7 Things I Have Done To Improve Myself In 2015

I am someone who enjoys the prospect of growth. There's nothing I love more in this world than to grow and help other people grow too. I am constantly looking for ways to improve.

Coming into 2015, I had only one resolution/goal: To end up a far better man this year than I was in 2014 with measurable and tangible evidence of my growth. I also planned to narrow my focus on building my intellectual and social capacity above all other things.

Image Source: Sunrise666

Below are some of the steps I have taken to grow and some of them you can adopt for yourself. So, here goes:

1. Reading wide and voraciously

If there's one thing that stands out for me this year, it's my highly improved reading habit. This has been so outstanding that everyone who knows me well enough has passed a comment on it. I talk about books a lot and share my reading lists with people. I also ask for recommendations from some of my social media acquaintances. Prior to 2015, I read books on leadership, communication and Faith. However, I have spread my tentacles this year. I started reading on social psychology, business and entrepreneurship, biographies and management books. I also read a lot of blog articles and stories from Forbes, Business Insider, Answers on Quora, etc.

2. Stepping out of my comfort zone

The second thing I have made effort to do in 2015 is to step out of my comfort zone more than before. In 2014, I wrote and read stuff that I could easily understand. If something appeared too tasking to comprehend, I would dump it or even just avoid. However, in 2015 that has changed. I have also saved more money this year than I have in the last 4 or 5 years combined. Furthermore, I have put in more effort in my writing. I have written a number of essays all outside my normal scope of inspiration and personal development.

Plus I write weekly for PrognoStore, a website for point-of-sales and analytics software in the works.

3. Tweeting less and observing more

Twitter, I have learned, can be both a blessing and a curse. It all depends on how you approach things. I ran an account before that had more than 40,000 tweets and 1,900 followers. I went on to delete it and start a new account which has less than 9,000 tweets and just about 780+ followers. I never tweet more than 20 times a day and I don't follow unlike-minded people back.

I have witnessed the making and destruction of people's reputations and credibility on Twitter and so I made a choice to preserve mine. I don't jump into discussions that don't concern me and I never reply insults with hostility. Through Twitter, I have become a mentor to some and a friend to others. I spend more time observing what goes on than actually participating.

4. Starting the #100DaysOfGrowth Project on this blog

Running the #100DaysOfGrowth Project on this blog has taught me a lot of things. One lesson I have learned is that there are so many wonderful people out there looking for someone just like them, someone they can relate with, who shares their struggles and experiences. I have also learned that people will let you down at times. Yep!

However, what this project has done to me is to teach me the necessary skill of managing people and expectations. It is one of the ways I have stepped out of my comfort zone because this idea was't something I conceived on my own. It was inspired by Kunmi Oni, through her blog where she ran the #31DaysOfLovinLikeJesus series. If I don't read her blog, I probably wouldn't have come up with this.

5. Wise spending

A lot of people are like me. Maybe not everybody, but a lot of people have this problem with towing the thin line between smart spending and miserly living. I have finally been able to thicken the line and get a grip on my disposable income spending. How I did it, I'm not so sure. But I know that reading George S. Clason's The Richest Man in Babylon a second time went a long way in helping me get a grip on my finances.

6. Increasing the amount of genres in my music library

I love music. And I'm really open to new suggestions. This year, I expanded my music library to classical music, old school rap, more rock songs, and loads of soundtrack and score albums. Music is an essential part of my life so increasing the amount of genres I listen to has helped open up my mind and aid my creative thinking processes.

By the way, my best songs this year are Kid Cudi's Mr. Rager, The Pursuit of Happiness, Man on the Moon (The Anthem) and Soundtrack 2 My Life. PS: They are old songs, but have been my best tracks.

7. Minding my own business more

As a person, I love to talk because I am an extrovert. So, there is always the temptation to speak my mind or share my thoughts every time. However, I have been able to curb that this year. I have learned to read situations well and to keep a lot of my thoughts and ideas to myself when they are not needful. This has saved me a lot of embarrassment and has helped keep disrespectful comments and people at arm's length.