Benefits of Personal Development

After the past two years, it’s safe to say that we all need some personal development in our lives!

There’s nothing better than raising the bar and investing in yourself and your growth – particularly in times of hardship or when life doesn’t go your way.

Many wise sages see the meaning of life as ‘growth of the self’, which is what personal development is in a nutshell!

What is Personal Development?

Personal development is about working on yourself, to get to a ‘better version of yourself’, whatever that looks like for you.

There’s an unlimited amount of personal development to be done – it’s a never-ending road. And that’s the beauty of it!

It’s not about the destination or even getting you to an end point.

It’s about taking tiny steps in a better direction every day, to feel better about yourself and your life.

In this post, we’re talking about the big benefits of personal development, as in, the life-changing ones.

Really, personal development can be life transforming! There’s no use playing around with personal development to kill time either (says someone who used to do this)

You want to invest in yourself and commit to it, so that you see and ultimately, feel those positive changes.

Awareness – The First Step In Personal Development

One of the biggest benefits of personal development is the awareness you build, of how you’re being and what you’re doing day by day.

You learn to be an observer of yourself and catch yourself out, choosing to act differently in any situation, rather than acting on autopilot and repeating the same old, same old.

This starts by choosing to be aware of yourself.

Yes, you proactively choose to become aware – it doesn’t happen automatically.

The only way to become aware is to focus on doing it. Focus on being aware.

Every so often, tune into your thoughts, feelings and emotions and listen to them like they’re a record playing in the background. Observe them.

What’s your dominating personality like?

Are you more positive than negative?

A people pleaser?

Scared to escape your comfort zone?

There’s no space to judge or criticise yourself here, though, but once you finish tuning in to your thoughts and feelings, you’ll want to take notes and write down what you noticed.

Does anything play on repeat? Is there a common dialogue there?

A great book you must read is Know Thyself by Stephen M Fleming which goes into the science of awareness and how it’s key to unlocking your greatest superpower! Trust me, read it!

Similarly, you can tune into your behaviours with those closest to you. How do you act around your family? How do you talk to your loved ones? Notice and take note.

Are you acting out of your highest values most, if not all of the time? Or shrinking down, playing small, and not being in line with your values? Read this post if so.

Awareness is a practise.

Therefore, practise it and become aware of yourself and your actions, and every so often, change how you’re being.

Try catching yourself in a situation with your loved ones and, through being aware, act differently than you would normally. You’ll be amazed what awesome things will happen as a result!

Confidence

Don’t we all want more confidence?!

Self confidence is another one of the great benefits of personal development, and can lead to tremendous things, such as better relationships, a more fulfilling life, and going after dreams – making them your reality.

By working on yourself through personal development, you’ll naturally become a stronger person, able to deflect the struggles you may face, and show up confidently in front of them.

Confidence gives us that much-needed boost to go after a new job, start a new business, or leave a relationship that’s not serving us. When we’re more confident in ourselves and our abilities, we can handle whatever comes our way.

Confidence also makes us appreciate ourselves more, and when we appreciate ourselves, this radiates out to our loved ones. We start to appreciate them more, and feel confident to show this, showering them with love and kindness.

All round, confidence is a good thing!

Purpose

Personal Development may lead to a better understanding of your purpose.

Many people get hung up on ‘finding their purpose’ and often this stresses them out. Realistically, your purpose changes as you go through life. And you’ll probably have lots of purposes!

What’s most important is ‘What’s my purpose right now?’

Are you a parent?

Or do you have a new job role?

Is there something calling you to take action on it?

Something you care deeply about?

Whatever it is, when you see it as your purpose, it becomes very real and something you can’t let go of easily!

By working on your personal development, you’ll naturally distinguish what your purpose is.

As an FYI, I’ve been working on myself through different forms of personal development for over a decade, and I’ve only just found my purpose right now in life (like literally last week).

So don’t think you’ll find your purpose straight away. Take it slow and build up to it by experimenting with different types of personal development. See my recommended reads below.

Happiness

The ultimate goal in life is to be happy, right? It’s what we all want, and personal development is a sure fire way to get you there. And the reason for this is, personal development works on you from within.

Many times, we put our happiness onto other people and make it conditional. “I’ll be happy when…” But what if “When” never happens?

You’re just wasting time right now, not being as happy as you could be, waiting for stuff to happen. Insanity, right?!

A wise man once said, “Why would I look to others to make me happy when they’re not even happy themselves?” Food for thought.

So start looking at yourself and your life (practice awareness) and make yourself happy here and now, regardless of whatever else is happening outside of you, by diving head first into personal development.

Some key ways to get happier now are to be grateful for what you have.

Practising gratitude is the number one key to happiness.

It’s about embracing and appreciating the little things that we often overlook, even if that little thing is a room to sleep in and a bed to lie in. Fresh air to breathe and a body which moves.

Another sure fire way to happiness is to start a journal practise. I wrote an e-book on the topic-check it out here.

Productivity & Focus

Getting things done is another great thing about practising personal development. Firstly, setting goals is fundamental to working on yourself and getting yourself to that next level.

You’ll stop scrolling so much and wasting time on social media, and start doing things that truly matter. Netflix won’t be your default anymore. Reading an inspiring book, meditating or listening to an interesting podcast will be!

This is why we should all be doing some form of personal development every day. Even if it’s 5 minutes here or there, it all adds up to something amazing.

A Better Future

Another huge benefit of personal development is realising that life is not what happens to you. It’s about what you can create!

No longer are you a victim to circumstances. You accept what you can’t change, and take action on what you can change.

We can never change the past, that’s been and gone. But we can create the future that we want, by acting out our values today, right now. We can’t change how other people act and think, but we can change how we ourselves react to them and any given situation.

This is the essence of personal development. Being aware of yourself, and choosing to act differently despite the hardships.

A Sparkly Life

This is a phrase I use to describe a wholesome, beautiful life! Which is what will happen if you practise personal development.

A life full of love, curiosity, playfulness, hope, optimism, intrigue, kindness, empathy, enthusiasm and delight. Yes, even in a pandemic like the one we’re in, life can be this way – when viewed through the right lens.

And that lens is your mindset. How do you see life? How do you react to it?

To get this sparkly life lens, you have to make it happen. It doesn’t come to those who wait for it.

Start small, by making micro changes every day, practising personal development, and stepping out of your automatic way of being every so often, and you’ll soon get there.

Summary

It’s impossible to list all the benefits of personal development, because it’s a never-ending journey!

But this post gives a good starting point and hopefully inspires you to try out some personal development on yourself. See it as just that. It’s about the journey you take yourself on, not the end point!