Personal Betterment List

There are things in life worth improving or striving towards. Here is my ongoing list in no particular order of importance:

1. Good Posture - what: Proper manipulation of the joints to facilitate a sustainable, comfortable, health-promoting upright position. why: Helps optimize breathing, circulation of bodily fluids, reduces muscle pain associated with poor posture (especially in neck, shoulders, back), and is a good exercise in self-control/awareness. how: Align ears, shoulders, hips.


2. Self-Discipline - what: Self-discipline refers to the training that one gives one's self to accomplish a certain task or to adopt a particular pattern of behavior, even though one would really rather be doing something else. why: At the risk of sounding entirely uptight, I think that self-discipline is actually really important for life satisfaction and fulfillment. That's because life is full of things we don't really want to do. For example, I don't like the act of waking up early because it's hard; I don't like going to work everyday from nine to five and concentrating on getting things done every moment because it gets repetitive and meaningless; I don't like running because it's strenuous and tests my willpower. However, I do like being able to enjoy the morning hours so I do wake up early; I like having food, shelter, and financial stability so I do work; I like feeling healthy and fit so I continue to run. Therefore, self-discipline, to me, is about sacrificing short-term pleasure for long-term fulfillment. It truly is the key to living a purposeful existence. how: I think the most important thing for building self-discipline is to have a vision to strive towards (i.e. goals). Measuring one's progress against a couple of benchmarks can help one adjust the course along the way, and also shows results which can by a source of motivation. Also, succeeding in self-discipline is 100% mental. I realize that starting something is always the hardest part and requires the most energy. But inevitably through practice and familiarity I become more adept and comfortable with what I'm doing. So self-discipline helps me get to that point.


3. Knowledge of History - what: This one is fairly self-explanatory. Essentially it means to become well-versed in the history of the world / universe you live in. This includes obvious subjects like world/national history, but also science history as well. After all, it's important to know about the history of the space / time continuum that we live in. why: Aside from being able to impress acquaintances at dinner parties with your worldly knowledge, a knowledge of history give you a deeper, more significant perspective on your surrounding and thus making experiences more meaningful. The brain is designed to make connections and see patterns, so why not give it more things to connect to? We all know that history repeats itself, so we might as well be ahead of the game by understanding what has happened in the past. how: This one is also pretty self-explanatory - learn more history! :p One approach would be to get a high-level overview from history videos, and then get more of a deeper dive from books on subjects that you'd like to learn more about.


4. Eating more fruit - what: eat fruit! why: Not only are fruits high in nutrients and fiber good for health, filling up on fruit helps prevent me from eating too much non-nutritious foods. how: aim to eat a certain number of fruits each day. My number is 3. I track each day how many I eat.