‘PEOPLE grow old only by disserting their ideals rather than living a number of years. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul’— Billi Lim.
To improve is to enhance in value or quality. Therefore, self-improvement is improving yourself in value or quality.
The reason why self-improvement is important is that you can only achieve an advanced standard of living after first having achieved an advanced standard of thinking because you become what you think about, most positive or negative.
Your advanced standard of thinking creates your advanced standard of living.
Self-improvement involves development of your in-born divinity, talent, creativity and application through self-education, self-study and life-long learning to enable you reach your full potential, self-actualisation, self-empowerment and personal success.
In the Japanese language there is a word called ‘kaizen’ which means constant self-improvement. Self-improvement overcomes so-called personal handicaps because it is based on your in-born and God-given abilities and capabilities.
For example, in spite of the fact that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was stricken by polio and paralysed from the waist down at the age of 39, twelve years later in 1933 at the age of fifty-one he went on to become the 32nd US President through self-improvement.
In spite of the fact that Golda Meir suffered from leukaemia for twelve years, she went on to become the first female Prime Minister of Israel through self-improvement.
In spite of the fact that Hellen Keller lost her sight, hearing and the ability to speak, she went on to learn how to read, write and speak and also to become an author of many books.
In spite of the fact that Louis Braille was blind when he was three years old, thirteen years later at the age of 16 he went on to invent the Braille language through self-improvement which helps the blind to read and write.
In spite of the fact that Confucius was orphaned at an early age, he went on to become a world renowned Chinese philosopher and political administrator through self-improvement. John Maxwell writes that ‘An eminent plastic surgeon told of a boy who lost his hand at the wrist.
When he asked the boy about his handicap, the boy replied-I don’t have a handicap.
I just don’t have a right hand! The surgeon went on to discover that this boy was one of the leading scorers on his high school football team.
It is not what you have lost, but what you have left that counts’.
Focus more on what has remained and less on what has gone.  You too can be who God created you to be and succeed in your life through your kaizen or self-improvement.
A story is told of a Swiss Journalist who went to interview Alcidede Gaspari after Gaspari had become Italy’s Prime Minister.
The Journalist remarked that ‘This is going to be my last interview for the Press. I am 65 and about to retire’.
Gaspari optimistically replied ‘What a pity! I am 65 also, but I am just starting a new career’.
Joseph Murphy advises that ‘Retirement can be a new venture, a new challenge, a new path and the new beginning of the fulfillment of a long dream.
It is depressing to hear someone say-What will I do now that I am retired? He or she is saying in effect that I am mentally and physically dead.
My mind is bankrupt of ideas’. Some people use age as a convenient excuse. I am too old or too young to start something new at my age.
Other people, though, go on to achieve their greatest accomplishments in life through their self-improvement.
For instance, Mark Zuckerberg was 20 years old when he and his fellow Harvard University students created Face book in 2014; Leonardo da Vinci one of the greatest painters of all time was still creating master pieces at 65 besides ‘The Last Supper’ of 1495 and ‘Monalisa’ of 1503; Colonel Saunders the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken chain of restaurants started his business after retirement at 65; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first female President of Liberia and in Africa at 67; Ronald Reagan became US President at 69; Yuichiro Miura in 2003 became the oldest person to reach the Summit of Mount Everest at 70.
Golda Meir became the first female Prime Minister of Israel at 71; Deng Xiaoping became the de facto supreme leader of China at 73; African-American Ernestine Shepherd in 2012 became the world’s oldest
body builder at 75.
Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa at 76; Socrates learned how to play various musical instruments at 80.
Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb was still conducting experiments at 80; Benjamin Franklin affected the compromise that led to the adoption of the US Constitution at 81.
Winston Churchill wrote his four-volume work ‘A History of the English-Speaking Peoples’ at 82; Michelangelo was still designing master pieces like the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (St. Mary of
the Angels) in Rome Italy at 88; Konrad Adenauer became Chancellor of Germany at 88, Mohamed Beji Caid became President of Tunisia last year in 2014 at 88 and Pablo Picasso was still producing drawings at 90.
George Bernard Shaw was still writing plays at 90; Eamon de Valera served as President of Ireland at 91.
Robert Mugabe is still President of Zimbabwe at 91 and Bertrand Russell was leading international peace drives at 94.
The people who go on to become whatever they want to become through their self-improvement appear to understand Genesis 6: 3 well which says; ‘Then the Lord said, I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years’.
According to God in Genesis 6:3, age categorisation of (1-30) years represents child stage for acquiring knowledge; (31-60) adolescent (youth) stage for turning knowledge into wisdom; (61-90) adult stage
for enjoying benefits of talent and wisdom and sharing the best lessons with the young; and (91-120+) elderly stage for enjoying benefits of talent and wisdom, sharing the best lessons with the young
and renewing your life.
Where do you belong? Who do you want to believe about your age? What are you going to do about it?
US military General Douglas MacArthur once said ‘You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear and as young as your hope, as old as your despair’.
De Bakey observes that ‘As long as you have challenges and are physically and mentally able, life is stimulating and invigorating’.
The founder of the Ford Motor Company in the USA Henry Ford said that ‘you take all the experience and judgment of men and women over 50 out of the world and there would not be enough left to run it’. In other words, a country with only children is a nursery.
The secret and key to the success of all these great men and women is that they all kept on improving themselves by always learning something new to keep them going. The most effective method of improving yourself is self-study through reading.
Challengingly, few people in our great Republic today have not read a book after leaving school and yet scientific research has found that reading a book from which you can learn something is the best way of improving your mind.
Just imagine the level at which the mind operates in an environment where there is a limit reading culture and also where there is a wide-spread reading culture.
To change your life read books, to learn something new to improve your present living conditions and take action.
The Author is a Motivational Mentor and Consultant in Positive Mind-Set Change.
Email: positivemindpower1511 @yahoo.com