Author Donald T. Phillips once said “the best leaders never stop learning.” By making a commitment to self-improvement, you not only enhance the quality of your own life, but also the lives of those who look up to you. After all, there is nothing more inspiring than someone who regularly challenges their mind and body to become better versions of themselves.
Executive, business, and life coach Leigh Cambre, who offers free sessions for corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, shares this sentiment.
“More than anything, your ability to work on self-improvement will naturally lead to a more fulfilling and joyful life,” he says, “It feels good to feel good! And the more you feel good, the more flow you'll experience in life.”
In fact, Cambre goes so far as to compare skills and abilities to the muscles in your body.
“The old saying is true: use it or lose it. If you don't train a certain muscle, it will retract and wither,” he explains. “When you put committed focus and attention on certain muscle groups, alongside proper nutrition, you will find your muscles will grow and expand. The same holds true for new skills you aim to learn. There is no shortcut to dedicated time and repeated effort on a specific activity. And the ‘nutrition’ needed is curiosity and focus.”
“Put all of those together and you'll have the framework for what it takes to leverage your new benefits into huge wins,” he adds.
But how long must one partake in an activity to see these benefits? And how do you identify the class that will benefit you and your business most?
“There’s no right answer to this question,” confirms Cambre. “Some things provide immediate benefits, like meditation and nutrition study, some things provide short-term benefits, like strenuous physical activities and creating artwork, and some things provide long-term benefits, like the ability to communicate fluently with foreigners and the confidence that comes with challenging work. The world is your oyster.”
At the very least, it’s important to identify what energizes you and has the potential for long-term commitment. Quitting after one session won’t yield the life-changing results that you desire.
If you’re looking for self-improvement activity ideas to try out for yourself, here are seven Cambe-approved recommendations to set the wheels in motion.
7 activities to try to help boost your confidence and self-confidence
1. Improv classes
“Not only is this great for better contemporaneous thinking, but it is highly entertaining. Improv constantly challenges you to think on your feet, which leverages an often underused muscle in the ‘book smart’ world of work.”
2. Poetry Writing Classes
“As you age, your vocabulary increases, allowing you to artfully select the best fit words for a moment. Poetry is a way for you to turn your language into art and leave a cultural perspective for others to discover and ponder. And hey, the better your vocabulary, the better you'll be received.”
3. Language Classes
“Learning a new language flexes the language center of our brain, but also, importantly, it opens your mind to a new cultural point of view. For example, in Spanish, there are many words that describe a type of love that doesn’t have English equivalents. How romantic!”
4. Study the Enneagram
“Consider me biased, but I find Enneagram to be one of the best tools to better understand yourself and how you both show up and cope in life. Additionally, Enneagram also uncovers how others around you show up, which can lead to better empathy.”
5. Coding Classes
“There's no denying that tech is our future. Taking a class on coding not only allows you to learn how to program something, but increases your ability to think like a coder. You'll have better reasoning skills and problem solving abilities through this kind of process.”
6. Play an Instrument
“I find music to be magical. The tones, chords, and octaves that make up music are both mystical and global. This not only builds your confidence, but accesses and triggers a part of your brain that no other skill does. Yay for brain expansion!”
7. Consider Therapy or a Life Coach
“Maybe it's the New Yorker in me talking here, but I've found no comparison to having helping professionals in my life. I currently have four! There are many reasons for this, but I've discovered for myself that the biggest takeaway has been best practices. You're not the first one to ever have the problems you're having and these folks have heard it all. Many of my biggest aha moments were common sense — it's just that I had not heard it before.”
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