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Hey, girl. Hey, and thanks for dropping into the Switch Pivot or Quit podcast. Can't a convo for the girl needing a lifestyle plot twist when she's deciding if it's time to switch, pivot, or quit? I'm a Yana Angel, a former sports entertainment publicist in New York City.
Turn traditionally published author with Simon & Schuster, who quit my old life to write a book, live in London for a bit, and explore my dreams to find my happiness and fulfillment. I'm here to help encourage and guide you through your plot twist years as your chief and carrager and host of the Switch Pivot or Quit podcast. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe on iTunes if you have enjoyed listening to this podcast so far, and check out SwitchPivot or Quit.com for even more personal and professional development resources. But for now, just sit back, open your mind, and enjoy the show.
It's Pi Miss. What does that mean? Daily episodes for the beginning of December. December 1st through December 12th, you will be treated to daily episodes from the Switch Pivot or Quit podcast.
And today, we're going to be talking about practical ways to improve yourself. So I have this list here, and the list was created by Celestine Choa. I'm not sure if I'm saying her last name, right? But you can look up the list, Google it if you want to, if you want to follow along.
Her name is Celestine, that's C-E-L-E-S-T-I-N-E, last name, C-H-U-A. So she originally wrote this list for a life hack, and I just thought it was a great way to give you some ideas and to sort of jog your creative juices about how you can pour into yourself and do some things, coming into this next year that will hopefully improve you and make you better and get you out there and just get you going in the right direction. Now, her list originally had 42 items on it, but there were a couple, maybe about five, that I was just like, I don't even think these are worth mentioning, and maybe I didn't even really know what they were, what the gist of it was. So I decided we're going to skip those.
Like I said, if you really want to follow along with the list, you can go ahead and Google it, and then you'll be privy to those five that I decided to skip over. So we're just going to jump right in and try and power our way through this because the list is pretty long. First one is read a book every day. I absolutely agree with this one because reading a book just exposes you to new information, gets your mind going, gets your creative juices flowing, and also pours back into you.
Remember, this list is all about ways, practical ways to improve yourself. So the first one, read a book every day. Then there is learn a new language. This one's a little bit more challenging, but definitely still doable.
In fact, if you're a podcast listener, there are actually podcasts that you can listen to that help you to learn a new language. So that's already within your wheelhouse, right? Next one is pick up a new hobby. A new hobby is always fun, and that is an opportunity for you to maybe try some things that you've been thinking about, but haven't quite made the time to do yet.
So pick up a new hobby is a good one. I like that one. Next up is take up a new course. That's sort of similar to me because a hobby could be doing something that is a little bit more educational, but take up a new course can help you enhance a skillset that you've already been thinking that you wanted to enhance.
So definitely on board with that one too. Next up is create an inspirational room. Okay, not really. I got to foreign one to me, but maybe an inspirational room could look like an extra room or space, maybe even a corner.
If you don't have extra rooms, like most of us don't just to be dishing out in your in your home or in your space, create a space within your space that provides inspiration. Maybe that consists of magazines, books you want to read, maybe some vision boards on your wall, maybe some quotes on the wall, maybe some things that just get your mind going and take you to other places, maybe a cute, fun, globe. So you can just kind of see the world and imagine yourself going to different places. I don't know, but I like the idea of an inspirational room.
Then there is overcome your fears. Now we all know that one is easier said than done, but I do think it is practical to acknowledge that maybe you have fears that you need to overcome and start working toward overcoming those fears. Then we have level up your skills. Ooh, that one's like a gut punch right there.
Level up, level up, especially as you go into a new year. What do you want to do? You want to be bigger? You want to be better?
You want to be greater? You want to show up with a larger presence? So leveling up your skills and some of these can sort of correlate with each other because if you're taking up a new course or maybe if you were creating your inspirational room, that can help you in the direction of leveling up your skills. Next up, number eight, we have wake up early, like that one.
Waking up early and giving yourself an edge on the day is always a good idea. Then we have have a weekly exercise routine. Getting your body going, getting your, getting your sort of like your endorphins going is always a really good thing. To help you make a better and bigger impact within your day.
So that one is definitely a useful one. All right. Now we are really digging in. The next one is write a letter to your future self.
If you have not done this, I highly recommend that you do it. I've done it before. Writing a letter to your future self. What does that do for you?
It allows you to visualize where you want to be. It allows you to speak things into existence. It allows you to think without limits. It allows you to claim things.
It just really allows you to take yourself to a place that feels good and that really invites advancement, invites you doing more and being more. And it just really feels good when you're done with it. So I would suggest that when you write that letter, you are completely alone. It's silent.
You've maybe taken a little bit of time to think about some of the things that you want to take place in the future in your life. And when you actually sit down and write that letter, write it with intention and also write it as though these things have already happened. So really claim those things when you write that letter to your future of self. Write that letter as though you're an outsider looking in saying, wow, Ayanna, it's so amazing that you've achieved XYZ.
Write it like that with that type of tone, like, congratulations, congratulations and in celebration of you and the wonderful woman that you are. The next practical way to improve yourself is to get out of your comfort zone. Obviously we all know about that one, but what does that really require? That requires you understanding what your comfort zone is and pushing past it, actively pushing past it.
Oh, this next one, this one could be a tough one. Identify your blind spots. Ooh, identify your blind spots. That's one of those where that's tricky.
And when she says you're blind spots, I'm interpreting that to mean identifying the things that you can't see, but it would be helpful for you to be able to see them because it might allow you to avoid some potentially bad tricky hazardous types of situations. Think of it similar to when you're driving in a car and there's a blind spot and another car is in your blind spot and you are going to merge over. What does that do? That causes you to be in an accident that you could not see.
So try and see those things that are there that might be in a position to potentially harm you or cause some turmoil or stress in your life. Identify those blind spots. Then we have Ask for Feedback. This one is a hard one.
A lot of us do not like listening to what people have to say about us, because sometimes feedback can be bad, but then remember sometimes feedback can also be good and really constructive and helpful. So asking for feedback may be uncomfortable, but it might be just what you need to help you improve yourself. Then we have Stay Focused. Stay Focused with your to-do list.
That's something I practice daily is creating a to-do list. So that one for me I think is not going to be crazy hard, but at the same time I realize that not everyone works off of a to-do list. So if you can start getting yourself in the practice of creating even if it's just mini to-do list for your day, I think that will help you to feel like you're moving in more of a positive direction and that you are accomplishing some things on a day-to-day basis. Then we have Set Big Harry Audacious Goals.
Be Hags. That's what it's listed as. We've all heard of Big Harry Audacious Goals before, but now it's time for you to set some of those for yourself as you roll into a new year if you want to embrace some practical ways to improve yourself. Then we have A Knowledge Your Flaws.
Oh, that's so easy. Easy or said, they're done, but it is definitely one of those things that can be beneficial, especially if you recognize that some of your flaws are potentially holding you back. Right now we're talking about ways to improve yourself. So if you know that there's some flaws that you have but you decide to keep overlooking them or brushing it under the rug or just avoiding those flaws, then you might be setting yourself up for a situation where you will not get to where you want to be because those flaws are holding you back.
So it is absolutely a good idea to acknowledge your flaws and then work on those flaws. Nobody is saying that because you acknowledge your flaws, you're going to be A1 Stuller number one free of flaws the next day. It's just saying when you acknowledge those flaws, it makes it easier to work on those things and to help yourself through them. The next tip is to get into action.
Obviously, I really love that one because I'm all about action and to me, this list is speaking on nothing but action. There's all these action items and things for you to do. And they may be subtle, they may be big and grand, but the point is that you're moving and hopefully moving in a positive direction. Learn from people who inspire you.
I really like that one because sometimes we don't even really take the time to identify the people that inspire us. So maybe the first step is even identifying some people who inspire you and then seek to learn something from them. And maybe you don't go out on this mission to learn everything that this person knows who inspires you, but maybe you identify one thing about them that you would really want to learn more about. And you go ahead and you make it happen and you put forth the effort and energy to try and do that.
Maybe if you don't know what you can learn from that person, you just commit to trying to spend some time with this person who inspires you and then see what you come up with because you'll probably learn something. The next step is quit a bad habit. Love that. Quitting bad habits as we go into the New Year is always a good thing.
So quitting a bad habit and actively quitting a bad habit. That is definitely a way that I can see you helping yourself to improve yourself. Next step we have is cultivate a new habit. Hmm.
Now, I know most of us have heard this said the best way to get rid of a bad habit is to start a new habit, a new good habit. So maybe that you can get a two for one in that situation. Then we have avoid negative people. Oh, isn't that goals in life to avoid negative people?
And I know some of you are thinking to yourself, but the negative person is my family member or the negative person is one of my really good friends and I've known them forever and I can't possibly sever that relationship. Okay, the key operative word there is avoid. It's not saying that you have to, you know, banish this person from your life. It's just saying that you should be conscious about how much time you allow yourself to spend with negative people.
Don't allow them to dominate space, time, energy in your world because what tends to happen is you get influenced by their negativity or you start to take on some of their negativity if you're that type of personality. The next tip is learn to deal with difficult people. That can help us in so many areas of our lives from our personal relationships to our professional relationships. We are never going to be free of difficult people.
You encounter difficult people day to day, whether you know them or not. I mean, you could just be going to the corner store and encounter somebody who's negative because that's just the nature of this world. And also people have their times and their moments. It's also good for us to be understanding too because not everyone is having a jolly great day.
You don't know sometimes what people might be dealing with. Maybe someone just found out that their family member has a terminal illness or something and then you encounter them and you think that they're being difficult or they have an attitude or they're acting ugly. You don't really know what they're dealing with and maybe they just need a smile. Maybe they just need somebody to be nice with them.
So I think that learning to deal with difficult people can be a really useful and valuable tool for many of us to put in our back pocket and it might just help someone more than it helps you actually. Next up we have learn from your friends. That is a pretty simple one. And sometimes we overlook how much our friends actually know and how much value they bring to our lives day to day.
So I really like that one. That one to me also feels like appreciating them, appreciating them for the knowledge that they have, who they are, their uniqueness, all those good things. So I like that one. Learn from your friends.
Then we have start a journal. Journaling is a great addition to your morning routine if you don't already do it. Journaling also can help you just to sort of keep track of some of the important monumental times in your life or just some of the things that are taking shape and developing as you continue to live this thing called life. And you can look back on some of the things that you journaled about and just jotting quick notes about and just remember those times.
It'll take you back to those moments. I've heard about all the tummy tees and detox special just like you. So with teeny blends, when I found out about it, I was curious but cautious. I did my research on the brand and the CEO because I like to know what's going on behind the scenes.
I watched interviews and read articles about her. She's an impressive business woman too. So when I looked at the website, I uncovered that teeny blends is not just a quick fix brand. It's more like a lifestyle.
As your chief encourager, I try to encourage you not only in business but lifestyle too. But I need help from time to time too. I've been doing the teet me blends 30 day detox with a colon cleanse. So with a side of colon cleanse, and a girl feels cleaned out but in a good way.
The products haven't been hard for my body. And although I'm admittedly not the biggest tea drinker, I'm really enjoying my teeny blends with a dash of honey. It's a holiday is you're trying to look right and you see me blends to get my tummy tie. Visit teamyblends.com and use code SBQ 25 for 25% off all orders of $49.99 or more.
Jumping back into our practical ways to improve your life. Let's get into this one. Oh, this one. This one's a doozy for some people.
It's get a mentor or coach. A lot of us feel like we can just scour the internet forever for all the information and resources that we need. But sometimes when you know exactly what you want to do or exactly where you want to go, there are very specific people that you can enlist who will take you there. And a mentor or a coach can be one of those people.
So just think of it as you investing back in yourself so that you can be better and be the, I guess, best version of yourself. And hopefully that person will help to bring that out of you. Then next we have reduce the time you spend on it says chat programs. But I'm going to say reduce the amount of time that you spend on social media.
Social media can suck all of us in. You go into this black hole and then you just keep scrolling and clicking and searching and you really most times don't come out any better than you were before you went in. Sometimes you actually come out worse. So reducing the amount of time and attention that you give to social media can never be a bad thing.
Even if you heavily use social media for work, there are still ways for you to control your consumption with social media so that it does not overpower you and take up too much of your time. Then this tip, I think this one is a good one and we can all do it. It says learn chess or any strategy game. So if you have absolutely no interest in learning chess, I still think that there are tons of games out there that you can.
Find yourself engaging with and realizing that number one, it can be super relaxing for you and number two, it can help you to use strategy in a bigger way in your life period. So some of the other games that I might suggest if I were talking about chess and actually I've never tried to play chess and I've just never really had an interest in learning how to play chess. But let's say if you're going to start on the real world low end, maybe you could do something like a connect for, you know, everybody loves a good game of connect for. And that also would invite you engaging with other people, which is a really good idea.
Especially if you were to go to a game guide or something like that. But if you're going to do things on your own, I love Solitaire. Solitaire is a great one. Tetris, good old school favorite.
There are also, there's just a ton of games that you can find and download from the app section, even on your phone. Or you can go get a good old school game. It's up to you, but having a game of strategy in your back pocket, never a bad idea. Alright, so the next tip is stop watching TV.
Ooh, TV can definitely be a time suck, but I will admit that I love a good crime drama. I've told you guys that before, that is my weakness, especially a good bingeable series on Netflix. Oh my gosh. But I can see the value in stopping watching television, you know.
It does cause you to, you know, waste some time. So if you're trying to practically improve yourself, stopping the TV watching is a really good idea. I get it. I get it.
Okay, the next one is start a 30 day challenge. Ooh, 30 day challenges are fun. They are just that, a challenge because sometimes when you're trying something new, it's really hard to stick with it for 30 days. But this is a good way to push yourself, to hold yourself accountable and to give yourself a feeling of accomplishment at the end and have something to celebrate.
So maybe you promise yourself that you'll do something special, out of the ordinary, nice, different, above and beyond for yourself, if you are able to complete that 30 day challenge. And I think that is just like a rock star way to get things done as well as improve yourself. The next tip is meditate. Even if you are completely like not familiar with meditating, there are so many apps and things out there now that you can use to help guide you through and introduce you to the practice of meditation.
Headspace is the number one that comes to my mind. I have used that app before. I enjoyed it. I like it.
There's a nice punishment that guides you through the meditations. And I think there's a free version and a paid version. So not everything has to be something that you have to purchase and buy into immediately when you're talking about learning and feeling your way through meditation. And it might also be cool to seek out a real life meditation course or series of courses that you can engage with in your city.
That might also be fun too. And more even more engaging. Next, we have join Toastmasters, which is a great way to learn public speaking. If you are someone who has to give presentations regularly, whether it be in your side hustle in your own time, or if it's for your career, your professional position, it is a great idea to have public speaking tools under your belt.
And a lot of people, a lot of professionals join Toastmasters to get their speaking chops up. And it takes you through this program. I've never done it, but I know people have done it and it takes you through a program and sort of acclimates you with the public speaking space. And it's supposed to be good from what I've heard.
I've heard good things about it. It's been around forever. So it's not some fly by night type of thing. It's been around.
Next up, we have the friend top people in their field. Okay. The friend top people in their field. Now, this one can be interpreted a few different ways.
Okay, so you can talk it from the perspective of if you are interested in being in their field, you want to be friends, the people that are at the top of that field. So you are obviously looking to align yourself with certain people to help you better yourself or maybe, you know, get your foot in or get a solid footing in that community that field, that space. But then the other side of that could be learning from people who just are at the top of their game. Maybe you have absolutely no interest in this person's field.
Maybe it is completely different from yours, but you respect and understand that there are things that you can learn from the top performers. In this particular field. I think that's just another positive way to look at it. So whatever your angle is in terms of practical ways to improve yourself befriending someone who is at the top in their field is a good idea.
Let go of the past. Ooh, this can get a little tricky. You might have to add enlisting and finding a therapist to this list too right after that. That's not on the list, but maybe it should be.
So letting go of the past, sometimes for some of us, it's easy. Sometimes for some of us, it's really challenging. It's more difficult. But I think acknowledging that there is, there are some things in your past that you might need to deal with and learn how to let go of so that you can be free from them.
I think that is definitely a practical way to understand how you can improve yourself. So maybe it is, like I said, you might, in order to do that, you might have to enlist some help with by way of a therapist. But however you got to do it, let's just say go ahead and get, get done, get it done. Start a business venture.
Ooh, I like this one because a lot of people think that, oh, I'm not really interested in being an entrepreneur. I don't want to work for myself. I am comfortable with my position here in corporate. They think that doesn't mean that they can do anything on the side.
But starting a business venture does not mean that you want to go full fledged, balls of the wall, entrepreneur up in this piece. It could just mean that you want to expand your opportunities and your options and see what some other things look like in some other areas of business. Maybe there's something that you've been passionate about since a kid. Maybe there's something that you have a newfound interest in.
It could be a number of reasons why you may be interested in a specific area of business and potentially starting a venture. But you could also think of it like this. Maybe you're setting yourself up to have some cushion if things were to change within your respective industry. Maybe there's something that you see shifting and moving and this is a way for you to prepare yourself.
Maybe you're preparing yourself when, for when you actually get to retirement age and you have an extra nest egg because you've been participating in this business venture on the side for a number of years. Whatever your reason is, I think it's always a good idea to have your options open. The next tip is show kindness to people around you. Absolutely love that one.
As I mentioned earlier, you never know what people are going through. You never know how someone is feeling and this world can throw so many challenges at all of us that it really is beneficial for us to try and be as sensitive to other people's needs as we can possibly be. And a little kindness can really and truly go a long way. And I don't want to get into some of the craziness that happens in our world on a day to day basis.
But I did hear someone say that one of the tragedies that recently happened, the question was if someone had just simply taken an interest in this person, maybe show them some ounce of kindness and compassion. I wonder if that would have changed the person's actions causing them maybe to not do what they did, which caused devastation in communities and truly in our world. Because even if you're not touched directly by some of the tragedies that we see, like some of these shootings and things like that, you still see it. You still empathize with people's pain.
And it still affects all of us because we are starting to understand more and more that you're not necessarily safe anywhere where some of these things happen. It could be you. So just keeping in mind that sometimes showing a little kindness can do more for a person than you know. And we just keep that in mind.
I think, you know, we'll help do our little part to make this world a better place for all of us. Then we have reach out to the people who hate you. I think it's pretty funny that this one comes next. Reach out to the people who hate you because I'm guessing you want to make amends in some way or just extend an olive branch and let them know that you don't hate them.
Maybe you guys don't have to be BFFs, but just sort of letting any bad blood go. I think that's a really good idea and a very mature thing for you to do. And obviously that is a practical way to help you improve yourself. Then we have take a break.
Simply take a break. Whatever that means to you, it could be you're sitting at your desk and you've been working, working, working your little fingers to the bone. You need to get up and take a quick break. That's fine.
It could be you've been really working hard on this project or proposal and you're just like, Oh my gosh, and you're sitting in your home office and you're like, I feel so overwhelmed. Take a break. It could be that your kids are getting on your last nerve. Take a break.
What does that look like? I know I'm not a mother, but it just might mean going outside for two minutes and you know, maybe you can still sort of hear a little bit what they're doing to make sure that nobody's killing themselves, but you just take a little me break. Fresh air, little breather real quick. Whatever it means to you, taking a break is a practical way to improve yourself.
I believe that one. Then we have read at least one personal development article a day. I think that's doable, right? So you can find a website that you really love that always gives you all the goods.
You can find these articles from scrolling on LinkedIn, whatever your way is that you consume some type of personal development article. I think that is a really good idea. And finally, the last practical way to improve yourself is commit to your personal growth. I absolutely love that one.
And let me just go ahead and make you feel real good right now. If you are listening to this podcast, I would say that you are on your way to committing to your personal growth because that is what we're all about here, personal and professional development. So if you've taken the time to listen this far, make it to the end or listen to any of the other SwitchPampered or Quick episodes, I would say that you are taking the time to commit to your personal growth. And that is something to clap about.
And it's also something to pat yourself on the back for because navigating your way through this world is not always easy, but you do what you can. And hopefully, these practical ways to improve yourself will give you some ideas as to little things that you can do and then grow your way into larger things that you can do to make yourself be the best version of you that you can be. I hope you enjoy this episode and until next time, keep killing it.