Becoming the best version of yourself is a process of self-discovery and self-improvement. It is very individual and can vary from person to person. In this blog, I am attempting to equip you with 24 practical tips to become the best version of yourself.
Life is a roller coaster, an enigmatic journey filled with twists and turns, that offers you an opportunity to become the best version of yourself. In this journey of life, you need some strategies and tips to become who you truly wish to be. The quest for self-improvement isn’t an overnight process but a transformative journey.
So, brace yourself up. In this blog, I am sharing 24 practical tips to become the best version of yourself.
24 Practical Tips To Become the Best Version of Yourself in 2024
Before you engross yourself in reading these 24 practical and doable tips, understand that you may not be able to adapt all of them at once. However, if you are serious about becoming the best version of yourself, these tips will help if you approach them one day at a time.
1. Exercise Regularly
I was not always an exercise person. I was not exercising regularly and felt lethargic but ever since I started weight training, I have been feeling more active. If an average girl like me can do it, then you can do it too.
Studies Suggest that females who do weight lifting and aerobics are better at physical activities than those who don’t.
Gymming has not only made me more active, but it has also had a profound positive impact on my mental health.
Exercise also helps in stress management and improves the quality of sleep.
2. Evaluate Areas to Improve
This is something I did and it worked wonders for me.
Make a list of areas where you would want to improve yourself and start working on them one by one.
For example, I made a list of the negative emotions that I’d like to overcome in my personality. The list included feelings like jealousy in relationships, insecurity, self-esteem issues, improving my dressing sense, making time for my hobbies, and many more.
I realized the most important thing was to remove jealousy as it was hampering my personal growth and affecting my well-being. I was constantly jealous of other girls and their successful lives. Though it took me a lot of inner work and a mindset shift it happened. I was able to overcome my feelings of jealousy and get rid of my negative self-talk with patience.
You can do the same for yourself. The key is to acknowledge your shortcomings, accept your worst habits, and then work towards overcoming them.
3. Become Self-Aware
To become the best version of yourself every single day, you need to be fully self-aware and not in any delusion about your strengths and weaknesses.
Take a pen and paper and note down your strengths and weaknesses. The first part of the process is to work on your strengths and make them stronger. The second (and more important) part of the process is to work on your weaknesses to improve them every day.
This is how you set yourself up to become the best version of yourself.
4. Set SMART Goals
Goals is a tiny word but it has deeper layers of meaning to it. Setting SMART goals is the system of processes you’re willing to put yourself through to become the best version of yourself.
It is your pathway to nurture yourself in ways that take you close to being who you really wish to be despite all the odds in life.
I started tasting success during my college days only after I started to set SMART goals i.e., Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.
Goals are important in life. They bring you motivation. Most importantly, they build you a disciplined life, a daily routine that paves that way and gives you reasons to jump out of your bed every single morning.
5. Build a Habit of Meditation
As you grow older, life will present its challenges in front of you. To deal with these challenges, you must strive every day to become the best version of yourself. To do so, you must practice mindful meditation as it brings calmness and serenity to your life.
Studies also suggest that older adults’ brain health improves if they meditate regularly. Personally, practicing yoga has been the best decision I took for my mind and body. The relaxing yoga nidra and body scanning during Shavasana are the most meditative practices I’ve experienced and they work wonders to help you feel grounded and connected with your surroundings.
6. Practice Gratitude
Gratitude is a positive emotion that you feel by expressing thankfulness for what you have in your life.
Every night, before hitting the bed, write down 3 things you are grateful for and then read them the next morning, and then start your day.
I am thankful for my family, the food I eat, the friends I have, the beautiful home I live in, and the most caring partner God has given me. I would not trade any of it for the world.
Feeling grateful doesn’t mean you don’t wish for more. It means that you’re fulfilled with your life whether you get more than this or not.
7. Pick up New Skills
Personal development and self-improvement are ever-evolving processes. Skills are the wheels that drive these processes.
Learning new skills is the only approach that is both efficient and effective when it comes to becoming the best version of yourself. Learning a new skill is not hard only when you let your limiting beliefs restrict you. The key is to let go of who you believe you are and work towards becoming who you can be if you stay consistent.
Pick up a new skill after you’ve mastered one. It’s called skill stacking. Choose the career you wish to excel in and start stacking your skills based on it. You can also take a multi-dimensional approach and learn the necessary life skills to become the best version of yourself.
These skills can be as simple as cooking or washing dishes, or something that requires proper training like SEO, marketing, etc.
Acquiring new skills is a passage to massive self-confidence. Though many people know this, not everyone is willing to grind them day in and day out to reach their maximum potential.
8. Teach Yourself Confidence
Confidence is also a skill, nobody is born confident. As Priyanka Copra, former Miss World 2000 says, “She could win the title of Miss World at 18 because she taught herself confidence”.
You become confident with your achievements. When you shatter your negative self-belief and move past the limitations set by your own mind, that is when you feel confident.
It all starts with getting out of your comfort zone. That is how began too.
This is my 3rd and the most uncomfortable year as a digital writer. However, I am glad it went how it did because it brought in a lot of personal growth for me. It all happened because I made decisions that felt the most aligned with my personal development plan.
This is why I come across as this confident personality on my Instagram or LinkedIn, not because I try it but because I genuinely feel like it.
9. Ignorance is Bliss
You will always encounter people who will try to pull you down and talk negatively about you. Don’t let this deter your spirit and be indomitable.
The smartest thing you can do as you set on the journey to become the best version of yourself is to let the naysayers be. Ignore the negativity around you and focus on the positive people and positive thoughts in your life.
Stay focused on what you’re supposed to do instead of feeding the negative energy around you and letting it disrupt your flow of work.
10. Stay Hydrated
This is probably the most basic thing on the list, but it is often the one that is easily ignored.
Drinking water is not just limited to keeping you hydrated. When you pave the way to becoming the best version of yourself, it should be done by approaching one aspect of life at a time. However, drinking water and staying hydrated is something that can be done simultaneously as you work towards achieving your bigger goals.
Unlike other goals in life, it doesn’t require you to think a lot. All you need to do is have a bottle of water with you and continue sipping it throughout the day.
Staying hydrated clears your impurities and gives you clear skin thus making you feel good about yourself. This makes you healthier and contributes towards becoming the best version of yourself.
11. Embrace Spirituality
By encouraging people to use moral and ethical ideals to live their lives, spirituality persuades personal development.
Believing in God, believing in Karma, and being scared of the higher power automatically make you the best version of yourself.
It also nurtures the helping nature in your personality which makes you more kinder and loving towards others.
12. Practice Forgiveness
You will always come across people who will be rude to you or sometimes even try to harm you. However, holding grudges and nurturing them will only serve the negativity in your being. It will only bring you down and feed your pessimistic emotions.
When people hate you or try to bring you down, that’s usually because they are unable to deal with their problems. They choose to project the frustrations of their failures onto others. This is how they feel better about themselves, by bringing others down.
Not everyone is the best version of themselves in life. Life is unfair. But, you have to be the bigger person here. You have to keep a big heart to forgive those people and pray for them too.
Never forget how someone wronged you, but never hold any grudges too. Take your lessons and let it go. Forgive them for what they did to you, not because they are sorry or anything but because it’s important as it sets you free.
13. Mindful Use of Social Media
Social Media is a powerful tool that can build you up from scratch or demolish you.
I used to mindlessly scroll my social media for a temporary dopamine rush. All it did was make me feel less about myself and add to the constant feeling of social media FOMO.
Once I noticed how it wreaks my time management and career, I started finding ways to navigate out of this issue.
The activity that helped me the most was to start following relevant content creators who would add value to my life and motivate me toward my goal and unfollow everyone who made me question my self-worth.
I also kept a timer on all the digital apps I used extensively. This was a game-changer for me. I felt so much at ease and a step closer to becoming the best version of myself.
14. Participate in Voluntary Activities
There are many underprivileged people in our society, you can begin by volunteering for an NGO that works for the upliftment of indigent people.
When you help someone out of no selfish motive, when you become a giver, that is when you start receiving more than you desire. You become the best version of yourself. Cultivating a helpful and selfless nature helps you grow holistically.
15. Develop a Reading Habit
Reading has changed the way I used to look at life. It has my secret passage to growth in the most ‘low-cost investment’ way.
Developing a reading habit can do wonders for your mindset and perspective towards life. If you have no interest, start with genres that interest you.
For me, it was writing books. Because I wanted to start as a digital writer in 2020. Then I slowly started reading self-help books because I wanted to improve my skills to grow this blog.
It could be a mystery, self-improvement, fiction, or anything for you. Reading and rereading your favorite books broadens your perspective, improves your English language skills, and develops a skill of storytelling among many other benefits. You cannot go wrong with it.
16. Embrace Failure
Failures are the stepping stone to success. They are the proof that you’re trying, you’re being human.
Whenever you fail, you might feel like giving up, you might feel like the world has come crashing down. You may lose all your hopes.
Guess what, all of this will happen.
Irrespective of what it is you’re trying to do, you will have instances of failure. You will have moments where you will feel like your world has come crashed down and there’s nowhere to go. It is in those moments you will have to continue moving forward, one breath at a time and that’s the beauty of it.
It is this time that you should muster the courage to get up and start afresh. The truth is failure is a part of the process. It is what makes the feeling of success so precious. It is the failures that make you feel proud of your achievement because you know it hasn’t been easy for you.
Thus, learn from your failures. Take the lessons and move on. Evaluate where you went wrong and work on improvements for the next time.
17. Make Mistakes
Mistakes are proof that you’re not tired yet. They are proof that you have not given up and you are willing to work towards your goals in life.
Perfection is a facade hailed by social media that makes you believe that on-screen is your real life. When in reality, things that appear on screen are hardly related to real life. The truth is everyone has some flaws.
Your flaws make you human. They keep you alive. Mistakes are the stepping stones to building your ideal life.
So, accept that you can be wrong in some situations. Don’t let your ego drive your deeds.
18. Say no to Alcohol or Drugs
Bad habits like alcohol, smoking, and drugs attract youngsters these days. These may give you short-term relief from stress, but, in the long run, they hamper your health and make you addicted.
Substance abuse and addiction are the strongest hurdles you can keep between you and your growth. They are the biggest roadblocks you can bring in your life. Thus, stay away from them.
19. Set Your Boundaries
People are promoting the toxic hustle culture so much that the line between professional and personal life gets blurred.
There is nothing wrong with obsessing over your dreams and working towards them. However, there is a thin line between embracing toxic productivity and letting it ruin your health and family life.
Thus, be intentional about your work. Set boundaries to protect your peace of mind.
20. Follow the Japanese Concept Ikigai
Finding your Ikigai means finding a purpose that is at the intersection of what you love to do, what you’re good at, what you can get paid for, and what the world needs. This is how you choose to work on something that takes this unique approach and gives you the joy and satisfaction of leading your life with purpose.
It is not always an easy process to find your Ikigai. Sometimes, it takes a lot of hit and trials, a lot of miss or hit to find what aligns with your mindset, work ethic, and life principles.
The key is to consistently involve yourself in this process and experiment with your choices in life.
21. Cultivate a Growth Mindset
When you have a growth mindset, you have self-belief. You believe that you can achieve success on a personal and professional level through your hard work, grit, and dedication.
Building and cultivating a growth mindset is the most important prerequisite to becoming the best version of yourself. It ensures that you don’t surrender to the difficulties in your life and are resilient enough to bounce back and continue moving forward in life.
22. Take Constructive Criticism Positively
Receiving constructive criticism is a sign of growth and improvement. It shows that you’re making the efforts in the right direction and all you need to do is brush up on them to bring fruitful results.
This criticism or feedback can come from anybody around you. However, it is important that you only focus on things that will bring you growth in the long run.
I have a straightforward rule when it comes to constructive criticism in the process of my work: I don’t take it from people who have not walked my path.
As a digital writer who is building her space online, I have a lot of people telling me what’s right and what’s wrong. However, I only listen to the people who have done it already. This is how I embrace and seize my opportunity to become the best version of myself.
23. Monitor Your Progress
If you’re a digital person, prepare an Excel sheet and if you believe in the old-school way, go with a daily planner, to monitor your everyday progress.
This helps you to be on your toes and keeps you in check of how far you have come. This also provides a great insight into developing new strategies as per your past activities and behaviors. It allows you to refine your approach and take it one goal at a time.
24. Don’t Forget to Enjoy the Process
Sometimes, the hustling takes over your mind and the toxic productivity makes you forget the feeling of enjoying the process. Most people forget to enjoy the process and this leads them to give up on “what once was your goal”.
The truth is that the real fun is in the process. Your process of work is what makes the journey worthy. It is what makes success feel so thrilling.
Conclusion
Making significant improvements is not an overnight phenomenon. It is a gradual process that compounds over time. It is the journey to become the best version of yourself.
Large-scale changes come about gradually through the accumulation of tiny, regular steps. By applying these practical tips in your daily lives, you can create an atmosphere that supports your skill improvement and personal development.
In the words of the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Take that step towards becoming the best version of yourself with small daily efforts.
