.

They are heavy to carry and we cannot really live our lives peacefully and freely when we are fighting ourselves in the process.

Let go of these toxic feelings. Let go of the need to be quite so acidic.

Start today.

Forgive someone who has hurt you. Not for their sake, but for yours.

16. Distinguish between who you are and what you do.

No matter how much you love your job, the job does not define you. You are a human being first and your job title second. Never forget that.

If you have spent a great deal of time and money educating yourself about something and you like to show that off, that will make you a bit of snob.

Who you are as a person must be the central character in your story.

Always.

17. Practice making ‘fear’ your servant.

Fear is a thief and it takes from you something every time you give in to it.

Every time you take action in something you are afraid to do, fear diminishes in size.

I used to be terrified of standing in front of people. Through my continuous action of giving lectures, now the fear is barely an afterthought.

18. Know what motivation is not.

Sometimes you might be motivated to do your best, sometimes you might not even be interested to do your bare minimum. This thing called ‘motivation’ you cannot trust it. One minute it is there, the next minute puff — it is gone.

So, start doing something that you can trust with the result it brings.

Cultivate daily habits. There is nothing that triumphs like taking action that guarantees results.

19. Honor your physical body.

Exercise. Eat healthy foods. Drink water. Learn to manage stress. Think positive thoughts. And do everything you can to take care of this free gift you have been given.

Because once your health is compromised, you cannot get it back to its original condition.

20. Read.

Make reading daily one of your important habits. Never, ever assume that there is a limit to one’s knowledge.

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To Your Inspirations,

Banchi