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To improve ourselves is an innate desire …

• We have an innate desire to endlessly learn, grow and develop. We want to become more than what we already are. Once we yield to this inclination for continuous and never-ending improvement, we lead a life of endless accomplishments and satisfaction. Chuck Gallozi
• We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are. Max DePree
• I have a tremendous desire to learn, and to grow, and to develop whatever I have that will make for any kind of improvement in me. Lawrence Welk
• Growth,  Learning,  Evolution,  Transcendence,  Transformation,  Progress,  Envision who you want to become

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… and seeing ourselves improve brings happiness and motivation

• The only true happiness is to learn, to advance, and to improve… Albert Pike
• There is something about seeing myself improve that motivates and excites me. Jackie Joyner-Kersee
• Happiness,  Motivation

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To not improve brings stagnation and effects our well-being

• Yet many human beings, resigned to sensuality and indolence, un-instructed and unimproved, have passed through life like travellers in a strange country. Sallust
• If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. Pat Riley
• Whoever admits that he is too busy to improve his methods has acknowledged himself to be at the end of his rope. And that is always the saddest predicament which anyone can get into. J. Ogden Armour
• Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; one either progresses or retrogrades. Mme. Du Deffand
• Well-being

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In life, there’s always room for improvement

• There’s always room for improvement, you know-it’s the biggest room in the house. Louise Heath Leber
• No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself. Madonna
• Do your best and be a little better than you are. Gordon B. Hinckley
• The never-ending task of self-improvement. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• No matter how good you get you can always get better, and that’s the exciting part. Tiger Woods
• If you’re any good at all, you know you can be better. Lindsay Buckingham
• There’s always stuff to work on. You’re never there. Tiger Woods
• Every day, and in every way, I am becoming better and better. Émile Coué

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Some argue that self-improvement is one of our reasons for being …

• What are the aims which are at the same time duties? They are perfecting of ourselves, the happiness of others. Immanuel Kant
• The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for. Oscar Wilde
• The real fun of life is this perpetual testing to realize how far out you can go with any potentialities. Richard Feynman
• Purpose

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… a kind of sacred responsibility

• Each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity. Marie Curie
• Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Henry Ward Beecher
• Never neglect an opportunity for improvement. Sir William Jones
• Of this one thing make sure against your dying day – that your faults die before you do. Seneca

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Self-improvement is the greatest of challenges …

• There is no challenge more challenging than the challenge to improve yourself. Michael F. Staley

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… and is never a straight line

• Most learning consists of extended plateau periods in which we solidify progress through repetitive activity, followed by little spurts of improvement. Ronald S. Miller

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Realise that no amount of self-improvement can make up for a lack of self-acceptance or self-worth

• No amount of self-improvement can make up for any lack of self-acceptance. Robert Holden
• Yoga is not about self-improvement, it’s about self-acceptance. Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
• It’s one thing to invite transformation for the sake of growth, improvement, and new possibilities. It’s another thing to feel so dissatisfied with yourself that no amount of change could possibly convince you that you’re worthy and lovable. Lori Deschene
• Self-acceptance,  Self-worth

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Drop any idea that you need to improve yourself to accept your own worth

• Drop the idea of becoming someone, because you are already a masterpiece. You cannot be improved. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it. Osho
• I grow to experience greater happiness, not to improve or because I feel incomplete. Wayne Dyer
• Self-improvement is a grand outcome, yet it will serve you to participate with the intention to move from good to great, not unworthy to worthy. You are already worthy.  Begin there.  Michael Nitti

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Some argue we should focus less on self-improvement, and more on accepting and embracing who we are

• We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves—the heavy-duty fearing that we’re bad and hoping that we’re good, the identities that we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy and the addictions of all kinds—never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake. Pema Chodron
• Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are. Jon Kabat-  Zinn
• There’s nothing wrong with self-improvement, as long as you recognize that at some point you’re going to have to accept yourself in all your imperfect glory. What’s wrong with liking yourself the way you are? Jessica Zafra

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To improve your world, start by improving yourself …

• The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands. Robert M. Pirsig
• Of course, we’re obligated to improve ourselves only if we want to make this world a better place. If we don’t care about that, then we can spend our lives being entertained passively, learning nothing new at all. But then we’re not fulfilling our responsibility of contributing to the world.  Tom Walsh
• There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. Aldous Huxley
• Improvement begins with I. Arnold Glasow
• Men are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves. James Allen
• If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control – myself. Stephen Covey
• Before preparing to improve the world, first look around your own home three times. Chinese Proverb
• As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves. Mahatma Gandhi
• Human improvement is from within outward. James Anthony Froude
• Change yourself and fortune will change with you. Portugese Proverb
• You make the world a better place by making yourself a better person. Scott Sorrell

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… because circumstances don’t get better until we get better

• For things to change, you’ve got to change. For things to get better, you’ve got to get better. Jeff Olson
• Those who seek a better life must first become a better person. Jim Rohn
• Everything in your life gets better when you get better, and nothing is ever going to get better until you get better. Larry Winget
• Your future is up to you, not your employer. You have to get better in order for your circumstances to get better, and that must be done on your own time. Larry Winget

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To improve your relationships, start by improving your inner world

• The “Inside-Out” approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside- out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves recedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves. Stephen Covey
• When you’re happy with yourself, then all of your other relationships improve, too. A happy person is very attractive to others. If you’re looking for more love, then you need to love yourself more. Louise L. Hay
• Principles for healthy relationships,  To change the outer world, change your inner world

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To improve yourself, practice encouragement rather than self-criticism

• When a little child is learning to walk or talk, we encourage him and praise him for every tiny improvement he makes. The child beams and eagerly tries to do better. Is this the way you encourage yourself when you are learning something new? Or do you make it harder to learn because you tell yourself that you are stupid or clumsy or a ‘failure’? Louise L. Hay
• Encouragement,  Criticism

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To improve, embrace living and doing

• Man improves himself as he follows his path; if he stands still, waiting to improve before he makes a decision, he’ll never move. Paulo Coelho
• Embrace life

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To improve, practice constantly

• Practice only makes for improvement. Les Brown
• That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Practice without improvement is meaningless. Chuck Knox
• Practice yourself in little things, and thence proceed to greater. Epictetus
• Practice

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To improve, get to know yourself

• Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement. Baltasar Gracián
• Every man has in himself a continent of undiscovered character. Happy is he who acts as the Columbus to his own soul. Sir J. Stephen
• Self-knowledge

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To improve, take an honest inventory of yourself

• A man can never hope to be more than he is if he is not first honest about what he isn’t. Don Williams, Jr
• We have so much room for improvement. Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory… of how we are taking responsibility. Nancy Pelosi
• The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. Thomas Carlyle
• The farther a man knows himself to be free from perfection, the nearer he is to it. Gerard Groote
• This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfection. Saint Augustine

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To improve, have ideals to guide you

• We never reach our ideals, whether of mental or moral improvement, but the thought of them shows us our deficiencies, and spurs us on to higher and better things. Tryon Edwards
• Ideals

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To improve, win mastery over yourself

• We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and you must win. Edward Gibbon
• Mastery

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To improve, be open to criticism and act on it where it’s valid

• While criticism can be taken as hurtful and demoralizing, it can also be viewed in a positive way: it is honesty, and it can spur us to do better. It’s an opportunity to improve. Leo Babauta
• When a wise man is advised of his errors, he will reflect on and improve his conduct. When his misconduct is pointed out, a foolish man will not only disregard the advice but rather repeat the same error. Buddha
• When you are secure–not perfect, but secure– you can listen to the criticism and consider its value. You can say, “I’m sorry.” And “thank you for polishing my mirror,” and when it is appropriate you can learn from the criticism and improve your behavior. I say when it is appropriate because there are some people who love to find fault in others.  That is their problem. Bernie Siegel
• Sure, it may be rude and mean, but in most criticism, you can find a nugget of gold: honest feedback and a suggestion for improvement. Leo Babauta
• If you’re being asked to improve in some way, then ask for specific measurables … you can’t run a race if you don’t know where the finish line is. Be extra diligent about checking in on mutual satisfaction. Danielle LaPorte
• Criticism

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To improve, embrace change

• Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable. William Pollard
• To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. Winston Churchill
• Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change. James Cash Penney
• Change

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To improve, some say you should focus on your strengths; not your weaknesses …

• You grow most in your areas of greatest strength. You will improve the most, be the most creative, be the most inquisitive, and bounce back the fastest in those areas where you have already shown some natural advantage over everyone else—your strengths. This doesn’t mean you should ignore your weaknesses. It just means you’ll grow most where you’re already strong. Marcus Buckingham
• The choice is between multiplication of results using strengths or incremental improvement fixing weaknesses that will, at best, become mediocre. Timothy Ferriss
• If you have ability in a certain area, why not capitalize on it and improve it and use it? Wilt Chamberlain
• If you have great talents, industry will improve them; If moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiencies. Nothing is denied to well- directed labor: nothing is ever to be attained without it. Sir Joshua Reynolds
• Focus on your strengths

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… while others disagree

• Remedy your deficiencies, and your merits will take care of themselves. Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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To improve, focus on improving your virtues rather than fixating on your vices

• So much of our lives is given over to the consideration of our imperfections that there is no time to improve our imaginary virtues. The truth is we only perfect our vices, and man is a worse creature when he dies than he was when he was born. Edward Dahlberg
• Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging. Marcus Aurelius
• Virtue,  Vice

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To improve, work smart

• The idea that the harder you work, the better you’re going to be is just garbage. The greatest improvement is made by the man or woman who works most intelligently. Bill Bowerman
• Effectiveness,  Efficiency

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To improve, be willing to look stupid at times

• If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. Epictetus
• You can’t look good and get better at the same time.
• Foolishness

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To improve, be open to both learning and being taught

• The barrier during self-improvement is not so much that we hate learning, rather we hate being taught. To learn entails that the knowledge was achieved on one’s own accord–it feels great–but to be taught often leaves a feeling of inferiority. Thus, it takes a bit of determination and a lot of humility in order for one to fully develop. Criss Jami
• Learning

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To improve, reframe your failures as opportunities to learn and improve …

• Reframe your setbacks as signals for change and the opportunity to improve. What would happen if you replaced the concept of failure with that of opportunity? Devora Zack
• No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist. Chris Hardwick
• If you try anything, if you try to lose weight, or to improve yourself, or to love, or to make the world a better place, you have already achieved something wonderful, before you even begin. Forget failure. If things don’t work out the way you want, hold your head up high and be proud. And try again. And again. And again! Sarah Dessen
• There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better. Tiger Woods
• Failure,  Learning

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… and do the same with your mistakes

• For every mistake that you learn from you will save thousands of similar mistakes in the future, so if you treat mistakes as learning opportunities that yield rapid improvements you should be excited by them. But if you treat them as bad things, you will make yourself and others miserable, and you won’t grow. Ray Dalio
• Everyone’s lesson is to forgive ourselves for our mistakes, even those things we feel ashamed about, and learn to accept ourselves for who we are, knowing that we can always gently work on making improvements. Patrick Wanis
• We make our discoveries through our mistakes: we watch one another’s success: and where there is freedom to experiment there is hope to improve. Arthur Quiller-Couch
• Mistakes

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To improve, strive to outdo yourself rather than trying to outdo others

• When one can do better than everyone else in the same walk, one does not make any very painful exertions to outdo oneself. The progress of improvement ceases nearly at the point where competition ends. William Hazlitt
• Average ones compete with others. Great ones compete with themselves. Vadim Kotelnikov
• There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. Ernest Hemingway
• Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. William Faulkner
• Self-improvement is the name of the game, and your primary objective is to strengthen yourself, not to destroy an opponent. Maxwell Maltz
• There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. Hindu Proverb
• Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves – to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today. Stewart B. Johnson
• Competition,  Comparison

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To improve, focus on growing and developing yourself

• When we are focused on personal growth and development, on making progress rather than on proving ourselves, we deal with difficulty far more gracefully. We tend to see setbacks as informative, rather than as signs of personal failure. We don’t worry as much about the likelihood of success because we know that even if we never do it perfectly, we will certainly improve. And getting better is, after all, the goal. Heidi Grant Halvorson
• Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. Benjamin Franklin
• Growth

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To improve, see adversity as a catalyst for improving

• We get stronger when we test ourselves. Adversity can make us better. We must be challenged to improve, and adversity is the challenger. John Wooden
• A certain amount of stress can act as a catalyst for growth, improvement, and even keep life from being boring. Amanda Harvey
• There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time. Malcolm X
• Of all the virtues we can learn, no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• That which causes us trials shall yield us triumph: and that which make our hearts ache shall fill us with gladness. The only true happiness is to learn, to advance, and to improve: which could not happen unless we had commenced with error, ignorance, and imperfection. We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light. Albert Pike
• People naturally tend toward inertia. That’s why self-improvement is such a struggle. But that’s also why adversity lies at the heart of every success. The process of achievement comes through repeated failures and the constant struggle to climb to a higher level. John Maxwel
• Adversity

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To improve your tomorrows, take concerted action today

• Do something. Whatever you do, it will be better than sitting and hoping things will improve. Robert Anthony
• Doing nothing requires effort. Over time, that effort is greater than the effort necessary to improve or move somewhere better. The trick is to redirect energy. Max McKeown
• What you do today can improve all of your tomorrows. Marc and Angel Chernoff
• Action,  Make a start

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To improve your life, look for small daily improvements rather than big, quick improvements

• Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens—and when it happens, it lasts. John Wooden
• When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur…. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens — and when it happens, it lasts. John Wooden
• Small daily improvements always lead to exceptional results over time. Robin Sharma
• Practice the philosophy of continuous improvement. Get a little bit better every single day. Brian Tracy
• Excellence is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends. Brian Tracy
• Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection. Kim Collins
• The power of small steps

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… thus applying the principle of Kaizen which translates as “continual improvement.”

• To make the quickest progress, you don’t have to take huge leaps. You just have to take baby steps—and keep on taking them. In Japan, they call this approach kaizen, which literally translates as ‘continual improvement.’ Using kaizen, great and lasting success is achieved through small, consistent steps. It turns out that slow and steady is the best way to overcome your resistance to change. Marci Shimoff
• Kaizen and innovation are the two major strategies people use to create change. Where innovation demands shocking and radical reform, all kaizen asks is that you take small, comfortable steps toward improvement. Robert Maurer
• All changes, even positive ones, are scary. Attempts to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means often fail because they heighten fear. But the small steps of kaizen disarm the brain’s fear response, stimulating rational thought and creative play. Robert Maurer
• By asking small, gentle questions, we keep the fight-or-flight response in the “off” position. Kaizen questions such as “What’s the smallest step I can take to be more efficient?” or “What can I do in five minutes a day to reduce my credit- card debt?” Robert Maurer

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To improve, focus on just one self-development goal at a time

• Focus on one project at a time. If you set more than one self- improvement goal, you may succeed for a while by drawing on reserves to power through, but that just leaves you more depleted and more prone to serious mistakes later. Roy Baumeister & John Tierney
• Great performers isolate remarkably specific aspects of what they do and focus on just those things until they are improved; then it’s on to the next aspect. Geoff Colvin
• Goal setting

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To improve, model the behaviours of people you admire …

• People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy. Oliver Goldsmith
• Whenever you see a man who is successful in society, try to discover what makes him pleasing, and if possible adopt his system. Benjamin Disraeli
• Role models

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… and make improvements on what others have thought and done

• Accelerate your progress towards success by modeling those who are already successful. It’s much easier to copy what someone else has already done. What’s even better, is you can then improve upon what someone has done and achieve better results, often in a shorter period of time. Tony Robbins
• There’s no good idea that cannot be improved on. Michael Eisner

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To improve your life, ask empowering questions

• Great minds ask great questions. The questions that ‘engage our thought’ on a daily basis reflect our life purpose and influence the quality of our lives. By cultivating a Da Vinci-like open, questing frame of mind, we broaden our universe and improve our ability to travel through it. Michael Gelb
• Questions

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To improve your life, do what you love

• We don’t realize the extent to which our lives would improve if we were doing work we loved. Joshua Rosenthal
• When you love your job, you will work on yourself, so you will be better for your job. You will love it enough to be good at it. If you aren’t doing that, you don’t love your job at all; you love going to that place where you hang out and they pay you for it. Larry Winget
• Do what you love

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To improve your life, improve your ability to communicate

• Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing.  If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.  Brian Tracy
• Communication

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To improve your life, make better use of time

• Grab a notebook and a pen; for an entire week, write down everything that you do and how much time you spend on it. You may be shocked to discover that you waste enormous amounts of time aimlessly surfing the web, reading blogs that don’t really help improve your quality of life, “chatting” on Twitter, and so on. Ask yourself how your life would improve if you used that time productively instead. Marelisa Fábrega
• Time management

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To improve, reflect at the end of each day

• How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to their minds the events of the whole day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day. Anne Frank
• It was the sacred rule among the Pythagoreans that they should every evening thrice run over the actions and affairs of the day. Dr. L. Watts
• Reflection

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To improve, read …

• Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for. Socrates
• Man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people. Will Rogers
• Reading

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… but simply reading is never enough

• We can’t get good at something solely by reading about it. And we’ll never make giant leaps in any endeavor by treating it like a snack food that we munch on whenever we’re getting bored. You get good at something by doing it repeatedly. And by listening to specific criticism from people who are already good at what you do. And by a dedication to getting better, even when it’s inconvenient and may not involve a handy bulleted list. Merlin Mann
• Don’t read stuff by people who got successful by telling other people how to be successful. Brad Bollenbach

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The greatest improvements come from joint efforts

• Every step by which an individual substitutes concerted action for isolated action results in an immediate and recognizable improvement in his or her conditions. The advantages derived from peaceful cooperation and division of labor are universal. Ludwig von Mises
• Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself. Alexander Graham Bell
• Teamwork,  Collaboration,  Cooperation

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Perfectionism is a hindrance to improvement

• Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance. Brené Brown
• Healthy striving is self-focused: “How can I improve?”, Perfectionism is other-focused: “What will they think?” Brené Brown
• The specialist who imprisons himself in self-inflicted one-dimensionality — pursuing an impossible perfection — spends decades stagnant or making imperceptible incremental improvements while the curious generalist consistently measures improvement in quantum leaps. It is only the latter who enjoys the process of pursuing excellence. Tim Ferriss
• It is failure that guides evolution; perfection provides no incentive for improvement, and nothing is perfect. Colson Whitehead
• Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection. Kim Collins
• Perfectionism

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To improve your life, do things differently

• It’s impossible to make real improvements to our lives unless we do things differently. Brian Tracy
• Improvement usually means doing something that we have never done before. Shigeo Shingo
• Different isn’t always better, but better is always different.
• We cannot advance without new experiments in living, but no wise man tries every day what he has proved wrong the day before. James Truslow Adams
• You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. Mike Murdock
• Explore new approaches

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To improve your life, look for ways to innovate

• Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress. Ted Levitt
• Innovation,  Creativity

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To improve your life, live by the values you most admire

• When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy, and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire. Brian Tracy
• Values,  Values to live by

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To improve your life, work on your will power

• Self-control is a better predictor of academic success than intelligence, a stronger determinant of effective leadership than charisma, and more important for marital bliss than empathy. If we want to improve our lives, willpower is not a bad place to start. Kelly McGonigal
• To improve your life, invest in yourself
• Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. it will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you. Robin S. Sharma
• Will power,  Self-control

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To improve your life, focus on improving the present; your moments of now

• We want you to consider the millions and millions of moments of your real-life experience that could be feeling good now, feeling good now, feeling good now… Yes, of course, the manifestation will come. It certainly will come, good or bad. Wanted or unwanted, it is coming. But your life is now, your emotions are now, and the way you feel is now. Direct your thoughts to improve your now moment—and the manifestations will take care of themselves. Esther and Jerry Hicks
• To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life. William James
• Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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To improve your life, improve your attitude

• Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitude and expectations. If we feel that our environment could stand some improvement, we can bring about that change for the better by improving our attitude.  The world plays no favorites.  It’s impersonal.  It doesn’t care who succeeds and who fails.  Nor does it care if we change.  Our attitude toward life doesn’t affect the world and the people in it nearly as much as it affects us.  Earl Nightingale
• Spend some time this weekend on home improvement; improve your attitude toward your family. Bo Bennett
• Attitude

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To improve your life, create more ideas

• Ideas are the engines of progress. They improve people’s lives by creating better ways to do things. Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder
• Ideas,  Creative thinking

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To improve your life, take more chances

• Our lives improve only when we take chances and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves. Walter Anderson
• Risk taking,  Boldness

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To improve your life, practice detachment

• When your inner dependency on form is gone – the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them. Eckhart Tolle
• To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Eckhart Tolle
• Non-attachment

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To improve your life, focus on areas that give you the most return for the least energy

• It is always possible to improve our lives, not by a small amount, but by a large amount. The way to make the improvement: “What will give me a much better result for much less energy?” Richard Koch
• Focus,  Effort,  Effortlessness

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To improve your well-being, cultivate the habit of good deeds

• Cultivating the habit of good deeds will not only affect those around us, it will improve our own emotional well-being. Debbie Macomber
• Habit,  Right action

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Always look ways to improve your methods and ways of doing things …

• Whoever admits that he is too busy to improve his methods has acknowledged himself to be at the end of his rope. And that is always the saddest predicament which anyone can get into. J. Ogden Armour
• The fine points that are uncovered in our work as a result of close study, diligent care, constant application and always trying to improve our methods represent the best and most valuable knowledge we get in business-and the sum total of that attentive attitude is what we call skill. Wallace Stevens

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… for no method or approach is beyond improvement

• No way of looking at things is too sacred to be reconsidered. No way of doing things is beyond improvement. Edward De Bono
• We may have a perfectly adequate way of doing something, but that does not mean there cannot be a better way. So, we set out to find an alternative way. This is the basis of any improvement that is not fault correction or problem solving. Edward De Bono
• Everything can be improved. Clarence W. Barron

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To stop worrying, prepare yourself to accept the worst, then calmly work on improving upon it

• Analyze the situation honestly and figure out what is the worst possible thing that could happen. Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst, if necessary. Then calmly try to improve upon the worst, which you have already agreed mentally to accept. Willis H. Carrier
• Worry

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Learn ways to make improvements to your mood

• The big finding was that people experienced longer-lasting improvements in mood from the kindness and gratitude activities than from those in which they indulged themselves. Jonathan Haidt
• Physical activity is an excellent stress-buster and provides other health benefits as well. It also can improve your mood and self-image.  Jon Wickham
• It’s can be easy to let yourself go when depressed and to pay no attention to appearance and clothing. Reintroducing daily attention to grooming can help improve your mood and give you a sense of well- being. Jack Herrick
• Exercise now…and again. A 10-minute walk can improve your mood for two hours. The key to sustaining mood benefits is to exercise regularly. Jeanne Segal
• Mood

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Become happier by making small improvements

• Happiness comes from small improvements, not by getting somewhere once and for all. Being able to add on one room to your house is what makes you happy, not living in a palace. Warren Buffett
• There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality or lower your expectations. Jodi Picoult
• Happiness

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Hope and optimism is a thought that things will improve

• What is hope but a feeling of optimism, a thought that says things will improve, it won’t always be bleak, there’s a way to rise above the present circumstances. Hope is an internal awareness that you do not have to suffer forever, and that somehow, somewhere there is a remedy for despair that you will come upon if you can only maintain this expectancy in your heart. Wayne Dyer
• Hope,  Optimism

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Acting to improve the lives of others is a laudable pursuit …

• It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. Robert F. Kennedy
• How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Anne Frank

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… as long as it is not forced onto them …

• The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action. Frank Herbert
• Live and let live

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… and as long as it’s not at the expense of improving yourself

• He who busies himself with things other than improvement of his own self becomes perplexed in darkness and entangled in ruin. His evil spirits immerse him deep in vices and make his bad actions seem handsome. Ali ibn Abi Talib
• The safest principle through life, instead of reforming others, is to set about perfecting yourself. B. R. Haydon
• You make the world a better place by making yourself a better person. Scott Sorrell

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To improve the lives of others, practice compassion

• Be compassionate. This makes dealing with others much more effortless. It also makes you feel better about yourself. People like you more, and you improve the lives of others. Make every dealing with another human being one where you practice compassion. Leo Babauta
• Compassion

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To help others improve, encourage them rather than tearing them down

• If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others. Haim Ginott
• Tell your child, your spouse, or your employee that he or she is stupid or dumb at a certain thing, has no gift for it, and is doing it all wrong, and you have destroyed almost all incentive to try to improve. But use the opposite technique–be liberal with your encouragement, make the thing seem easy to do, let the other person know that you have faith in his or her ability to do it, that the person has an undeveloped flair for it–and that person will practice until the dawn comes in the window in order to excel. Dale Carnegie
• Encouragement

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If you must use criticism to help someone improve, do it constructively with a pure motive

• Before you offer criticism, consider your reasons. If your motive is simply to hurt someone, vent your frustrations or to boost your ego, I suggest you stop yourself and think long and hard about why you feel the need to do that. On the other had, using criticism to help someone improve, to see a change affected, or to contribute to a discussion, are all good reasons for doing it. Leo Babauta
• The whole point of giving feedback is to help the person to improve. Hence, you want to talk about things which the person can do something about, rather than things which are outside of his/her control. Ross Bonander
• Refer to specific opportunities for improvement and avoid singling out inadequacies. Keeping your criticisms positive is both tactful and essential. It’s less disparaging for the person to hear that he has overlooked an opportunity than it is to be told that his current ideas are incompetent or defective. Ross Bonander
• Use fewer words with more meaning. The more you say, the more likely you will distract from the key points and make them hard to remember. Plan your conversation in advance and in writing so the subject can walk away with clear direction on how to improve. Kevin Daum
• Instead of criticizing, which is rarely taken well, offer a specific, positive suggestion. A suggestion can be positive, it can be seen as helpful, it can be seen as an instrument for improvement and change. People often take suggestions well (but not always). Leo Babauta
• Criticism

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The urge to improve yourself and fulfil yourself is a spiritual instinct

• The inspiration to evolve spiritually is already a manifestation of the presence of God within, and it’s certainly indicative of good karma. Just to want to know truth, to evolve, to improve oneself, to become a better person, to fulfill one’s potential – those are all inspirations. And the person doesn’t make them up; they just come to them. It’s like an innate desire to fulfill your potential. David. R. Hawkins
• Spirituality

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In a spiritual sense, every improvement you make in your private world improves the world at large for everyone

• In this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in our private world improves the world at large for everyone. We all float on the collective level of consciousness of mankind, so that any increment we add comes back to us. We all add to our common buoyancy by our efforts to benefit life. It is a scientific fact that what is good for you is good for me. Dr. David R. Hawkins
• You make the world a better place by making yourself a better person. Scott Sorrell

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There’s often a tension between wanting to improve the world and wanting to savour it

• If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. B. White
• There’s an ancient tension between wanting to savor the world as it is and wanting to improve on the world as given. Leon Kass
• Savouring

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Don’t expect wealth to bring vast improvements to your quality of life

• The studies reveal that beyond the point of providing for food, shelter, and safety, increases in wealth do little to improve people’s well- being and happiness. And when people organise their lives around attaining wealth and possessions, they are essentially wasting their time as far as well-being is concerned. By concentrating on such a profitless style of life, they leave themselves little opportunity to pursue goals that could fulfil their needs and improve the quality of their lives. Tim Kasser
• Happiness is not bought by money, but it can buy circumstances and conditions that improve the chances of a worldly kind of happiness. Steve Scott
• Wealth

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Before speaking, ask if it will improve the silence

• Before you speak, think – Is it necessary? Is it true? Is it kind? Will it hurt anyone? Will it improve on the silence? Sri Sathya Sai Baba
• Don’t speak unless you can improve on the silence. Spanish Proverb
• Right speech,  Silence

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Sometimes accepting a situation is a necessary first step to improving it

• The problem is acceptance, which is something we’re taught not to do. We’re taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate unpleasant feelings. But if you accept the reality that you have been given – that you are not in a productive creative period- you free yourself to begin filling up again. Anne Lamott
• Acceptance

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We have made great improvements to our standard of living …

• Unless man in the midst of all his modernism finds a middle ground upon which to adjust his differences, there can be no mutual progress, human liberty is sacrificed and talent and freewill suffer. Improvement of the standards of living of the whole people is paramount, if civilization is to escape world fanaticism. Arnold W. Craft
• A community is a group of people who have come together, and they work and they live to try and improve the standard of living and quality of life – and I don’t mean money. William Baldwin

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… but at a great cost to the planet

• We assume that everything’s becoming more efficient, and in an immediate sense that’s true; our lives are better in many ways. But that improvement has been gained through a massively inefficient use of natural resources. Paul Hawken

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• What lesson can I learn from this misfortune? How can I improve my situation? How can I turn this lemon into a lemonade? Dale Carnegie
• Is this going to make me feel fantastic in a way that it actually improves my well-being?
• It is always possible to improve our lives, not by a small amount, but by a large amount. The way to make the improvement: “What will give me a much better result for much less energy?” Richard Koch
• If I had $5000 to spend on self-improvement, how would I spend it? Ramit Sethi

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• A woman in love will do almost anything for a man, except give up the desire to improve him. Nathaniel Branden
• Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument. Desmond Tutu
• Every improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible. Frank Moore Colby
• For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life please press 3. Alice Kahn
• Gardening is man’s effort to improve his lot.
• He has left off reading altogether to the great improvement of his originality. Charles Lamb
• If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man but deteriorate the cat. Mark Twain
• If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. B. White
• If you don’t like my opinion of you, you can always improve. Ashleigh Brilliant
• Maybe money corrupts the character; but lack of money isn’t going to improve it either. John Steinbeck
• Men and women were created equal, but women continued to improve.
• The difference in golf and government is that in golf you can’t improve your lie. George Deukmejian
• Upgraded and Improved: Didn’t work the second time.
• Waldo is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death. …Saki’ H.H. Munro
• Wine improves with age. I improve with wine.
• Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it.