Good evening!  It’s Jeff again from the Self Help Tips Blog.  I would like to personally thank each and every one of you who continues to find help and inspiration through my writing.  Today I would like to share several self improvement tips and ideas that you can use to become a better person.

Many of us see celebrities as flawless people or at the very least, we see them as better than us.  They seem to live the fairytale life of riches, fame and glamour.

“I want the fairytale.”  “I deserve the fairytale.”  How often do you say this to yourself?

I think that we should all stop putting our heads in the clouds and come down to earth with a reality check.  Who really wants their life revealed in the headlines of the local paper, or a blog on the internet discussing their failed marriage or a failed movie?

Truthfully, just being a cut above the rest of the world should be good enough.  It should be perfectly acceptable to gain some glamour, but also to stay under the radar screen and not lose one’s sense of self.  Let’s face it:  the fairytale life is not for everyone.

So what does it take to be a cut above the rest?  Here is a seven day program to self-improvement.  Just concentrate on one point each day of the week and you should begin to see results faster than you imagined.

1. Know your purpose in life.  Some people just are not meant to be great actors, but are the best at teaching or serving dinners.  Everyone has a purpose in life, but the difficult part is finding what that is. Are you wandering through life with little direction, hoping you will find happiness and prosperity somewhere along the way?  When you identify your purpose or mission statement, you will find the compass that will point you to the path of real, true fulfillment.

2. Know your values.  What is most important to you?  Make a list of your top 5 values and, as you determine your goals for 2009, make sure they agree with your values in life.  If they don’t, you may want to reconsider that goal or change it to better suit your ideals.

3. Know your needs.  Take care of yourself.  Unmet needs can cause you to live dishonestly.  Be honest: do you need to be loved, in control, to be right all the time, or acknowledged?  List your top 4 needs and make sure they’re met, or deal with them before it’s too late.  Many go through life depressed and stressed out because they are missing an essential need.

4. Know your passions.  Find out what you truly enjoy in life and stick with it.  Express your enthusiasm and also honor those that have helped you and inspired you on your journey to become the person you are.

5. Live from the inside out.  Increase your awareness of your inner vision by regularly reflecting in silence or communing with nature.  Breathe deeply to get rid of stress and quiet a distracted mind.  Often, just sitting in a dimly lit room and listening to classical music will do wonders for your mental well being.

6. Honor your strengths.  What are your strengths?  If you do not know, ask someone close to you for answers.  Pick out three positive traits that you possess and share them with others.  You will be amazed at how much self-confidence you will gain by just by expressing your authentic self through your strengths.

7. Serve others.  Give back to the world.  When you live authentically and honestly, you may find yourself developing an interconnected sense of being.  There is no greater reward or satisfaction then sharing your talents with the world.

And there you have it: a weekly guide to becoming a person who is a cut above the rest. All it takes to succeed is to truly want self-improvement and then honestly look at yourself through the eyes of others.  You might not be able to make the front page news, but with these self improvement tips and ideas you should be able to do things that you never thought possible.  Besides, who wants to constantly be under the public’s microscope, anyway?