Feeling stuck in life? Discover how to embark on an effective personal development journey and become the best version of yourself.
Personal development is a pretty rampant term used on the internet every day. At work, school, church, or in our local group, we are being advised to take on courses that can help improve our lives to see how far we’d grow. It’s almost seen as a popular social media trend or challenge. Everybody wants to hop on just to feel good about themselves.
Truth be told, the concept of personal development has this kind of clout for a good reason. People feel stuck and recognize the need to develop their potential, become more, and chase the dreams they have always had. Chances are you are here for the same reason.
Your growth is a lifelong journey. It can be quite confusing, especially if you are just starting out and you are faced with several recommendations from people around you or the internet community.
But this article will give you a good explanation of what personal development is, why it is important, and how you can go about your own personalized journey to self-improvement.
Table of Contents
What Is Personal Development?
Personal development is a phrase that refers to the improvement of your talent, personality, physical well-being, social life, spiritual life, finances, career, and everything that pertains to you as a person. To sum it up, it involves becoming a better version of yourself, better than you are now.
Imagine you are everything you wish you were. You are financially stable, better in tune with God, disciplined, healthy and fit, surrounded by good and like-minded friends, or at the very top of your career. In your imagination, you have everything you desire to have and have become what you think is your best.
Unfortunately, you won’t get there by imagination but by intentional planning and implementation. The process by which you move from where you are to where you desire to be in all areas of your life is known as personal development. It involves the assessment of your current level, crafting a plan to get you to your desired state, and working intentionally at the set plan. Improving yourself is not a one-time thing. It’s a process, a journey to unveiling the treasure within you.
Why Is Personal Development Important?
As said earlier, personal development is so much talked about for different credible reasons. But for the love of analogy, the importance of personal development would be described thus: from the day we are born to the day we die, we develop and grow through stages.
Even though life is not as linear as the human biological development process, development is still a common phenomenon that we expect to see in life. In essence, personal development is expected from every individual. To give you further reasons you should take on actions that will set you up for improving yourself, below are 3 major benifits of personal development;
- Achievement of Goals: Personal Development will help you achieve that goal, dream, aspiration, or height you wish to attain. For example, to reach the top of your organization, you’d have to put in the necessary work consistently. This involves pushing yourself to be disciplined and focused, work on skill development, become a better team player, etc. Here, you are developing yourself to reach that goal you have set.
- Allows You to Reflect on Your Talents: Personal Development helps you keep track of your unique skills/talents and develop it accordingly. Since discovering how to improve yourself is personal, it will involve seeing what you might not consider a talent and working on it till it becomes perfect.
- Increases Your Confidence: As you become better at doing what you do, your confidence in performing that task will increase. The fear of failing, being laughed at, or being criticized will override self-confidence and the production of higher-quality work.
7 Steps To Developing A Personal Development Plan
To achieve personal growth, you need a plan that is effective and easy to follow. The following steps will guide you on how to develop a personal development plan for yourself.
Make An Assessment Of Your Current Level
Before you begin, you would have to take a comprehensive inventory of your starting point. Where am I financially? What position have I attained in my career? Am I emotionally intelligent? Have I gained important social skills in my life? Can my talent or skills add value to other people? If you don’t know where you currently are, you might not get to where you wish to.
Understand Yourself
Now that you know where you currently are, you need to know who you are. They seem similar, but they are two different things. This step involves a deep dive into your inner self. What excites you? What are you so interested in? What are your values? What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses? What do others think are your strengths and weaknesses?
Don’t limit yourself to these questions. Ask yourself hard questions and endeavour to tell yourself the truth. As a Christian, always remember not to be scared. The Bible tells us to be anxious for nothing. Don’t judge yourself. Just become more self-aware.
Discover your Life Vision
A Vision is an aspiration or a single goal that guides everything you want to achieve in life. Don’t dream small. And don’t be afraid to shoot for big goals. Write out practicable achievements that your heart desires, but don’t forget to remain flexible.
Break Down Your Visionvision Into Actionable Smart Goals
Your big visionvision won’t achieve itself. You’d have to put in the work to do so, and you need to break your vision vision into a SMART goal. A SMART goal is a Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound goal. If your visionvision is to be the CEO of a very large company, ask yourself: what skills do I need to get there? How long will it take me to get there? What are the steps I need to climb to get to that destination? Make your visionvision feasible enough to implement by turning it into a SMART goal. It should become something you can work on every single day.
Get An Accountability Partner
To embark on a personal development journey, you cannot do it alone. You’d need to be in the midst of like-minded individuals who are passionate and intentional about growing too. Don’t be around people who shut you up or make little of your visionvision or think you are doing “too much”.
Implement Radically
This is where you take action. That’s all you need here. Take action. Implement all you have planned and expect results.
Measure Your Progress
Consciously measure how far you have gone. It will give you a sense of accomplishment which will fuel you to keep on moving forward.
Final Thoughts
Personal development is not an easy task. But it can be done. Challenges will definitely come to discourage you and get you worried. Instead, work towards being diligent and focused on the goals you have set to make yourself a better person.
As you embark on your personal development with utmost intentionality, you won’t always get it right. Some days may be a total ticked box, while some days may not be so good. But keep at it, and expect to see mind-blowing results in your life after the law of time being invested begins to show its benefits.
Also read: How To Let Go Of The Past