Routes to Self Improvement

Positive thinking is one of the linchpins of self improvement, although you will always find someone who dismisses the whole concept as nonsense. In practice, I am not one of those dismissive people. I am absolutely sure that thinking postively is an essential element of bettering oneself. Think negatively too often, and your motivation will surely suffer. After all, if you are drowning yourself in negative thoughts, you are hardly likely to feel very motivated, are you?

There may be some people in the world who never have a negative thought. I think that those who are blessed with such an existence have indeed blessed themselves through mastering their spirituality. They are most likely to lead a spiritual existence in a part of Asia, rather than in the West, and have mastered some form of deep meditation. That is not certain, of course, but is most likely. There may be nobody in the world who never succumbs to negative thinking. That would be sad, so I prefer to think that some such people exist.

For the rest of us, even though we may generally have a positive outlook, a drift into negative thoughts is likely to happen every now and then. On balance, positive thinking may be our norm, but there are times when we lapse into a moment, or longer, of self pity and negative thinking. So, how should we deal with that.

My own way to deal with such lapses is to use self reprimand. I find that it is now automatic, drawing on the fundamental knowledge that I have every reason to celebrate the truly important aspects of my life. I have  a wonderful wife who is about the most positive, and the nicest, person I have ever met. If I wake up next to her with the mere hint of a negative thought, I just mutter to myself inwardly: "Don't be so **** silly." The **** can be any of several mild expletives we use in England. If, during the day I start to get negative for whatever reason, to feel a bit down, I do exactly the same thing. I will even say it out loud if I am alone.

I always know that soon I will have the company of my bright and cheerful wife, or our delightful and entertaining 4 year old daughter will breeze into my "office" (which is also her bedroom). How dare I have negative thoughts!

For this post, I will break away from the theme of the Global self improvement challenge from English speaking Asia. Why? Quite simply I have a very sore foot that is making it difficult to write any original material. Concentration has gone out of the window and I am in no condition to chase after it!

So, I am just dropping by today to let you have a small gift, a free PDF report called Self Help Tips Shared. This report is just an introduction to the world of self development. It covers such topics as reviewing the past, forming a plan for the future, setting and montitoring goals, embracing change and a whole lot more. I will be bringing such reports to you from time to time, so be sure to subscribe to the blog if you want more.

Here's the link: http://www.routes-to-self-improvement.com/report_selfhelp.pdf

As always, if it helps one person make progress in their lives, then it is all worthwhile.

During some recent research, I was checking out  trends in the self improvement arena. As part of that, I was using Google's useful tool to find out what people were searching on, and how the patterns of behaviour were changing. One result that caught my eye was the trend in searches for "self improvement"; even more, the analysis given by Google of what regions those searches were coming from. I have no way of verifying the accuracy of Google's tool, but I am sure that it is improving all the time.

The screen shot below is from a Google Trends search on self improvement for all regions.

Ignore the period before mid 2006, Google was obviously still developing this tool and gathering data. Since then, the number of searches has been quite steady. Of course, there are many other search terms, under the umbrella of self improvement, that people might use, but I am showing these charts to illustrate a point. That point comes out in the chart below, which Google automatically creates.

This chart shows the top 9 countries for sources of the search term I used: "self improvement." 

You do not need a geography degree to see that the first three countries, Malaysia, India and Singapore, are all in Asia. Another thing they have in common is that they were all British colonies until independence in 1947 (India) and 1957 (Malaysia), with Singapore breaking away from the rest of the Malaysian states shortly after. By then, English had become a second or third language for a large part of the educated population.

Singapore is already a modern economic hub for the region, while Malaysia is determined to follow suit in becoming a fully developed country by 2020. Both have small populations. India has a massive population, but is equally capable of growing its economy for decades to come. Coming from Britain it may be nice to think that the progress of these countries is due to British occupation. That is not so. Singapore and Malaysia were left in poor condition when the British left, so it is the people who remained who take the credit for the progress into modernity since. The same applies to India as it transforms itself into a more modern economy.

Nothing can be proved with these charts, but they do indicate the desire of  people in Malaysia, Singapore and India to better themselves. Competing Western businesses will suffer long term if they ignore their determination, industriousness and patience  in improving their status.

I am sure this is a topic I will be coming back to next time.

The world of self improvement as a market place tends to focus on fame, business, wealth and high profile achievements. Certainly, that is the case in the western world. The on the ground reality, though, is very different. Everybody in the world has the potential to improve their lot, however humble it may be.

One inspiring example I came across last month was Sammy Gitau, a former Kenyan slum dweller who found a Manchester University prospectus on a rubbish tip. That was his inspiration for the dream of studying at the university one day. Many years later, his determination overcame massive odds, and he not only went to Manchester but graduated from the university last year.

Sammy' s example itself can hopefully be an inspiration to others in similar, worse, or only slightly better situations. For billions of people, being able to increase their income by only $50 a month can make the difference between extreme poverty and living rather well. Such people would rightfully delight at their own success at doing so.

Many self development “commentators” and “specialists” in the industrialized nations might well frown at that in a dismissive and snobbish way. However, self development is there for everybody to seize, as Sammy Gitau showed in such a fine way.

As it happened, Sammy came from a very poor background in Africa; but it is not from Africa alone that the Western economies, in the long run, face competition from determined individuals. Asia, of course, has been steadily becoming an economic powerhouse over recent years. It is only the beginning, and it is already having an impact on the self improvement market.

Next time, I will be looking at self improvement trends in Asia, especially India, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.