Even though the term “personal development” is pretty explicit and it relates to understanding personal development needs, but also about building personal development and developing activities that aim self-improvement.
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A closer look at the term
PD (personal development) refers to the conscious intention of self-exploring and self-improving of distinctive personality traits. This process implies profound and conscious introspective or personal traits at their current level. Getting an idea about the current level of your personal traits means you need a good mapping of your current reality. You don’t want to know only the reality though, as you also need to identify your wants too.
Getting a clear image of your traits level needs a lot of understanding. You need to have an idea about where you’re planning to go in life. You may want to create this vision on specific time frames.
- Short term vision shows where you want to be within 3-6 months
- Mid-term maybe 1-2years
- Long term vision shows where you want to be from 2-5 years and more
Some don’t think this time span definition isn’t essential, but we think it counts a lot when you’re really setting your vision. For instance, it’s real to plan to learn how to drive in a month, but you’re going to need a lot more to become a very good driver. Your vision has to push your limits, but you need to keep it real too.
The gap that pushes you
You may notice a gap when you’re taking a look at your current abilities and the ones you’re planning to develop. The gap may seem a bit big at times, but you need to see the bright side. It’s important to understand that “gap” as an important step in your personal development. That gap is the reason for which you set an objective self-assessment and you’re also able to express it in a period of time. Realizing there’s a gap in some areas is a good thing that relates to your wiser understanding of self.
You need to solve the gap with a conscious intention and a realistic plan. Only by wanting things isn’t enough for achieving that skill too. You need to plan your PD activities that relate to your sources too. Your sources aren’t limitless though and you can’t do the same thing every time. The planning is going to need:
- Time
- Effort
- A good judgment
- Other sources
We can’t talk about resources and their management without also talking about personal potential.
Develop a plan
Our design means that we have more skills in some area and we lack confidence in developing less pleasant activities. We have different abilities in different areas and our development relates to the area that we like the most.
If we have a talent for something, we’re going to make progress a lot easier. This doesn’t mean we can’t progress in other fields, but that it’s easier to perform in the fields where we are talented. You should also focus on your weaknesses too and plan to work on them too.
A big step is making the right decisions. Your resources are limited so you need to make up your mind about where to focus. This may depend on the moment and your current needs.
If you have to develop the specific professional skills to a good level as your job depends on it, you may need to do it, even though it may not be your area of expertise.
Make the right decision
We all want to make the decision and sometimes it’s a bit more difficult than you’d expect.
- You need the right information for making the right decision. If we gather all the information that we need on some matter, it’s going to be a lot easier to decide and the results are going to be better for sure
- You also have to understand the full picture. Sometimes, we focus so much on our problem that we may lose some of the issues related to that matter. It so just happens that the answer may lie around the problem and not within the problem. You may have to think out-of-the-box so that you see the best solution for your current problem.
- It’s also important to get the best image of the changes you need to make before the decision itself. Every situation may change quite fast so you may need to give a thought on the changes you need to make and where should you focus more. You don’t want to acquire a skill that has no utility in your future so you may not want to put that on your list of personal development.
Build the development plan
In order to succeed in your development actions, you also have to design a development plan.
Here’s how your development plan should be:
- Clear with clear objectives
- It needs a framework for your activities
- It has to sustain the development to manifestation
- It needs to build abilities that count for you
- It needs an evaluation of the result. Simply attending a dance course for several months may become useless unless you also have a purpose for it. A fast self-evaluation may build a sense of post-assessment, but also to appreciate the value of things that didn’t happen just yet.
- You have to be aware of your abilities and limitations too. Your development plan has to match your true potential. Stop wasting time for activities and things you don’t really like and live your life according to your skills and opportunities.
We hear about personal development in many areas of our lives. A child is going to listen to his/her parents to learn and study hard, whereas at work you’re going to have to follow various training programs. Everyone is going to try it at some point and “develop” in various areas. Having a broader perspective and a right, well-structured approach to your personal development is going to help you a lot too.
Personal development takes place on several zones in your life so scroll down for what counts the most when developing the process.
The personal success
Your personal life depends on your intelligence, qualities, education, tolerance, learning ability, and adaptability so much more. Intelligence is the only exception when it comes to changing and improving (one can only do as much as his/her intelligence is allowing to do). Your set of personal traits is going to make you and who you are in society. How successful and accepted by others you become it’s all on you and your personal traits.
The professional success
The profession is what you do for a living. In order to earn for a living, we have to develop professional work but we also give our part to society like this. It’s a combination of personal and professional traits that counts for our professional success. They may include: knowledge, teamwork, education, experience, attitude, leadership, innovation and so much more. Not all of these traits have the same importance to us and it all depends on our profession. If you’re determined to obtain the professional success you do, however, need a high level of development of your skills and abilities.
A good physical health
Our body is what gets us to actually make real all of our intentions and actions in our life. If you want to be able to unfold our full capacity, we do need a good level of physical performance. You need to take care of your health in order to maintain our vehicle in a working shape that is going to be the running engine for our development in a specific field.
Good mental stability too
When your mental health is in danger, we can’t make the best out of our intellectual, physical and social abilities. We may even encounter some shortfalls in both professional and personal life. That are many things in the environment that have an influence on our mental stability. We can’t live in a bubble to stay protected by the mental attacks from your surroundings. But we can definitely engage in actions that are going to help us absorb the attacks and recover from the loss of our mental energy. Mentally recovering between challenging times of our life is essential as we don’t want to sink down slowly afterward.
The financial aspect
Financial stability is essential for personal development and material welfare is the physical base for developing in other zones. You may build various traits (experience, education, social relationship, health and so on) only with the least basic material. With no stable financial grounds, you’re going to be unable to focus on your goals and never able to develop. Financial stability relates to both personal and professional success and the ideal situation is to develop both at the same time.
You also need to manage your personal finances, to always be in control of your incomes, investments and pay attention to your spending habits. Not being able to properly manage your income may cause you bankruptcy, even if your incomes may be high.
Contribute and help others
We’re all part of the community and can’t live isolated. It’s important that you build efficient relationships, that you help and respect others, giving back to the community, without jeopardizing your own path to personal developments.
In a nutshell
Understanding why personal development is important is just one part of the trip. You don’t necessarily have a final destination, but you do have milestones and direction. Personal development is a process that never ends and you’re the one deciding which way to go and how far you want to reach.
