From silly days like ‘National Coffee Day’ to serious topics such as National Suicide Prevention month, another national theme exists within September—Self Improvement. Popularized by the book Men are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, the best selling self-help book of all time, the movement became massive across the globe. In the spirit of Self Improvement month, anyone can do these habits to participate.

Reassess Your Habits 

COVID has thrown everything on top of its head—students’ schedules and daily routines included. Once upon a time, a group of friends could pack themselves into a quaint coffee shop every Saturday with no more than a side eye. With most indoor seating shut down, normality seems forever away. Despite appearing as a disaster to most people, this adds up to the perfect opportunity to start anew and gain a fresh start on one’s regimen. NC sophomore Blessing Samu realized her issue with procrastination. 

“When school ended I gave up trying to do much of anything. I had no motivation. A good thing is that I’m more goal orientated and [I’m] slowly taking better care of myself,” she said.

Develop A Personal Mission Statement

Grabbing a pen and paper and writing out goals; think of this as the outline, a broad idea, of what someone wants to do with themselves, who they want to become and what they want to ultimately work towards. For certain individuals, they want to earn seven figures; others might want to help others with their own self improvement. To write one requires time to talk with their peers and invest in oneself. Thankfully, the internet provides a multitude of examples and tutorials for formulating a personal mission statement.

Positively Affirm Yourself

Imagine a person standing in front of a mirror, repeating mantras of “I’m going to do my best,” and “I can do anything I set my mind to.” As silly and almost crazy as it looks and sounds, giving yourself these affirmations show actual benefits to your self-esteem. Kindergarten teachers teach these positive self thinking skills to their students in hopes of the children carrying these skills throughout the rest of their lives. This, of course, does not mean that practicing positive affirmations equals to naive thinking that children do. After polling 16 North Cobb students on positive affirmations 11 said they use them regularly. 

“I tend to use ‘If  I believe that I am pretty then I am; stuff like that makes me feel good; makes me feel powerful. It’s crazy what a couple of words mean,”  sophomore Abbie Omisore said

Celebrate Your Successes

Whether that paper finally got turned in after days of procrastinating, acing that first major test or just managing to get out of bed in the morning, people should celebrate every success with pride. Not celebrating ones’ successes can lead to a lack of motivation, poor self esteem, and ultimately uncompleted tasks. Doing so does not make a person conceited or naive—if anything, not allowing the benefits of feeling accomplished becomes the real concern. A couple of ways to celebrate include unplugging from technology, expressing your happiness with friends and family and practicing traditional self-care, such as journaling, treating oneself with a portion of their favorite food, etc.

Having Hope

Wallowing in self-pity over present circumstances will solve nothing; it only makes the situation worse over time. Holding a healthy outlook on life and how the current circumstances can improve, as seen in Wuhan China, proves more crucial now than ever. Talking to your friends about where’s the first place you want to go once we go back to normal can provide hope by imagining some return to normalcy. In the meantime, someone can learn new things about their friends, and perhaps their fantasies will become a reality. Overall, the key comes from understanding that this will pass and the world will adapt to a new normal.