A Quick Check for Self-Improvement

Yesterday was Guru Pournima, a sacred occasion to be grateful towards our Gurus. Anyone who has made a positive impact on our lives can be considered our Guru. It is the day to remember all those who brought betterments into our lives.

Today, I would like to share an insight with you that has had a profoundly positive impact on my life. It was during a Japanese language exchange program. To improve my verbal skills, I invited a Japanese student to stay at my home for a few days. This program enabled them to explore Indian culture, while we practiced their language and gained an understanding of their way of life.

I would have never imagined that this life-changing insight would come from this friend. One night, as we were about to sleep, I noticed him whispering something softly with closed eyes, in Japanese. Curious, I asked him what he was saying. He smiled and translated: “How much would I be willing to pay to travel back to the day I just lived?”

That simple question left a deep impact on me.

What this practice meant was that every night before sleeping, you would ask yourself if the day you had just lived was valuable enough that you’d pay to experience it again. If the answer was “not much,” it meant something went wrong that day. And you would immediately think what you should not do the next day.  But for this ‘what not to do’ to come to the surface, my friend used to ask this question every night and would not sleep until he got the clarity. His conviction was that ‘if I am making fewer mistakes in a day, then I am improving, and if I am not improving, then I want to know what it is that I am doing wrong and what I need to improve from tomorrow’. 

This daily self-check was his way of constant self-improvement, a principle deeply rooted in Japanese culture.

Since this incident, I’ve made it a habit to ask myself the same question every night. And it has truly made a difference. Perhaps you’d like to try it too and feel the shift it brings to your life!