10 Principles for Self-Improvement | Jack Canfield

I've seen a lot of people saying they want to use this current time to learn a new skill or upgrade their expertise in some way. And if you find yourself stuck at home with a lot of extra free time right now, focusing on your learning is an excellent way to turn this challenge into an incredible opportunity for growth. And so, to help you on your quest today, I'd like to share 10 principles for self improvement that can help you achieve mastery in any skill or area of knowledge that you desire. One of the areas where I decided to build my skill level was in using humor in my public speaking. In the beginning, this was a real stretch for me. I had been raised in a situation where humor was not encouraged. I grew up in a poor family, but I had a rich aunt who liked me and paid for my tuition to attend a private military school in the town I grew up in as a day student. And I attended that military school for eight years from the fifth grade until I graduated from high school. Jokes, humor, and silliness were not encouraged in military school. In fact, one of the most common phrases I heard growing up was, wipe that smile off your face, mister. There's nothing funny here. Then I ended up at Harvard on a scholarship, where I was expected to buckle down and take advantage of the incredible opportunity that I'd been given. Now the experience was one of being a serious student. And after classes, sports, and studying late into the night, there was little time for fooling around and play. And for some reason I was very shy around women, probably from attending all middle schools for so long. So telling a joke and trying to get someone to laugh was way outside of my comfort zone. But after I later became a public speaker and wanted to be a very successful one at it, I remember hearing at a National Speakers association conference that I attended early in my career, a speaker who said, you don't have to use humor in your speaking unless you want to get paid really well. And then I heard another speaker say, you should make people laugh at least once every five to seven minutes. Another one who advised everyone to open their speech with a funny story, and another who had advised that a great speech should be considered edutainment, even equal parts of education and entertainment. And the thing that changed everything was when my younger sister Kim attended one of my early workshops on self esteem. And she told me at the end, if growing up and having high self esteem means becoming like you, I'm not interested. And when I asked her why, she said, you're too darn serious. You're simply no Fun to be around. Well, that was the day I decided to change it. And I went out and bought a whole bunch of comedy albums by comedians such as Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby, George Carlin, Bob Newhart, Steve Martin. And I would listen to them as I drove in my car or went for a run. Little by little, I began to see things from a more comedic angle. I started to learn and memorize jokes. I studied and developed a Southern, a Scottish and African American, New York and Irish accents. I listened to other speakers and adapted some of their humorous stories. I began to take cartoons and use them as overheads and later PowerPoint and keynote slides. And I would find cuts from comedy albums and later funny videos on YouTube and embed them into my talks and my trainings. Now, it took a lot of work, a lot of research, listening to tapes and CDs, listening to comedy channels on SiriusXM radio, and practicing on friends and family before I would incorporate it into my professional presentations. But it's now part of the hallmark of my live presentations. Now, most people would tell you that it's part of my mastery as a professional speaker. By now you're probably wondering, well, why doesn't he tell us something funny? So I'll give you an example of how I used to open a presentation to teachers and school administrators. A mother walks into her son's room and starts shaking him and saying, come on, you have to wake up and go to school. Let's go. You're gonna be late. Come on, wake up. Now. She begins to leave the room. Her son pulls the covers back over his head and says, I don't wanna go to school. The mother turns around and says, come on, get up. And her son says, I don't wanna go to school. I hate school. There are 85 teachers in that school and not one of them likes me. There are 1400 students in that school, and not one of them likes me either. Give me one good reason I should get up and go to school. And his mother says, I'll give you one good reason. I'll give you two good reasons. Number one, you're 43 years old. And number two, you're the principal. Now get up and go to school. So anyway, Here are my 10 principles for self improvement for you. Now, the first thing you need to know is a successful life requires continuous learning. And that's what gives our lives purpose and gives it meaning. It's what forces us to stretch and grow and become the best possible versions of ourselves. And when we lose our curiosity and our Thirst for knowledge and our desire for continued improvement in the things we love to do. That's when we go from thriving and living fully to merely existing. The second thing I want you to know is if you control your thoughts, you control your reality. So if you tell yourself you have the ability to learn a certain skill, you will. But if you tell yourself you're going to suck at it, guess what? You're probably going to suck at it. So if you want to keep improving, you've got to believe that you can, because it's true. You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Now, the third principle for self improvement is that mistakes are how you learn. Failure isn't something to fear, it's something to embrace. Failures teach you what you need to know to move forward on your journey. So rather than avoiding mistakes, I would encourage you to fail faster. Because the harder you try, the more mistakes you'll make and the faster you'll learn how not to make those mistakes in the future and and succeed next time you do it. Now, my next principle for self improvement and success in every single aspect of your life actually is that visualization is the key. If you can see it, you can achieve it. So as you work toward learning a new skill or growing your expertise in a particular subject, take a few minutes every day to visualize yourself as having already achieved your goal. Imagine what your life would look like. Imagine how you'll feel. See yourself enjoying the benefits of having that skill and that expertise at your fingertips. And then understand at the deepest possible level of your being that you already have everything you need to become that person. All you need to do is put in the time and the effort to learn and to grow and develop, and it will happen. Something else I'd like you to know is that pretty good is easy. But mastery requires serious effort. When you first start to learn something, you can go from zero to pretty good pretty fast. When I first started practicing guitar, I was amazed at how quickly I was able to learn a few songs and be able to play them pretty well. But as I continued to practice, I soon reached a plateau where suddenly it felt like going from one level to the next became a whole lot harder. And when you get to that point where this easy thing has suddenly become a lot more challenging, a lot of people are tempted to give up. But if this truly is a skill you want to master because you know it's going to have such a great positive impact on your life, and then this is exactly the time where you need to dig in and not Give up. Mastery happens as a series of plateaus where it feels like you're not making any progress. But if you keep practicing, the next breakthrough will happen. Then you get another plateau, then another plateau and another breakthrough happens, and so forth. So you got to be willing to live through those plateaus. Now, the sixth principle for self improvement is persistence is the way you've got to commit to making consistent, stay steady progress towards your goals. Because the only way you'll ever complete the journey and arrive at your destination is by putting one foot in step of the other and then taking one step at a time without ever giving up. Just keep on keeping on. Principle number seven is growth only happens outside of your comfort zone. So if you want to grow, you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. You have to take a leap of faith and venture into the unknown, because it's only by doing something you've never done before that you become the kind of person that is capable of doing such things. So don't be afraid to get uncomfortable. I promise you, good things will happen if you do. And you know what makes taking those leaps of faith so much easier? Having a support team. So that's the next principle for self improvement. Success is not a solo sport. You will get so much further, so much faster, and so much easier if you reach out and ask for support. Here's a story I was just told recently. I have a friend who's a promoter who puts on big events like with Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi and people like that. He recently, because of the coronavirus, had to give $4 million back in refunds because of all the events he had to cancel due to the pandemic. And that was a major hit for his company, as you can imagine. I mean, it literally almost took him under. But then he remembered a conversation he once had with Tom Ziglar. Tom, as you may know, is the son of Zig Zigger, who was a famous motivational speaker. And my friend remembered him talking about how his company had pivoted their entire speaking business during the 2008, 2009 economic meltdown that we all remember going through and the recession that came from that. And the strategies that Tom's company used helped make them more money than ever before. And so they became more successful because of the recession and the actions they took to survive it. So my friend called Tom up and said, tom, here's my situation. What advice would you have for me? I really need your help. And Tom gave him some advice. I don't know exactly what it was we didn't talk about it in detail, but whatever it was really helped. My friend told me that he totally re vectored the entire direction of his company based on that advice. And now he's doing much, much better, which is obviously great news. Now that's the power of reaching out to other people. There are people in your world who are ready, willing and able to give you the advice, the guidance, the support, the coaching and the mentoring you need to accomplish your goals faster and with much greater ease. So don't be afraid to ask them. Most people are delighted to help others and you're giving them the opportunity to do just that when you reach out to them. Now, principle number nine is this. You've probably heard this, it's in my book, it's a chapter title. It says 99% is a bitch, 100% is a breeze. So if you want to achieve true mastery, 100% commitment is required because it's so much easier to remain 100% committed to your goal and make it a non negotiable condition in your life than it is to remain mostly committed to your goals. You see, if you're not 100% committed, as soon as you fail to keep your commitment once, it becomes easier to fail to keep it again, and then again, and then again, until your daily practice becomes a weekly practice, and then every couple of weeks practice, and then the next thing you know, you've given it up altogether. So if you want to master a skill, you have to remain 100% committed to it. You may have heard about what the Roman army used to do when they would attack another country by sea. When they reached the shore and disembarked, they would burn their ships. Now they would eliminate any possibility of their own retreat. They knew that if the soldiers had no way to go but forward, they would commit 100% to the fight. Because if they didn't win their battles, they'd be dead. So it's kind of a brutal strategy. But you know what? It definitely worked. Finally, my last principle for self improvement is to let joy be your guide. You have the capacity to get better at any skill in any area of expertise you desire. So why not choose to focus on things you truly love? This is how you create a life that fills you with great joy and fulfillment by doing what you love, trust what you're attracted to and follow your heart. So this week I encourage you to identify something you want to become better at and then then commit to taking one small step toward improving your skills or your expertise in that area. Choose a skill or knowledge that is going to have a significant positive impact on your life. And if you're stuck at home and you love delicious food but you're not a very good cook, now may be a great time to improve your skills in the kitchen. If you love music, maybe now is a good time to pick up the guitar like I've been doing and learn how to play even better. Maybe it's time to improve your parenting skills or commit to an important health or fitness goal. Maybe it's time to evolve your professional skill set so you become a more in demand talent in your field. Whatever you choose to learn, stick to it. By improving your skills in one specific area of your life, you'll raise your self esteem and your self confidence and that will help you get better results in all areas of your life. And it's only in the process of continually learning and growing that you're able to live up to your full potential and create a life of deep meaning and joy. Let me know what you think in the comments and thanks again for watching. And remember, you can achieve anything you can imagine in life. It just takes you taking that first step now. If you found this video helpful, please make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one and for some additional exercises and tools for self improvement. Make sure to visit jackcampfield.com and make sure also to check out the links in the description below.