THESE ARE THE 5 POINTS OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

 

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

A proud man enjoying reading in nature as his favorite personal development activity/Credit/Karolina Kaboom 

In Summary

Ø Personal development also means self-improvement.

Ø It involves actions taken by a person to develop him/herself

Ø And it has at least seven core areas, which include realizations of dreams, developing talents, building wealth, employment, improving overall quality of life, and building potential.

Ø These are the five points of personal development;

·        Setting expectations

·        Focusing on One Area

·        Taking Action

·        Being consistent

·        Being Aware of Setbacks

 

Setting Expectations

Personal development is very specific. It is aimed to develop you. Every time you deliberately take an action to improve yourself. You are actually performing personal development. It is intended for improvement in any of the core areas mentioned above. Therefore, the best way to succeed in any personal development desire is to set expectations. You need to know what you want to achieve by introducing new habits in your life. You must set expectations of what you would like to achieve by a given period of time. For example, after a year of engaging in a new practice. What is the vision for the new practice? Once you know what you want from a habit. You create time to achieve it. Being clear is the first step of getting it right in any personal development journey.

Your personal development journey becomes more manageable when you know where you are going. When you know why you are doing what you are doing. It becomes easier to commit. You plan better when you know the destination. When you know exactly how many hours it will take you to arrive at your destination. You plan and prepare better. You equip yourself with the right tools and resources needed for the journey. This is also what is needed with any personal development journey. You determine everything associated with it and plan for it. You set expectations and learn how to meet the set expectations. It means, you walk into your personal development need with a clear mind. You know what you want. And how you will get what you want. When you set expectations, you become specific.

Personal development is an important journey. You need to be specific. You need to know what you are doing. And what all the efforts you are putting in will lead you. The moment you know what is in the destination. You find motivation. And you work for improvement. You get excited. You get excited about the new changes that you will achieve. The benefits of the new improvement sweeten the journey. You get thrilled by the prospecting of having money. You learn that by the end of 12 months. You will be making your own money. You will have attained a new skill. And this skill will help you make money. The idea of having your own money makes the journey more interesting and worthwhile. Personal development becomes achievable this way. When you can see the benefits vividly, you double your effort.

A happy man enjoying personal development. Photo/Andrea Piacquadio

Focus On One Area

Personal development has several elements to it. You cannot carry out activities to fulfill all of them. You must settle for one area. Even if your overall goal is to improve in all seven areas. Begin with one area that is most critical to you. Focus on doing activities that helps you to improve in this one area until you gain the competencies and capabilities of the specified area. Become proficient in the chosen area before moving to the next area. Be specific. And be deliberate about one improvement. Remember that personal development involves new habits and practices. Practices and habits that you have never done before. And you are not sure how you will sustain these new practices. Based on the mere fact that you will be doing new things. It becomes more practical to take one step before the other.

The value of focusing on one area it to maximize is success. You want to muster a skill. You want to understand your potential. To determine what else you can do with your life. So, you need to move very slowly with your decisions and actions. It is good to be ambitious. But don’t be over ambitious. Don’t be too excited. Be focused. Be disciplined. Go for one thing at a time. Muster the power of your talents first before moving to building wealth. The goal is improvement. Real change. Practical improvement. The something new. And if, you are working for that better. You must learn to be careful. You can’t be everywhere at the same time. You want to work with leverage as much as possible.     

You want to capitalize on the motivation to embrace a new activity. You want to leverage on the fact that your mind is cooperating. Build on this new power and focus on one area of personal development. Pay attention until you develop confidence in the area. Focus on it until you are capable of doing things that you could not previously do. Focus on harnessing your potential until you find that something else that you can do. Stay focused. Keep doing the personal development activities for the chosen area. You will love it when you are focused. You will be strengthened. You will find a routine that works with you. And you will actually improve yourself. By focusing on activities that make you better. By sticking with same routines and hard work.

Take Action

You will not improve anything by just thinking about it. You must take action. You must start doing the things that develop you. You must do the assignment. You must learn whatever it takes to arrive at the needed improvement. You must pay the price for your improvement. You must put in the work. You must bring in the efforts. You must do the difficult and the uncomfortable in the area. You just don’t become what you wish to become. Miracles happen. But not all the time. Sometimes, you need to work hard. You need to perform tangible actions to win. If, your destination requires you to cover several kilometers to get there. You need to find out how you will cover those kilometers. You need to know where you will find fuel/gas. Or right means of transport to your destination.

Hard work would be required for you to become better. You will have to work hard to become the new version. You will have to fight for what you need. The personal development you want will not be a straight path. Understand this reality too. You need to know that you will go through emotions. And fight with a lot of things on the way. Your desired improvement will cost you. Plan for the different costs. You must see things as they are. You should see the difficult and the easy. And come to terms with all of them. Taking action does not mean doing the activities alone. It also means, dealing with everything that is associated with your personal development. Good and bad. Everything in-between. You need to know how to handle them. You need to know how to win.

Colleagues discussing best personal development methods. Photo/August de Richelieu

Be Consistent

You had an objective in the beginning. You identified an area you wanted to improve. And you followed it up with action. Now there is no going back. You must stick with the activities that you identified in the beginning. You must follow every step. You must perform every activity on the list. You must cover every mile in the destination. You cannot get tired. You cannot become lazy. You must be consistent if, you must improve. Things will become tough along the way. However, you need to make decisions. You need to finish what you started. With the same enthusiasm you started with. This does not mean that you will be excited all the time. You will hate some of the things on the way. However, what you don’t like and hate on the destination does not matter. What is ahead of you is what matters.

The ultimate prize of change. The new skills you will gain. The new perspectives. The revelations about your potential. And the capabilities in your talent. These are what matters. Forget about the pain and tiredness. They were part of the deal. You did not see them in the beginning. But they were part of the deal. That was what your expectations said. That is why you had a set time. You had limited time. Your expectations for personal development were tied around a definite. To help you understand your strength and limits. The 12 months were designed to test your foundation. The truth about you had to come out. Were you really serious about improving? Were you going for whatever it takes? Were you ready to play at expert level? You must be consistent to achieve something. Follow same steps to the end. Perform all the activities on your personal development list until you get it right.

Be Aware of Setbacks

You need to factor setbacks into your personal development goal. You need to remember that you are a normal human being. That you live in a normal world. Life is unpredictable. You might think that you are foolproof. But new dynamics might still come up. After your meticulous plan. After taking all those hours thinking about it. You can still fail. You can still be attacked. You need to be aware of these setbacks. You need to be aware of the number of times you would not be in the mood to do anything. The day you will not feel like getting out of bed. The day it will be too cold. The week your schedule will be too occupied. Factor all of them. Think about them. Be realistic. Life will be what it is supposed to be. It has surprises. Think about this too. And interference it will bring to your plans.

Plan in advance how you will combat setbacks. You had expectations. But that does not mean you will have your way every day. Be realistic about the type of improvement you desire. Familiarize yourself with eventualities. These uncertainties affect real people. Real people like you. And anyone who has been on a mission understands the role of uncertainties. They bring unnecessary detours. They slow you down. They present challenges you must overcome before you get what you want. These twists and turns are good in film. But in real life, not so good. You will hate setbacks. However, life must proceed. You must continue doing the activities that make you better. You must fight for what you believe in. Get up when you fall. You could feel pain. But still get up.

In conclusion, there is no right or wrong way to achieve a personal development goal. You decide how you want to make yours happen. You are different from any other person. Your needs different. And even if they are similar with other people. You are still a different person. Focus on you and what you want. focus on your personal development. Focus on the activities in front of you. Determine how you will fulfil each one of them. Get committed to your personal development. That is the only best way you will succeed. Start with setting expectations. Then narrow down to a specific area to improve in your life. focus on that area by taking action. Remain consistent with the activities. Fight for your improvement. Be aware of setbacks. But still keep your eyes on the final outcome. The improvement you want. That is where your energy and efforts should go every day.