Improvising Your Approach to Improvement by John C. Maxwell
Our well-being and happiness  are tied to the notion that our lives can improve. We hope for a better future  for our company, our kids, and ourselves. We dream of a tomorrow that’s better  and brighter than today.

Here are a few improvements  many of us desire to see:
 - We hope to lose weight and  improve our fitness.
 - We hope to earn more money  and improve our financial standing.
 - We hope to argue less with  our spouse and improve our marriage.

Over the next year, if we knew  our health would deteriorate, our economic situation would worsen, and our  closest relationships would unravel, then we’d be depressed. In fact, even if  we knew our lives would stay the same, most of us would feel dissatisfied. We’re  always looking to improve the quality of our lives—it’s human nature.

Unfortunately, many of us never  go beyond hoping for improvements to actually making them. I’d like to share  some insights to help you improvise your approach to improvement.

Develop Habits
 The secret of your success is  determined by your daily agenda. Leaders who make successful improvements share  a common denominator: they form habits of daily action that those who fail to  improve never develop. As my friend Andy Stanley says, “Your direction  determines your destination.” The steps you make each day, for good or ill,  eventually chart the path of your life.

Consider the analogy of saving  for retirement. Financial advisers counsel us to invest for retirement early in  our careers and consistently throughout life. If we do, we can quit working at  65 with a sizeable nest egg. However, if we neglect funding our 401(k) each  month, then we end up with nothing. We may still “hope” to win the lottery and  secure our financial future, but we’ve lost the ability to control our fate.

Befriend Discipline
 We live in the ultimate  quick-fix culture. Everyone wants to be thin, but few people eat healthy and  exercise. Everyone wants financial stability, but many refuse to be bothered by  a budget. Rather than trouble ourselves with discipline, we opt for diet fads  or speculate in the stock market. When we don’t see long-term improvements, we  discard one fad in favor of another.

In life, there are two kinds of  pain: the pain of self-discipline and the pain of regret. The pain of  self-discipline involves sacrifice, sweat, and delayed gratification.  Thankfully, the reward of improvement softens the pain of self-discipline and  makes it worthwhile. The pain of regret begins as a missed opportunity and ends  up as squandered talent and an unfulfilled life. Once the pain of regret sets  in, there’s nothing you can do other than wonder, “What if?”

Admit Mistakes
 When trying to improve, we not  only risk failure, we guarantee it. The good news is that mistakes generally  teach us far more than success. There’s no sense pretending we’re perfect. Even  the best of the best have moments of weakness. That’s why it’s important to be  honest when we fall short, learn from the mistake, and move forward with the  knowledge gained.

Measure Progress
 You cannot manage what you  cannot measure. Identify the areas in which improvement is essential to your  success and find a way to track your progress. Keeping score holds you  accountable and gives you a clear indicator of whether or not you’re actually  improving.

Change Continually
 Continual change is essential  for improvement. One of the great paradoxes of success is that the skills and  qualities that get you to the top are seldom the ones that keep you there. The  quest to improve forces us to abandon assumptions, embrace innovation, and seek  new relationships. If we’re complacent for too long, we’ll fall behind the  learning curve. Once this happens, it’s a steep, uphill climb to get back to  the top.

The desire for improvement has  a degree of discontent in it. Personal growth requires apparently contradictory  mindsets: humility to realize you have room to grow but also confidence that  improvement is possible.