Intro
Personal development doesn’t mean turning your life around overnight. Or stopping doing fun things to only focus on achieving goals. Personal development can be as simple as trying to be 1% better than you were yesterday. It can be taking small consistent steps over a period to improve an area of your life that you’re not happy with. It’s a continuous journey with no end. A journey that should be filled with growth, learning, happiness and even laughter. Not misery, deprivation, and boredom. Sure, you may have to give up a few things that aren’t serving your higher purpose. But what you’ll get in return will be profoundly more valuable.
Most people stop learning after school
For a lot of people, the word learning is a turn off. It sounds boring. And a lot of people stop learning once they leave school. Their idea of learning is the shit teachers force upon you from a curriculum that’s forced on them, that they have little to no interest in. But when you direct your learning to something you’re interested in, it becomes so much more than that boring math class on Pythagoras Theorem. It allows you to broaden your knowledge and grow in a way that has value to you. And when you put what you’ve learnt into action, life can become a whole lot more fulfilling.
I believe this is what personal development is, learning ways in which you can improve your life in a way that that’s meaningful and valuable to you. And in this blog post I want to arm you with some tools to help you get your personal development journey started. These are all tips I’ve found valuable in my own journey, and I hope you find them valuable too.
6 tips to start your personal development journey
1. Take ownership of your life
Most people today like to blame everyone around them for the way their life is rather than admitting that where they are is because of them. I know it can be difficult, but this is a necessary step. Taking ownership of your life means you accept where are and you know only you can change it. It means owning your shit and holding yourself accountable. No one is coming to miraculously save you, it’s on you to make the changes you want. I believe taking this first step helps you grow exponentially. It will already set you apart from the rest.
2. Have a vision of the person you want to become
Where do you want to be in 5 years? What skills do you want to have? Where will you be living? What would your ideal day look like? It’s time to start shaping a vision of the type of person you want to become. I’ve offered you a few questions to help get you started, and I do suggest writing these ideas down. Try to fine tune your vison as much as possible, but make sure its true to what you want. Nobody else. It’s your life and you’re living it for you.
Your life doesn’t have to be drastically different from what you have today, not unless you want it to be. Your vision could be as simple as being 20lbs lighter and exercising 5 times a week. Or leaving the job you hate to pursue your passion. The idea is to create your ideal circumstances so you can start taking action to help bring you closer to your idea.
3. Look at one area of your life to improve first
When starting to make positive change in your life, it’s easy to want to change everything at once. It’s easy to think you need to kick all the ‘bad’ things out of your life, to replace them with good ‘things’. Remember when I said personal development isn’t about deprivation and boredom? Often this is where these two feelings can start creeping in. You start getting up at 5am to go for a 5k run for before work, you swap meeting up with your best friend to study and you stop going out for meals to only eat salads. And while these new activities are positive, trying to do too much at once is overwhelming and usually results in no change at all.
Sure, you may be able to stick with these new habits for a week or two. But eventually you’ll burn out and be put off what you were trying to achieve, resulting back to what you were doing before. Instead of trying to change multiple areas of your life, focus on one. And think of the first step you can take with it.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What area of your life would have the greatest impact on you if you decided to implement some change?
- Which area would bring you one step closer to your ideal vision?
- What area do I want to change the most?
4. Set some goals/aims to help you get there
Once you know which area of your life you want to focus on, you’ll need an action plan to help you get there. I have found breaking it down like this a great way to help me achieve what I want:
Aims: This broadly describes what you want to achieve.
Goals: This is a specific measurable target that supports your aim.
Objectives: Objectives breakdown the goal into specific steps you need to take to achieve your goal.
Example
Aim: I want to stop living pay cheque to pay cheque and have savings.
Goal: I want to save up $10,000 by March 1st, 2025
Objectives:
- I will start tracking my spending to work out how much I spend each month
- Once I know how much I spend, I will look for ways to cut back my spending to make sure I am spending less than I get paid
- I will open a savings account to put the money I save from my pay cheque each month
- I will stop buying pointless stuff and only spend in line with what I value
- At the end of each month, I’ll review my spending and see how much I have saved and track my progress
Make your aims, goals, and objectives specific to what you want to achieve. And when setting out your objectives, think of the easiest steps you can take first to help you get the ball rolling. You don’t want to be put off by a monumental step that is overwhelming. Keep it simple and build momentum. Remember to check in with yourself on a regular basis to review your progress and adjust your goals and objectives if you need to. Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t achieved all you set out to do, sometimes life gets in the way, and that’s okay! You’ll have months where you’ll smash progress and other months where you may take a few steps back. But if the overall trend is moving you closer to your aim, all is okay! And if it’s not, are the goals and objectives you’ve set for yourself to challenging?
5. Focus on the power of small improvements
Similarly, to focusing on one area of your life, when implementing positive change into your life it’s easy to want to change everything at once. You throw yourself straight in the deep end with out any support to help you swim. Focusing on small improvements helps you ease your way into the water, giving you the lessons you require to help you survive and thrive in the deep end.
James Clear has this idea of focusing on 1% improvements at a time. What could you do to be 1% better than you where yesterday? If you want to lose weight maybe that’s starting to track your calories and then reducing your intake by 100 calories. Initially you won’t feel like you’re making much progress, but small improvements compound to HUGE results over time. Plus, it makes your journey sustainable and a lot more enjoyable.
6. Be extremely proud of any progress you make
Deciding to better yourself is an incredible thing to do and you should be proud of yourself for taking the first step. Most people live life on autopilot, deep in their comfort zone. The fact that you’re reading this tells me you’re prepared to do something different, and that’s a huge step in the right direction. When you’re on this journey its important to take time to reflect and celebrate any progress you make. Learn to love the processes, not just the outcomes.
Conclusion
Self-improvement is a personal, continuous journey. Not a race with anybody else. There is no set pace you’re required to move at. And progress doesn’t always move in an uptrend. Often you can learn and grow the most from overcoming setbacks and challenges. Ride those highs and learn from those lows.
Setting goals and objectives are a brilliant way to set a direction in your life and massively help with growth. But do not beat yourself up if you don’t achieve what you want to achieve on the exact day. Part of life is enjoyment, and getting so fixated on hitting goals can suck the enjoyment from it. If you’re moving closer to your desired destination, shit is going well!
Remember to check in with yourself to see what progress you’ve made. And most importantly, remember to have fun on your personal development journey!
For more personal development tips, check out our other blog posts!