Exercises of Self Improvement

Writing

As part of Benjamin Franklin’s self improvement course, he used to make notes of essays, lay them aside for a few days, and then recreate the essays in his own words and then compare this to the original. He would also sometimes jumble up the notes, so he would have to figure out which is the best order to build the essay’s argument. Sometimes he turned those essays into poetry, which helped him to expand his vocabulary. Then he turned these back to essays to see how they diverged from the original.

This is from the Biography of Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson.

Practice Concentration

Another exercise from how to spend 24 hours, is to spend some time in deep concentration. Focusing on anything – what you want, desires, or something to develop the concentration muscle.

Reading

I think reading is one of the best exercises of self improvement. Especially reading about successful people and what they did in their life and then writing about it.