Personal Development Blog

So what is this thing called “personal development” anyway? Simply “developing yourself”? Sure, you could look at it this way, however there are so many deeper insights and techniques which have been developed throughout centuries. Certainly, at least some of these insights can help us uniquely in “developing ourself”.

First, Personal Development is often considered synonymous with personal growth, self help, or self improvement. A key thing underlying all of these is “personal” or “self”, meaning this is all about taking responsibility for YOU, not others. This is a challenge for some, especially those who tend to think very highly of themselves, and are more focused on giving advice to others, holding an attitude that they are fine the way they are. This is the initial and most important challenge of personal development, namely recognizing that we always have room for improvement, and if we don’t try to improve, then we stagnate and impede our own success. It’s about investing in yourself. Is this selfish? Certainly not, by improving yourself you are helping others, as you will offer more to others around you, e.g. better relationships, higher productivity, improved communication, better health and fitness, and maybe even earning more money!

Personal Development is an attitude, it means you’re always seeking new ideas and strategies. You know your education didn’t end when you graduated from formal school, in one sense it just began. Most formal schooling teaches you little on how to really succeed in the important things in life, such as relationships, career development, health, nutrition, being a good parent, happiness, etc.? Do you want to improve, or just coast along in life? This is not a judgment of you, rather a choice you make in your own life that will impact your future.

I believe balance is a key factor in personal development. While you may seek to improve one skill in particular, perhaps public speaking, you don’t want to ignore your health, which involves good nutrition and exercise. For me it’s mind, body, and soul, the latter being spiritual development, which may not be of interest to everyone but is to me. But where should one start? It’s a personal thing, you need to assess yourself and determine where you need improvement. If you’re unsure, just start reading various self help authors, and see what seems to key into your own life and challenges. Travel down whatever learning path strikes your interest… explore and you will find an incredible amount of ideas you had no awareness of.

There are so many techniques and tools out there for personal development, I’m not going to list them here but NLP is an example of one more recent popular tool. Or simply reading to books or listening to CD’s from proven personal development trainers is a great way to go. There is a huge amount of information for free on the Internet that you don’t even need to spend a dime (for example our http://www.personal-development.com/chuck), however you’ll eventually need to invest a little if you want more advanced in-depth information, without trying to sift out the junk. There is a lot of junk out there on the Internet. Another source of free articles is http://www.positivearticles.com which for the most part has quality articles.

I would enjoy any comments on what personal development means to you, or what your very first exposure was to personal development. My first exposure was a book called “Handbook to Higher Consciousness” by Ken Keyes, Jr., which had a very positive impact on me. Have any of you read it also?