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Today’s world is a competitive one, where only the ones with unique qualities or have something extra to offer excel and thrive. So to stand out from the crowd, you need to work on developing specific skills and cultivate habits not only to better yourself personally but also professionally. But once you have your dream job or are done with achieving one set of milestones, you stop working on yourself. You feel content with wherever you are and no longer interested in knowing how to improve yourself.
This is where we do injustice to yourselves.
No matter where you are in your life or how much you have achieved or done in life, there will always be something about yourself that you can improve upon. After all, the human potential is limitless, and it’s quite impossible that you have reached a point of no growth.
Remember, “whenever we think we are good, we can be even better.”
So what kind of person you are really when it comes to self development? Are you one of those people who go like “I wish I could be as successful as he is? Or do you tell yourself “if he can do it, so can I!” Right, you are the “if he can, so can I” person, (even if you’re not we’d tell you why you should work on your self development, later in the blog.) and work for your dreams. So if you also try to better yourself in life whether it is about a job promotion, a more loving relationship or about owning a successful business but it just doesn’t give you the desired result. You feel your self development journey remains directionless and you end up stumbling around, hoping it will just happen for you.
However, if you are going through something like this, then relax. Self-improvement is a long journey and needs your patience, dedication and an action plan that leads you toward the right direction. And we are going to show you exactly that.
Ready? Let’s go for self growth!
When we talk about working on yourself, we don’t mean to bring an overnight change into the way you live, earn or think. After all, you could be leading a very full life without lacking anything and have everything you want. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can work to improve. Self development is a process that just keeps on going. It prevents you from feeling like you are living your life on autopilot and that you are stuck with nothing new or challenging happening. In definition, it literally means the improvement of yourself in terms of your knowledge, status, character, habits, emotional, mental, or even physical outlook. You do this by putting your own efforts to evolve, change and make you a better ‘you’ today than yesterday.
However, people often get confused between external self-improvement and internal self-improvement. You really don’t understand how to work on yourself and what you need to do, and end up disappointed. Aren’t we all like that? We all start high with our motivations, make some new habits or plans, and start to follow them diligently. But then we find our zest for change, our motivations crashing down around us, leaving us more frustrated than before.
What do you think went wrong? Other than the absence of any action plan, it’s the lack of clarity about whether you want an external improvement or internal self development.
To define external improvement, it is the kind of improvement that changes the exterior of your lifestyle, a tangible or physical makeover of what you already have. For eg. Money, fitness, status, friends, etc. are all part of external improvements.
While, self-improvement is more about the kind of improvement that we make in us internally to make us better in any and every aspect of life. We strive to transform & improve ourselves from what we already were. For eg. Habits, thinking, confidence, beliefs, learned skills and character.
No doubt, these two seem to be complementing each other, meaning, being successful may start to improve your confidence level. Similarly, if you are disciplined and hardworking, you may become successful.
And if you are still wondering why self-improvement is important than here are few reasons to shed light on its significance in your life, irrespective of your age:
With this inspiring quote let’s move on to discussing how you can actually work on yourself, what are the tips you need to follow in your self development journey.
It’s not easy to just overwrite your old habits, thinking or even your lifestyle overnight but it’s not impossible. With time and dedication, you can bring a tangible difference in all areas of your life. You can take more responsibility at work to move your career forward or to give yourself the well-deserved ‘me time’ to learn, live and grow as healthier as you can be. So, now we will discuss some of the major tips that you should employ in your life to better yourself.
Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Cultivating good habits are not just as hard to quit as bad habits but they are actually more rewarding than bad habits.
As you start developing them, you’ll be surprised how many positive qualities they instill in you. Developing hobbies encourages you to be a team player, enhances your creativity and makes you more receptive to criticism.
Doing the same thing at the same time, everyday might be tedious at times but it has its own benefits. It keeps you focused, disciplines you and also organizes your day.
Seeking guidance helps you find your way. This holds true especially on the professional front. Whether you seek a professional motivator or a subject matter expert’s assistance, when you have a mentor and his expertise & experience, it helps you a lot in achieving your professional self growth.
It’s not just about having a sleeping schedule, eating healthy and doing physical activities, to keep your body fit but also about working on your mental & emotional health. Doing a lot of physical exercises to keep you fit and fine is great but mental fitness is just as important.
Learning is a process that always rewards you, it not only enriches, makes you think beyond the boxes but also increases your understanding of the world, the way you live or work.
Contrary to popular belief that being an expert in multitasking helps you save time and makes you flexible, but actually it does quite the opposite. It makes you lose focus and also compromises the quality of work. Additionally, the stress of taking multiple roles and doing justice to it takes a toll on your both mental and physical health.
Having strong command over your communication skills, verbal or non-verbal, not only helps you excel in your career but it also helps you stay in stable and happy terms with your friends or family.
Not taking responsibility for yourself or being accountable for your actions leads to procrastination and lethargy. We often hear that we are the driver’s of our life! This is what showing personal responsibility & accountability means. Owning up the reaction and consequences of your actions.
Networking is a vital key that helps you grow in your career and lets you improve your communication & interpersonal skills.
Self development isn’t an easy road, you are either trying to change your habit or learning a new habit. Since you are trying to bring such a huge change in your life, naturally you’ll have your moments of doubt.
When we are so involved in achieving our self growth goals, we are constantly focused on achieving the next thing, moving, pushing forward to the next step. It gets so easy to forget to stop and take a moment to celebrate the little benchmark you just crossed.
We can show you studies after studies to inform you that taking breaks now and then doesn’t break your flow or it’s not a time consuming activity. In fact, taking regular breaks leads to less or no stress, keeps productivity level high and prevents any fatigue or need for a long recovery at the end of the day.
Isn’t it easier to navigate life when you know where you want to go and how to get there? So to know exactly what steps you need to take in order to be better than yesterday, you need an effective self development plan. So, follow these 5 steps on how to self improve:
You need to know why you want to self-grow, what’s your motivation for self development. Is it to get the next leading position in the workplace, do you want to start being productive at college or something else. Whatever is your ‘driving factor,’ it will act as your purpose or your driving factor that will guide you through the whole process of a self growth plan, so choose wisely.
When you are aware of what’s the thing that you need to learn or change relating to your career growth and self growth plan and are ready to play out your strengths and accommodate your weaknesses. You take necessary steps to identify and then fill the gap in your knowledge area. You can learn something new such as communication skills or programming languages and maybe try to quit or adopt a new habit.
You want to learn something new or quit a habit but then you have other priorities to look over? It’s not just about setting some goals, but also about time management. So what do you do? You plan it. You have 24 hours to learn how to better yourself, if you plan out your time, you can bring change in your life, however limited your time is. Schedule your day and assign time to a particular task. This gives you clarity about how much you can achieve in a day and how much you have already done.
Once you have scheduled your time or activity, you also need to find resources that will help you achieve self improvement. Do you want to self-tutor yourself to get training for IT certifications, do you need a mentor or consultant to help you figure out your self growth plan? Whatever your answer is, take time to finalize it and ensure that you are utilizing them justifiably.
It’s important that you know how you are doing on your self development plan in order to save your time and bring effective & tangible change in your life. So conduct a weekly or monthly self-assessment to measure your growth and know are you really working towards your goals. You can always tweak changes to your action plan or move your deadlines if you don’t see a favourable result. But don't be too critical about your efforts, missing a few deadlines or milestones does not make you a failure, nor does having a slow self growth process. What matters is to never quit trying as you find other ways to improve yourself.
We all have control over how we want to live our life and how we want to use our time, no matter where you are in your professional or personal life. Take some productive and strong steps to better yourself. Whether it’s about you working for the ‘big picture’ goals or starting to work on leading a peaceful, stress-free life, every small step taken now can have a big impact on how your career growth happens and how others perceive you.
But remember, self development takes time, patience & dedication, so be kind to yourself. Stop bombarding yourself with doubts or worries if you cannot rewire your habits, change your lifestyle or cannot learn new things at the pace you would like to. Yes, make a solid commitment to yourself to try to improve yourself but don’t be hard on yourself and never ever compare your self development journey with others. We all have different learning curves and pace, it takes a lot to step out of your comfort zone and venture into something beyond it.
FaceBook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest EmailVikas Arora loves pursuing excellence through writing and have a passion for technology. He currently writes for JanBaskTraining.com
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Brian Taylor
Thanks for such a nice motivational blog,because we humans used to get descrated from our main goal over time. After reading this nice post now I am feeling too motivated to focus on my personal growth.
Louis Anderson
We live in the world of choices and this same happens when it comes to profession, when we work on self growth it opens up our thinking and self assessment ability and this ultimately leads to career growth.
Maximiliano Jackson
I am sixty now and was looking to read something interesting and luckily found this blog. It really motivates me and I am definitely going to recommend this to my son.
Holden White
This sort of post is really useful for the young generation, how to disrupt every day and get demotivated by any small rejections.
Paxton Harris
Many thanks for this nice post, in this rushed life sometimes we forget to upgrade ourselves.