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How do you define happiness? Is it achieving your most important goals? Is it obtaining the things you want most? Is it being grateful and content with what you have achieved so far? Is it in living without major problems, as well as in having the ability to solve life’s problems as they come?
I’ve always been a fan of self-help and self-improvement books. Most of the better ones contain a lot of lessons that can make you a better person and improve your quality of life, and the very best ones not only contain the usual inspirational stories and lessons, they are also backed by psychological research. Great quality books, videos, and seminars won’t just teach you skills that can lead to better opportunities (e.g. people skills, time management, productivity, etc.), they can also teach you mental and psychological skills that can let you become more successful at the opportunities that you find. Aside from that, they can teach you how to anticipate and manage all the stresses and future problems that you’ll face in life.
There are so many great things out there that we can learn, and they can definitely improve our present and our future. Keep reading, because here are five reasons why self-improvement brings happiness.
Five Reasons Why Self-Improvement Brings Happiness
1. You’ll be grateful for what you’ve achieved so far.
We all have goals and dreams — the things we want to have and the things we’ve always wanted to do. If you constantly improve your skills and knowledge, make positive changes in your environment and circumstances, and learn to be more emotionally resilient and persistent, you’ll have a far better chance of getting all those things that you desire in life.
Aside from improving your chances, you will also gain a sense of gratitude when you actually notice how much progress you’ve made compared to who you were before, not to mention the feelings of accomplishment when you tally all the things you’ve achieved so far. That’s much better than always being unhappy about all the things we don’t have.
After all, when you start something new like drawing, writing, exercising, or playing an instrument you were probably terrible when you began. As you continue and persevere over the years, however, you will start to notice all the progress that you’ve made and you’ll be able to count all the finished artwork, articles, and other nice things that you’ve accomplished during that time.
That exact same principle applies to your chosen career or business, especially when you look at the level of experience and skills that you’ve gained along the way.
2. You’ll be better at overcoming life’s challenges.
Life is, unfortunately, a series of problems and challenges that we need to overcome. Things break down, we get sick, bad things happen at work, we suddenly need to find a better job, our business gets in a slump, friends and family get sick or die, etc.
When you teach yourself how to become more mentally and emotionally resilient, and for sure there are lots of books that teach those psychological skills, then instead of moping around and complaining you’ll become far better at facing and managing life’s problems.
You can imagine it this way: A level 10 problem may overwhelm your level 5 self, but that same problem would be far easier if you’ve grown your skills and knowledge to level 20.
3. You’ll live with integrity and peace of mind.
If you’ve become skilled and knowledgeable enough and you’ve had the persistence to work hard at achieving your goals, then you likely won’t ever feel the need to lie, cheat, or steal your way into getting what you want. You’ll be free from all the stress involved in getting into all sorts of sins and vices.
After all, if you’re cheating on your spouse or you’ve sunk to the level of embezzling funds from your company, then your conscience will haunt you and you’ll constantly be stressed about getting caught. Soon enough, you likely WILL get caught and you’ll face the terrible consequences of your actions.
It’s very difficult to be happy when you’re guilty and scared.
4. You’ll attract good people into your life (and get rid of the toxic ones).
Obviously, we want good people around us. Good friends and family who we’ll share wonderful experiences with, and people who will help us in our time of need as much as we help them in theirs.
When you learn how to be better at dealing with people, how to become a better leader, and how to accurately judge a person’s character (and there are indeed books that teach those things), then you’ll naturally attract great people. You’ll keep friends who bring happiness into your life, and you’ll also learn to manage personal conflicts with coworkers and family members. Both of those can lead to happier and more fulfilling relationships.
Another important bonus of learning people skills is when you need to deal with toxic abusers who will try to use you for their own benefit. Those kinds of people will often attempt to take advantage of any emotional weaknesses you have, use them to manipulate you, and make your life miserable. Self-improvement in terms of learning great people skills will let you spot toxic people early, avoid their abuse, and cut them out of your life with as little damage as possible.
5. You’ll outgrow the things that make you unhappy.
Self-improvement is not just about learning new things or improving your current skills — it’s also about managing your weaknesses. After all, personal weaknesses like gambling or drug addictions, anger problems, social anxiety, unhealthy habits, procrastination, indecisiveness and other such things can cause a lot of problems that will bring you a lot of stress and unhappiness.
Thankfully, there are ways to manage and get rid of those kinds of things, and they’ve been researched by therapists, psychologists, wise business leaders, and other experts. You can learn what they know through their books, videos, seminars, etc. Studying what they’ve learned can help you identify and then manage your personal weaknesses letting you prevent the current and future problems that they can cause.
All of that effort will lead to less stress, more peace of mind, and more happiness in general.
So in summary, as you read and learn from more great self-help and self-improvement books and materials, you’ll hopefully gain more skills and knowledge that can help you achieve more of what you want in life without needing to resort to unfair or underhanded means. You can also gain the ability to better solve and prevent problems. You’ll meet and keep great people who add value to your life, and you will also outgrow the negative things about yourself that cause you all sorts of problems and misery.
Aren’t those all worth it? Why not try them out, right?
In any case, I hope you enjoyed this article and the lessons here. As for where you can start your self-improvement journey, you can check out the books we recommend here on these links:
- 10 Best (and Cheapest) Kindle Books About Success and Prosperity on Amazon
- 25 Awesome Books for Self-Development
- 10 Best Books I’ve read on Finance, Leadership, and Success