Of the many terms you hear in any true “aspire to perspire” series, Personal Development has to
be one of the most recurring ones.
Well, I wouldn’t call this a regular “aspire to perspire” talk, but this write-up contains a few
things you should know if you’re looking to move beyond where you are today- mentally,
financially, physically, spiritually, emotionally etc.
Personal development is one of the core requirements for progress. If you’re going to get any
better and farther in life, you’ve got to put intentionality into personal development.
In its simplest definition, Personal development (PD) is the conscious choice to improve your life;
become a better individual and grow into a better person.
Why Personal Development?
It is said that we live in a world of “heightened consciousness, unlimited chances, accelerated
change, unfathomable collaboration, overwhelming complexities, fatigued courage and
tremendous competition”.
You most certainly do not want to be left out in all of these.
A better illustration would be to imagine life as a race. You do not need to move backwards to
get behind, the slightest pause could get everyone ahead of you.
The moment you relax in growth and personal development- getting better at who you are and
what you do, you begin to get behind in life. Make sense? I’m sure it does.
How to go about personal development
Mark Twain (one of my personal favourites) said; Continuous improvement is better than
delayed perfection! Deeeeeppp!
This implies that personal development amongst other things is a continuous process. There are
some key questions you’ll need to answer when developing a strategy for personal development.
I.e PDP or PDH (more on that later).
- Where am I now?
- Where do I want to be?
- What do I need to get there?
The first question helps you evaluate your current state. Answering the question of ‘where you
are now’ gives you a hint into how much work needs to be done. Please note here, that being
sincere and true to yourself is the only way forward.
The second question can be easily answered by picking a model or bench mark that you look
forward to becoming or surpassing. It’s essential to make goals at this stage, and importantly,
your goals must be SMART. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based.)
“What do I need to get there”- Here’s where you really need that PDP- Personal Development Plan.
After a careful evaluation of yourself and determining what you want to achieve, you need a way
to get there.
Personally I use a PDH, Personal Development Hour. For instance, if I set out to becoming better at singing, I’ll try to find an hour within my day to build that. It doesn’t have to be at a stretch, I simply split the time and discipline myself to: 20mins voice training, 20 mins listening to my favorite artiste, and 20mins scoring songs.
I could also make a generic plan at being an all-round better individual. E.g- 15 mins reading a
book, 15 mins exercises, 15 mins TED talk/podcast, 15 mins social interaction, all within the
same day!
There are many other ways to go about developing a PDP, another is giving your week or month
a theme, and being intentional about developing yourself along that line.
Interesting yeah?
There’s going to be a Part 2 on this and I’ll be sharing more helpful tips alongside the core areas
of Personal Development. I hope this helps!
For now your task would be to answer the key questions above and be sure to write them down
in a notepad.
Cheers!
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