Principle 1 I promise to love and improve myself. ‘Know yourself.  Love yourself.  Improve yourself.’  - Zubin Dastur

Summary: Who are you?  What is your relevance in this world?  Get deep and find out - perceive your purpose on the planet and fulfill it now.  And while you’re at it, love and improve yourself every single day.

Life is about learning and exploring.  Figure out what your greater purpose in life is.  Find, follow, and fulfill it now.   Self-awareness can lead to great personal improvement.  And this individual change is the first step to creating an impact in the world.  So change first, preach later.  As the late, great Michael Jackson aptly said, “If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and then make a change.”

This change can be mental or physical.

To positively change mental characteristics, be introspective and evaluate yourself honestly.  Deal with your past as it shapes your future.  You cannot forget, but you can forgive.  Enroll in perception-shifting, life-altering courses such as Personal Dynamics (www.personaldynamics.com), the Learning Annex (www.learningannex.com) or the Landmark Forum (www.landmarkeducation.com) to shift your view of life and render your possibilities limitless.

Remember to read ravenously.  It is of great personal and societal value.  Learning a skill or trade is paramount to breaking the shackles of the past that have bound one to ignominy.  If you want a better life, get an education and your dreams will materialize.  Education can be the passport to your dreams.  Dream big and dream hard – you will face rewarding results and soaring success.  To obtain financial aid, contact your Government’s Department of Education for grants or loans, non-for-profit organizations or other non-Government scholarship programs.   

We can also improve ourselves spiritually, morally, and health wise.

Spiritual Integrity: Get your spirit on!  Take up meditation, get grounded, and discover who you really are.  Everyone’s spiritual path can vary and be unique – do what works for you.  Lord Buddha’s stages of the Noble Path are: Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Behavior, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.

Morality: Be truthful and always do the right thing, however hard it may be.  Practice and spread this concept of Radical Honesty.  But take note: radically honest ≠ terribly rude – you can be truthful and nice at the same time. J  To reiterate: ethics is doing the right thing when no one is looking.  Because your true self asserts itself when you are alone.  To many, truth is God.  However, you don’t have to be religious to be ethical or spiritual.

Mental Health: ‘Health is wealth.’  ‘Happiness lies in health.’  ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’  For as long as the art of medicine has existed, there have been platitudes on health.  Be on a constant quest to improve your mental health.  A tight mind is a tight body.  Stop lollygagging and be proactive - focus on good nutrition, frequent fitness, and prevention not correction.  

One area of physical improvement that hinders us from loving ourselves is negative body image: a major cause of low confidence and self-esteem.   Everyone has issues with their body.  Even the world’s most sexiest and famous supermodel has some issues with her body.  Nobody is perfect.  But what is perfection?  Perfection is your perception of things.  It is what you say it is.  If you perceive yourself to be beautiful, with all your flaws, that is all that matters.  What others think or say won’t matter to you, once you’re secure in your perception of yourself.  In that sense,everybody is perfect.   As the great Rupaul says, "If you don't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?"   

Try this simple 2-step logic to lower negative body image and boost self-esteem:

First:

Re-wire your perception of yourself.  Instead of constantly focusing on your negatives, highlight the positives.  Harping on negatives only results in depression, discouragement, doubt.  Attitude is everything.  So change your attitude, change your life.  ‘The difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective’ (Al Neuharth).

But being positive is only half the battle. The other half is actually doing something about it.  Most of us want to be thinner, cuter, and smarter without doing anything.  Which is insane.  Vision + Action = Results. 

In conclusion, find out what really makes you tick and do it now.  Love yourself completely for who and what you are.  Be proud of your achievements and work on your shortcomings.  And constantly keep evolving – but always be firm in good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.