How to Improve Yourself by Chris Herd

I read an inspirational article on how to improve myself from here by Chris Herd.

These are the highlights that I want to focus on.. 

Do something different

If you zig when others zag you will avoid being in the majority making it easier to rise to the top. Its far easiest to be great in a smaller pool.

Unmercifully pursue your dreams

10,000 of hours of dedication to something is what it takes for someone to be the world-class at something. With that being true I would advocate another route being inherently more useful as the world moves towards a more diverse future. Spend 1,000 hours on 10 different subjects. You won’t become the best in the world at any one thing but you will become a world leading generalist which will ensure you can benefit from most of this new exciting post-capitalist world. The benefits of being better at 10 things than 90% of the global population than better than 99% of the world population at one are monumental. The crossover between your skills will lead to new unimaginable opportunities.

Compete against people better than you.

Go places where you know you will be at a disadvantage. Competing against superior performers will expose you to strategies which enable you to alter your own. You’ll learn tricks and spot hints to improve your own performance you won’t learn in years of competing against rookies.

Give yourself too little time

Purposefully give yourself less time than you know you need to achieve something. You’ll surprise yourself or be forced to invent creative ways to improve your efficiency. It might help you spot trends from alternative industries/activities/sports you can utilise in a new way. In business it is often better to repackage and existing average idea and improve on it to achieve greatness.

Remove interruptions

Live life without distractions by disposing of the things in your life that are frivolous. Abandon social media, stop living your life through the prism of technology and comparison to other and experience things instead of seeing them. Unmercifully remove the things in your life that don’t matter so you can foxus on the things that do.

Set goals

Write them down. recording your goals will make you 100% more likely to achieve them. Write short, medium and long term goals and actively track your progress against them. It will give you a sense of achievement which will inspire you and spur you on.

Say no

Say no to almost everything so you can say to the things that matter.

Be more original

Following the status-quo may help you achieve short term success, it might assist in enabling you to pass exams and get into university, but ultimately it is going to detrimentally affect your creativity. Take risks, spot chances and dove in. Share your ideas and get feedback. Be brave.

Put yourself out there

Meet people, reach out and talk to people; never be afraid to ask advice. I never let somebodies reputation scare me into submission. I’m a vehement believer in the adage that if you never ask you’ll never know and find this particularly true of those people who have ascended to the highest heights. I’ve exchange correspondence with everyone from Arianna Huffington, Bob Keiller, Gareth Williams, Adam Grant to name but a few. It’s worth remembering even the most successful among us are people to.

Travel

Broaden your horizons, open your mind and deepen your well of exposure. Understand the idiosyncrasies between cultures and experience living. Go to the places on the periphery and understand the countries you visit. A resort with a pool and a sandy beach could be anywhere. Go to places and distil their true meaning and gain enlightenment. By understanding how different cultures and communities operate our lives are enriched with understanding, compassion and appreciation for people unlike ourselves.

Record your ideas

Record your thoughts and ideas in a journal every day for you to reflect upon labour. Recording a brilliant thought you’re not quite sure to develop allows your mind to continue working on a solution or utilisation of your mind long after you’ve recorded the words on paper.

Recording ideas is the single most important piece of advice I would ever give. What do the greatest people in the world have in common? Prolificness. Those who develop things which result in paradigm shifts are more likely to have worked on thousands of solutions than those who did not. They simply give themselves more opportunity to achieve greatness. You only need to be right once to change the world.

Don’t waste time

Use a timer for everything. Some things may seem inconsequential but that 30-minute meeting that takes 37 minutes bi-weekly is costing you over 12 hours of productive time a year. Extrapolate that figure across every individual at the meeting and you have a significant economic loss. Multiply that for every meeting that runs even a minute over. Your schedule is sacred, protect it or you’ll pay for it in your own time. The same applies even for menial chores. Once you know how long something takes you have a target to beat.

‘Swallow the frog’

Do the thing you are least looking forward to first and the whole day will seem brighter and easier. Get the things out the way that make the biggest difference to progress not the things that take longest. Email takes time, can be done at any point and slows down momentum, do the things that enable progression.

In fact, lock email in a box and do the following:

1. Only check emails once per day. Some of you may question how this is possible or believe it would force me to miss important messages through the day. In truth, it simply made me far more productive. It allowed me to focus on the task at hand more clearly and if anything did come up I started receiving phone calls which allowed me to tackle the problem quicker, easier and without the need for additional emails.
2. Stop sending as many emails. It sounds simple because it is, but I was able to drastically reduce my emails received on a daily basis by as much as 40%. No more emails to emails that didn’t require a reply. No more emails to people I could phone and get an answer from in ten seconds. The freedom gained is truly invigorating.

If something that requires attention comes up someone will call; you wouldn’t email the fire brigade to inform them your house is on fire.

Recognise errors

Recognise when you are wrong and make amends. Never be too proud to apologise or patch things up. Even if you are right and the other person is wrong, if they are adamant in their beliefs, changing their mind isn’t going to improve relations therefore even being right can mean you are wrong.

Trust people

Don’t be precious and protective of things. Let people showcase their expertise and benefit collectively. Welcome people into the team with open arms, don’t be suspicious of their intentions. Ultimately you and the team are the beneficiaries. You will meet lone superstars along the way so find ways to connect whereby the partnership is mutually beneficial.

Congratulate and inspire

Praise people when they do well. Nothing motivates people more than the acknowledgement of the effort they have put in to achieve success. Better yet praise people in front of the whole team which simultaneously encourages the person who has done the great work and lets the team witness what happens then they contribute to the team’s success.

Who are you?

Character is who you are when nobody is looking. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Humility

Treat people how you want to be treated. Whether you acknowledge the cleaner tidying up your mess in the hotel or the CEO of your company, humility and sincere interest are ubiquitous in revealing you humanity.

Be trusted, earn respect

Do what you are going to do when you say you are going to do it. In fact, do it before. Trust is the currency that enables transactions to occur in higher frequency. Without trust and respect, in life and in business, you are nothing.

Ask, don’t tell

The easiest way to lose the support of your team/friends/family is to demand and tell instead of requesting or politely asking. Kill people with kindness and generosity and they will gladly assist you in any endeavour. Thank them for their time and expertise making them feel valued and appreciated.

Realise you can’t win arguments

You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it. Suppose you triumph over the other man and shoot his argument full of holes and prove that he is wrong. Then what? You will feel fine. But what about him? You have made him feel inferior. You have hurt his pride. He will resent your triumph. “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”

Be honest

Be honest to others but most importantly be honest with yourself. Being upfront and honest about your own limitations, sharing concerns and identifying problems when they happen can save huge expense and alleviate small issues before they become massive problems. Being honest with yourself allows you to identify your weaknesses and unmercifully pursue improvement and personal development.

Never wait for things

You need to fight to improve. Good things come to those who go out and get them, nobody achieved greatness waiting for it to find them.

Be prolific

Quality comes from quantity. Quantity is evolved from trying over and over again until you perfect something. Be relentless, never give up. You’ll succeed through obsession, normal people can’t compete with it. Persevere with your passions and create on an unprecedented scale. Love what you do and never settle. You need to find what you love.

Gamble

9 out of 10 companies fail, so start 10, keep going until you find success but never a plan B. Having one means you’ve already accepted the possibility of failure. Failure is only failure if you fail to learn, take chances when you have the opportunity, one day you won’t be afforded with the time you have now.

It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, it only matters that you don’t the last time you try.