7 Life Hacks for Personal Growth – Simple Strategies to Improve Your Life

Average Read Time – 5 mins

In this blog I would like to share seven different life hacks for personal growth that have helped my life personally. If you find wisdom in these concepts then know that they are not self-developed, but rather gathered over time by reading stalwarts, seeing how successful people lead their life, and observing life in general. Anything naïve, assume it’s my fault.

#1 – Learn to Live Alone

The ability to live in peace with oneself indicates that you are emotionally and psychological well organized within yourself. It means you are content in your own company and there isn’t a constant urge to seek external entertainment. I have realized that in life we eventually become what we lack. Our chase defines us. In crowd, we seek solace. In loneliness, we seek company. When we fail to handle our emotions better, we search for people to rely on and then hold them responsible for our insanity. Learning to live alone teaches you to be independent, take control of your mood, and to cultivate joy within yourself… so that when you go out – it is not because you lack something, but because you are complete within yourself and now you want to share it with someone else. In the mid-1920s, there were two artists going through setbacks in their personal life. With family gone, and no one around to comfort them, both were pushed in the dark corner of loneliness. It was during this phase when Walt Disney created the iconic mickey mouse, while Roger Burn sat in regret and drank himself to depression. Both were in the exact same situation but it was their ability to deal with loneliness that set the tone for their life

#2 – Content consumption

The type of content we consume is the type of person we become. Today, we consume more content than food and water. While some content is truly enriching, some can be misleading too. With abundance of free content, we must be mindful of what enriches our lives versus what distracts us. I think the most misleading content is the one that makes you feel like you are missing out on life. It’s the one that disses someone for living a simple life, and propagates the idea that happiness is eating exotic food, taking expensive vacations and advertising how cool your life is on social media. It is misleading because it sets unrealistic expectations, and makes you compare your life to someone else. Recently, there was interesting research conducted on the type of Tik-Tok feeds scrolled in the US versus that in China. The feeds in the US are usually around viral dance moves, pranks and funny moments, whereas in China the feeds are centered around innovative ideas, scientific achievements and accomplishments. It’s a lot more curated and develops a mindset for an entire generation.

#3 – Protect your Individuality

We would’ve seen people change after getting in a relationship, or after getting associated with a cult or group. They unknowingly stop being themselves, doing things they’d usually do and every aspect of their life involves their association. Yes, people do need to evolve as life happens, as circumstances change or as responsibilities get added, but somewhere along this process it’s important to maintain a layer or separation and protect your individuality. I think getting known by a certain identity puts us in a bracket by which we unknowingly limit ourselves. Someone known to have good humor will subconsciously be under the pressure of being funny all the time. I know some identities are tough to get away from, but at least for me, I’d like a space wherein I haven’t lost touch with my own self, doing things that I’ve always done, a space where I’m not known by the people around me, or by the company I work for – just me as a person. It maintains the neutrality of my thinking, and protects me from getting swayed away under influence. Your identity shouldn’t be defined by the things around but by how you are as a person in general.

#4 – Know your Role

One of the wisest lessons in life is to understand your role – your role in a certain situation, in a certain place or in someone’s life. Understanding your role means knowing when to contribute, how far to go, and when to step back. It’s a distinction that everyone has to make for themselves. While every role we play in life eventually comes to an end, some roles change and evolve with time. Its best to know when your role has evolved or ended and quietly move on. Expectation management is a part of letting someone know their role in your life. It can drain you of energy if you continue to fulfill unrealistic expectations both on a personal and professional level.

#5 – Stay in Touch

When we part ways with our old life, we seldom keep touch with people who were in our journey at some point. They just become memories or someone we once knew. Life happens, people separate and relations gradually fizzle out. Besides the auto pilot messages we exchange on birthdays or festivals; we rarely meet or casually talk to old friends and relatives. Growing up, I remember people coming over to visit us and my parents taking me to see some of our family friends and relatives. I don’t know if it is a cultural thing but it definitely made us keep connect. Slowly, I learned that being in touch with people is such a fundamental essence of human existence and yet we let our relations fizzle out easily. I feel staying in touch is also a mark of respect… where you let people know that they weren’t just a pass time in your life, and their presence actually meant something to you.

#6 – 21 days Program

This has been the most effective hack of all for me personally. It has helped me improve self-control, discipline and made me value my commitment. I pick around five things that I would avoid for 21 days… or in some cases do certain things regularly for 21 days. It does not have to be five things every time but it has to be followed once you swear by it. Honestly speaking, what this has essentially done is give me a reality check – a reality check that I’m not as tough as I thought myself to be. It exposed my compulsions that were hiding under the carpet of denial. We don’t realize when things we do as pastime fun become things we cannot live without. Disciplining yourself for 21 days does two things, it shows you your blind spots, puts your system through a cleansing process, and emphasizes the power of habits.

#7 – Get a Life… outside of your Life

Taking your mind off things is talked so much about and it does a lot more than we anticipate. It reignites the creative portion of our mind in a way that we cannot comprehend. Steve Jobs got the idea of Apple font from his visit to India which later became its signature font. Taking your mind away from mundane things and entering a totally new environment creates an opportunity to develop unique ideas that otherwise may not occur. It helps your subconscious creativity work its magic. Jobs didn’t travel to India in search of a font – he simply stepped away into oblivion, allowing the universe do its charm.