Personal Development is the process of improving oneself in one or more areas of your life, whether it’s skills, education, health or personal relationships. Personal Development is a life adventure to to achieve more success and happiness.
The famous personal development trainer Jim Rohn sums it up well when he said the important question is not “what am I getting”, rather “what am I becoming”, and “what you become directly influences what you get”. Personal development is not about achieving specific goals, rather about increasing the likelihood of achieving the goals as well as raising the effectiveness and efficiency of your actions.
Personal Development goes beyond simply earning a living to ensure a place to live and food to eat. Much of the joy in life comes from learning and growing; this joy underpins the importance of personal development. This includes not only the marketable skills that may be important in your career, but also soft skills like verbal and written communication, which will help you in relationships.
Ideally one realizes the importance of personal development early in life. Graduation from school should not be seen as the end of learning, rather the beginning of a lifelong process of growing and leaning.
Another big factor is that personal development builds your self-esteem. Without self-esteem, you are much less likely to achieve success or happiness. Self-esteem isn’t something you can simply learn from a book, it builds slowly based on increasing your knowledge, wisdom, relationship and communication skills, and track record of success. Build your self-esteem by not doing things halfway, study and work hard with the intention of excellence. Your values are also important in building self-esteem. For example, if you don’t value honesty, how can you really feel good about yourself? You will always know in your heart that you are not someone people can or should trust. People will sense that and takes only one mistake to ruin your reputation.
Endeavor to be well rounded in your personal development journey. For example, too much focus on career and you become a workaholic and can negatively impact other areas of your life. Those that do this are also inevitably unhappy when their retire. Learning a musical instrument is a valid way to develop yourself, and in something that is outside your career, can bring happiness to do, and can last into retirement.
A great way to also expand your mind is to read books or watch youtube videos from highly rated personal development/self-help trainers. It’s not only motivational, but you can gain tips and ways of looking at things you haven’t thought about. This can include teachers that lean more towards spirituality such as Eckhart Tolle.
Personal Development is the adventure of life every one of us can take, enjoy and maximize it!