5 Simple Things to Make You a Better Person

Super efficient people - from athletes to CEOs - only add 1% to their skills and efficiency every day. They do not overwhelm themselves with things to do to become totally better in 24 hours, but they take baby steps towards it and they have results to show for it. You can also adopt this to make you a better person. 

Most of us strive for either more or better. That means we are not satisfied with where we currently are and we could do better. You want to become a better person. 

Becoming a better person can mean becoming a more confident person, a better listener, a more efficient person, having a better income, and having more time to spend with the people you love and on the things you care about.

From reading a number of books and seeing results in my personal life, I have 5 simple things that you can do to make yourself a better person.

Listen more 

When you ask 10 random people 10 attributes of someone they would like to spend the rest of their lives with, listening ears is likely to occur more than 5 times. 

The reason is simple. We all like someone who would listen to us - pay attention to how our day went, listen to the struggles we currently face, and many other things. It is easy for us to tell a total stranger all about our lives if that person is a good listener. 

Leil Lowndes, in her book How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Secrets for Big Success in Relationships, noted that a way to appear confident and get people to like you is to be a good listener. 

Dale Carnegie already stated this in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People when he said: 

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” 

You may say ‘what about me? Who’s going to listen to me?’ Your time will come. When you have made more friends, it will easily shift from them talking all the time to both parties contributing normally. 

Take control of your thoughts 

Brian Tracy in his book ‘Maximum Achievement’ mentioned that you feel positive about yourself to the degree to which you feel you’re in control of your own life. Also, you feel negative about yourself to the degree to which you feel you’re not in control of your own life. Here, you feel controlled by some external force, person, or influence. 

You can’t control a lot of things, but you can control your thoughts. You can control the way you feel about those things. If the situation is becoming too tough for you to handle, then it could be affecting your physical and/or mental health. The best thing to do is to walk away. 

If you don’t control your life, external factors that you have no control over would control you. And you could just be like a boat controlled by the waves. And that means it lacks direction. 

A determination to control your thoughts will make you a better person. 

Prioritize 

Deep down, we all want to spend quality time with the people we love. However, work and all the things we have to do eat up our time and we end up appearing selfish. We hate the feeling that we are sacrificing our happiness for other things. 

That was my situation until I took the time to read Tim Ferris’ The 4-Hour Workweek. It wasn’t the first time I came across the 80/20 principle - also known as the Pareto Principle, but it was the first time it made sense. 

A lot of the things I was spending my time on weren’t that important. I could get more done in less time effectively if I faced what was very important squarely. The other things that were not so important, if they wouldn’t fit into the time I allocated to them, I either outsource them or cut them off. 

And that led to changes in the way I did things. I could effectively get more done in less time. 

Before you start your day, list the things you want to achieve. Now trim the list to the three most important things you have to do. Yours may end up being more than three; but even if it is five, ensure that they are the five most important and urgent. See those you can outsource or cut off and focus on the ones on your list without distractions. 

Spending time with your loved ones is important and it should be a priority. Learn to prioritize and that will make you a better person. 

Be consistent 

Seth Godin has written over 7000 blog posts. According to him, he hasn’t missed a day. To the extent that I have been following him, I can attest to that. I get his posts in my email inbox every day. 

According to him, not all his blog posts are great; some are great and some could be better. However, he wouldn’t hesitate to write another post because his last post wasn’t good enough. 

Consistency is always showing up. And always showing up can be very instrumental to success in life. It is not every time you will get it right, but the more you do it, the better you become. 

As a marketer, writer, or content creator …  whatever it is that you do, always show up. Even when others decide to stay back, make it a point to always make an appearance. 

The secret to getting a large following on social media is constantly interacting on the space. The more you interact and contribute, the more people notice you. And you’re on your way to becoming a brand. 

Start now 

When you’re constantly considering factors and happenings, you wouldn’t do anything. That’s why it is always good to start now on that idea of yours. There’s never a good time, not to talk of a better time. 

Facebook started in 2004, just 4 years after the dot-com bubble burst. It was when most people were extra-sensitive to internet companies. It was however started and 16 years later, it is almost a trillion-dollar company. 

TikTok started in 2016. That was when we thought we had all the social media platforms we needed. But they brought something new and different. Today, TikTok is a giant. 

New social media companies are starting by day. They’re not intimidated by the fact that there are giants already; everyone focuses on what makes them unique or special. 

They could have thought that the best time to start was before Instagram or YouTube, but TikTok started after those and still made the list. 

So, when is the best time? Now. 

Start now on that idea and the success will make you a better person - more fulfilled and achieved.  

Finally... 

There you have them - the five simple things that will make you a better person. Let us know the one that you will start on immediately and share this with someone to help them.