Two Self improvement habits to build this New Year

So here we are in 2012. We have left 2011 behind and the new year has come. No matter how you did in 2011, the important thing is that you improve yourself in 2012. Aim to make this year your best year ever.

To make it happen, here are two self improvement habits that you may want build in this new year:

1. Journaling

This is one of the most important habits to build for your self improvement. There are at least three reasons why journaling is important:

• It makes you find the lessons behind every experience
  Perhaps this is not the case in the beginning, but once you make journaling a habit, your mind will automatically explore every possible lesson in your experiences. Rather than just being a passing event, every experience becomes a learning opportunity.
• It encourages you to think through the lessons you learn
  Journaling involves writing down the lessons you learn. To do that, you will have to get the gist of the lesson and put it in a concise form. That encourages you to think through the lesson so that you can truly get it. This will make the lesson sinks deeper into your mind and heart.
• It helps you remember the lessons
  First, the act of writing itself helps you remember the lesson. And second, your journal becomes a place that you can refer to in case you forgot the lesson.

As you can see, journaling is good for your self improvement, not just for the end product but also for the process itself. So, if you haven’t done so, make journaling a habit of yours this year.

2. Reading books

I know I’ve written about this many times, but this is worth repeating: reading books is an important habit for your personal growth.

One day I listened to an episode of Freakonomics podcast titled Growing Up Buffett. It features an interview with Peter Buffett who is the son of Warren Buffett, the famous investor. There is one thing the young Buffett said about his father that’s interesting to me: “He read a lot and he still does.” Reading has been a habit of Warren Buffett for years. No wonder he can make so many good decisions in changing market situations.

Many other famous people also have this habit in their self improvement arsenal, so it’s wise to make it a habit of yours as well.

If you already have this habit, aim to do it better this year (for example, by adding some biographies to your reading list). I still have a lot of room for improvements in this area so this is something I’m going to work on this year.

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That’s it. Just two simple habits. I don’t want to give you too many things or something too complicated to do. These two habits are certainly doable. They are simple, yet they can do a lot for your personal growth.

Happy New Year!