Personal Development Blog

Personal Development should be more than simply getting motivated and learning a few new skills. It should also be a process of focusing in on your shortcomings, the negative personality habits we all have. Oh, you don’t have any? Then move right along to another article ;-) I commend those of you who admit you are less then perfect, and can try to figure out what your weaknesses are, and then improve yourself. This can be difficult, especially for those of us who like to look only at the positive, or who have fairly big egos. However, finding weaknesses is not a negative activity if done from a positive perspective.

Take anger for example, perhaps a common challenge for many of us to avoid. A negative point of view is to say “I’m just an angry person, I can’t help myself, something is wrong with me”. This points towards anger being an integral part of who you are, not a behavior which can be changed.

Instead, tell yourself: “I get angry too often, but it doesn’t benefit me or others, so I choose to change my behavior”. This recognizes YOU are in control, and that it’s simply a behavior, not a core part of who you are. Make the CHOICE, do you wish to change or not? It’s up to you!

One way to identify shortcomings is to ask other people about yourself. This is not an easy thing to do nor will some people even want to tell you, but someone close to you may be willing to help. Otherwise, assess the situations where you are unhappy, and others around you are unhappy, and try to figure out what the root cause was. Do you find yourself often unhappy while driving? Perhaps patience is something you would like to work on. Do you find yourself unhappy and jealous of others a lot? Perhaps you can work on learning to be happy about who you are, and recognize that people who have more are not necessarily happier.

Personal development needs to be about concurrently overcoming your personal challenges and weaknesses, while building up your general skills, abilities, health, and relationships, towards making you and those around you happier and more successful. Erase your negative traits and increase your positive traits and you’re on the right track.

Please take a minute and comment below on what one of your biggest challenges are, it would be interesting to see what types of issues others have. If you have any methods you’ve used to successfully improve yourself in this area, please share these also.