What is Personal Development about and how to start?

Personal Development is definitely something that has grown in popularity. It may have been something that used to be viewed as more ‘alternative’, but the fact that more people are searching for happiness, working longer hours than they ever have, comparing themselves to others, and feeling increased fear due to what is going on in the World means that more people are turning to Personal Development as a way to try to get a hold on all of this. But what is Personal Development about?

Quite simply, it is about working on yourself to become the best version of you. It is about growing your skills, abilities, qualities and traits so you develop as a person to live the life you want to live. It involves putting time in to you and as Jim Rohn once said, it is about learning “to work harder on yourself than you do on your job” Wow, that is a powerful statement isn’t it: I don’t think many people could say they do that. Many of us tend to snooze the alarm until the very last minute that we can, then run out the door to work wondering if we actually locked the door behind us, or closed that window, because the reality is that our mind is always on a million different things at once. We then grab something quick to eat as we are rushing in to work to start the day, and then when we finish we feel so tired from it all that all we can manage is to sit in front of the TV at night getting absorbed in a programme that means we go to bed much later than we have planned, to then start the routine all over again tomorrow.

Perhaps this all sounds familiar to you? Well we are going to break down Personal Development to show you that it is something you can get started on right away. We will discuss the 3 parts, Mental, Physical and Spiritual. How to get started and what the benefits are. All in the hope that by the end, you feel you are able to take some steps towards starting to include some Personal Development in to your everyday life.

You don’t need to be great to get started

This is definitely the most encouraging and exciting part: You don’t need to be at a certain level to start. How great is that? Whereas if you were wanting to take part in a team sport as a new hobby for example, you’d feel you’d have to have some level of ability before you dare turn up to training right? The beauty of Personal development is that you can do it in the privacy and comfort of your own home, begin wherever you find yourself right now, and go at the pace that you feel is right for you. The only thing that is for certain, is that this is a lifelong journey. Should you choose to embark on this today, it will be something that you will work on every day for the rest of your life, not just because that is how you will see the most benefit, but also because you will have the desire to continue once you start to feel the amazing effects of it.

The 3 parts to Personal Development

So how do you know what to work on? We feel that taking an approach to Personal Development that allows yourself to grow and develop across all areas is the most powerful in terms of seeing big, long term results. The 3 parts that we view Personal Development as are:

1. Mental – This is possibly the most obvious one but your mind is incredibly powerful and stretching it on a regular basis can have tremendous effects. The health that we experience within our bodies, often reflects the state of our minds. How we approach situations, tackle problems and the outlook we have, all depends on our mental health. Developing our minds could include things such as reading, meditation, and an attitude of gratitude.
2. Physical – The body and the mind work together. In order for you to exert mental stamina your body has to be in good condition too. How we train the body and the condition we allow it to remain in can have a huge impact on our outlook. If we are out of shape, fueling it with poor nutrition and allowing it to be dehydrated then we are left with a lack of energy and even the most simple of tasks can feel an effort.
3. Spiritual – A part that is often left out, but can have a huge impact on your approach and also massively effect the mental side too. Many people see humans as an extension of the animal species, but our ability to work on our spirituality in itself makes us so much more unique and is an opportunity that should not be left behind.

The benefits of Personal Development

The benefits are most definitely endless, but we have listed just a few of them below:

• You will experience a richer and more fulfilling life. There is no doubt about it, you will definitely feel more satisfaction with where your life is heading and how you are living it once you get started on your journey, after all, it is you who is assessing the areas you’d like to improve and then getting to work on those areas.
• You will feel yourself taking a pro-active approach to life. You will no longer feel as if you are letting each day pass you by, instead, you will feel as if you are making the most out of each and every day. You will be choosing your activities, setting up how you want the day to go, and controlling your approach to things that happen to you. Of course, it doesn’t mean that everything will run smoothly from here on in, ‘life’ will inevitably happen, but you will feel more in control of your response to it when it does.
• You will feel a sense of Purpose. Live to work or work to live? Either way, if you are working towards goals on a daily basis that you have set for yourself, you will absolutely feel like you are living each and every day with a purpose. Once you have that, you will feel unstoppable.
• You will become more all-rounded. Do you ever feel like “I love that about me, but I wish that was different, or I would like to change that”? Personal Development gives you that opportunity to work on those areas so that you can feel more in balance with yourself and life.
• Become who you want to be. An activity that has always stuck with us is one that we completed whilst reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. He got us to write our own Eulogy. Now while that may seem very strange to do, the purpose behind it is to consider the impact that you want to have, how you would like to be remembered and the difference that you would like to make. How powerful! You can become whoever you want to become!

Getting started

So all of this may sound great, but you may be thinking how do I get started? Here are some key activities that you can put in place immediately that will allow you to get going straight away:

1. Most importantly, decide what it is that you would like to work on. You wouldn’t get in the car without knowing your destination right? So you can’t expect to start your Personal Development journey without knowing what you would like to work on.
2. Commit to doing something every single day, for the amount of time that you feel is realistic for you. This could be 15 minutes, 30 minutes or even an hour, the key thing is to make sure it is something that you can do without fail.
3. Keep it simple: Getting started does not mean that you now have to go out and spend thousands on the next Personal Development course, it is much easier (and cheaper) than that. Start by finding some videos on YouTube and follow accounts that interest and motivate you, listen to a Podcast, or read a book that is relevant to the key area you’d like to work on. Some of these can even be integrated in to your daily life now, for example, why not switch off the radio on the way to work and opt for a podcast instead? Perfect! You are starting to work on your goals and it hasn’t even taken up any more time in your day.
4. Review regularly. It is so important that on a weekly and monthly basis you check in with yourself. What are your goals, how are you getting on with the actions for those and what can you amend next week/month to be even more successful?

What are you waiting for?

Deciding that you want to work on Personal Development does not mean that you are not good enough now, it simply means that you know you would like more from life. The most successful people in the World recognise the importance of working on themselves continuously. The benefits that you will see in your life far outweigh any work that it takes to achieve it. Of course, it is not plain sailing and there will no doubt be some challenges along the way, but after some work, you will see that those challenges feel much more manageable and smaller than they have ever felt before.

Good luck and enjoy!