Continuous Improvements

Making continuous improvements involves making small developments and changes each day, with the hope that these small advances will contribute to something substantial. Usually when someone approaches self-improvement, they set themselves a large goal and try to take big steps towards achieving that goal in as short a time as possible. While having such as goal can sound productive in theory, it can often lead to frustration, burnout and failure. Rather, I suggest you focus on continuously improving by slowly making slight adjustment to your normal daily behaviours and habits.

It can be easy to overlook the value of making slightly better decisions every day. Enjoying a stale life is not impressive, nor is continuing with the fundamentals. Getting better by a fraction won’t get you to the top, but it definitely works.

How to make continuous improvements

People often tell themselves that their changes are only meaningful if something big and visible is linked with it. Whether it be travelling the country, building a business, losing weight or another goal, people put pressure on themselves to make it an earth-shattering change that will impress those around them. In the meantime, no one acknowledges that fraction of a change because it is not noticeable. However, in the long run, it can definitely be just as meaningful as a huge improvement.

When you begin, there is little difference between making a choice than is a fraction better or a fraction worse. In other words, this difference will not affect you little today. As time passes, these tiny advances or declines build up, until suddenly you find that there is a large gap between those who make small changes every day and those who don’t. It is too often that we waste the ideas and resources we have because we believe them to be outdated and dull.

I have seen many instances where behaviours, both small and big, had the chance to inspire progress in the lives of others when they were done with more consistency. Things like never missing training, writing every day, apologising more often and sending with compliments slips every week. Behind these uninteresting solutions and underused insights is progress. You don’t need to find a new strategy or gather more information; all you need to do is more of the things at work.