Haven't you heard about the new thing? It will completely change your life as it did for me.

Similar phrases plague social media platforms. Self-improvement is great but there is an overabundance of information surrounding the platform that makes us feel as though we are drowning in it.

Find The Right Content

This is a piece of advice I don't see much, but rather the advice I hear is to watch as much self-improvement as you can and read as many books as you can get your grubby little hands on.

This can cause a sense of dread and inadequacy from all the "self-help" content.

Finding the right piece of content is far more valuable than finding the right amount of content. I didn't understand this at first, so I grabbed anything I could watch, read or use for my "self-improvement journey."

What ended up happening was I was running into content that was essentially useless for me. Consistently watching content that only made me feel worse about myself and provided no real help.

But it's like applying the wrong medication to the wrong disease. It can be toxic. I had to understand what my main problems were first and then tackle them.

Identifying the disease/problem is the first step to solving it. A misdiagnosis can cause further problems down the road.

I found that introspection with some doses of reality allowed me to realize that makes the biggest problem was that I was wasting my time.

Usually through the use of digital technology, so I bought the book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport which was actually a very useful book. It spoke of solitude deprivation, going places without your phone, and reducing technology use, specifically social media use, to only what is necessary.

Reading this book helped me tremendously as it helped solve the main problem I had, which was my technology use.

My point here is that identifying the main problem you want to solve is the right first step to solving that problem as putting your energy in multiple directions won't help as much.

Instead, find the few pieces of useful content you need, and then spend the rest of the time executing the ideas.

"Use What You Have Learned, Save You It Can"

Had to use that Yoda quote there. Execution. The most important aspect of changing your life. Most of the advice is relatively simple but hard to do. This is why I think many conversations about self-help go as follows:

"Guys I am on self-improvement!"

"Cool, what have you done?"

"I watched 15 self-improvement videos and read 35 books."

"Have you changed any habits?"

"Well, err... no. But I have been watching the content so that counts."

"Oh."

Not a real scenario, that I know of, but I think you get the point. This is similar to when I wrote about how talk is cheap. Just because you say you are on self-improvement doesn't necessarily mean you are.

Our precious ego can keep us from growing. Our ego deludes us into thinking watching self-improvement content is the same as changing. The same as growing. It's not.

Viewing a better life is not the same as living a better life.

In order to make the best of what you see, read, or hear you have to actually do it. Radical idea I know, but I realized for a long time I myself was merely mentally masturbating about the life I wanted to live rather than attempting to live it.

When I am trying to become something new I have been asking myself this question: "Oh you learned something new, what are you going to do about it?"

It's not just what you learn, but what skills you build that are important. You have to integrate the habits into your life so you no longer view them as self-improvement, but instead, you are just living.

Watch Other Things

For the love of God watch other things than just self-improvement content. It's weird that I have to say this, but it was even true for me. I felt guilty spending time with my family watching sci-fi rather than watching my daily 4-hour dose of self-improvement content. Oh my days.

You end up replacing one addiction with another, but then justify it with "But it's all self-improvement content so it's ok if I don't do anything."

No, just no.

You need to live a life outside of self-improvement. The best self-improvement tip I have found is that the work you are doing no longer feels like "self-improvement" but rather you are just living.

You no longer identify with being on self-improvement but rather you are simply living.