Personal growth is a mandatory process of self-improvement of an individual, a purposeful movement and the desire of the subject to embody in reality the person he would ideally like to be (“ideal self”). All factors, conditions, opportunities that bring him closer to achieving his goal are personal growth, which is one of the main and most significant meanings of an individual’s life. With the help of this process, a person is able to change himself, any character traits in the direction he needs, eliminate complexes, learn to control the manifestation of emotions, and get rid of negative thoughts. Personal growth is different for each subject, since the ideas about their ideal “I” are completely different for all individuals.
Three paths to personal growth
And if the question of personal growth arises at all, it means that there is no harmony in your life and some changes are needed.
You can start practicing self-development at any age, at 20, 30, 40, and 50 years old. You can always engage in self-development!
Personal growth or self-development is the process of developing some new qualities in yourself that will lead you to improvement in many areas of life.
In 1959, the famous psychologist Karl Rogers indicated that personal growth must begin if you want fundamental changes in life and he highlighted
The law of “personal growth”, which fits into one phrase: “If..., Then...”.
For example, if I don't know how to swim, then I will drown if I don't take some action.
OR
If I learn to swim, then I will swim in any situation.
There are different methods, let's look at which ones.
- From the books
- Develop your own method of personal growth
- With the help of a coach (the most expensive and fastest way)
And a mixed path, when you little by little try what is closer to you, how better and faster you can achieve your goals.
Evaluating the effectiveness of different personal growth techniques
The book path of personal growth
Few people would think of learning to ski on their own from books. Everyone gets a coach and learns by doing.
You can learn a lot of new things from books. But even if you read it, you will forget everything very quickly. I use two very good techniques for working with a book :
- I copy or copy, if this is an electronic version of the book, the main information, indicating the page where I got it from. Or I write a summary of the main material of the book and leave bookmarks on interesting places.
- I will definitely use this material in practice right away. Over time, everything is forgotten, so we read it, took it and tried to do it right away.
The big drawback of the book is that there is no support group where you can evaluate, discuss or just talk about the usefulness of this information.
Videos, master classes and expert advice
The usefulness of the method is obvious. You can watch and listen, see how everything works in life. People share their experiences. But personal growth presupposes that each personality is individual. The result may be different for everyone. And there will also be no support group, and this is also a big disadvantage of this method.
Group courses, self-development trainings
A more effective method, since personal presence always helps to evaluate how a person behaves, his sincerity, his mistakes. But you should understand that the group always distracts the coach’s attention and sometimes he will not be able to identify your individual qualities, due to which personal growth can occur. The cost of courses and trainings varies.
Advice . Don’t immediately buy a long and expensive course right away, since you don’t have experience studying for a long time, and you don’t know the trainer yet. It’s worth taking short courses with different trainers or coaches or listening to their master classes. And then just evaluate the presentation of information, the perception of the coach and your personal sympathy for the coach.
Individual work with a coach
The most expensive, most effective method and less time consuming. Because in this option you will get guaranteed results and quickly.
You will have a support group in the person of a professional coach who will immediately correct mistakes and help you choose the right path, and you and he will immediately begin to implement everything.
You just have to accept for yourself that since you will pay for the final result, the coach will also require you to carry out all the methods and practices.
This is not going to a psychologist to talk about painful problems, this is a coach, and he trains your skill to obtain the final result. And you also need to be prepared for this, that they will definitely give you a “magic kick”, and the next day they won’t ask if it hurts and no one will feel sorry for you. Everything will need to be done if you are focused on results.
What prevents you from starting self-development: 5 reasons
There are so many reasons why a person loses the desire to improve. But I will highlight only 5 of them, these are:
- Laziness. It usually occurs when something difficult and unusual is coming up. Remember that laziness is just a trap of consciousness. It immediately disappears when motivation, planning and responsibility appear in life.
- Lack of motivation. Motivation encourages a person to act and makes him move towards his goal. To gain motivation for self-development, you need your own attitudes or an example from outside.
- Garbage in my head. Wrong attitudes, bad habits, someone else's way of thinking. All this is garbage in the head, because of which a person begins to live a life that is not his own. To get organized, ask yourself the question: “What do I really want?” and put aside your prejudices.
- Fear of change. There are many types of fears. These include the fear of taking on extra responsibility, facing criticism, and failing. Therefore, to get rid of the fear of change, you need to step outside your comfort zone.
- Fear of the first step. Once you take the first step, it will be difficult to stop you.
So, so that these 5 reasons do not prevent us from improving ourselves, we need a step-by-step plan.
Personal growth plan for the year
✔ First month
It’s worth sorting out your whole life. We recommend the Wheel of Balance method for developing personal growth, which will help you not only understand what doesn’t suit you in areas of life that are significant to you, but also set goals for the future.
You need to answer the following questions for yourself:
- How I wish I could live
- Is that what I'm doing?
- Consider your strengths and weaknesses
- Adjust your goals and rank them
After this, you need to make a plan to achieve your goals. To begin, choose one main goal and write down a clear plan for its implementation, what new habits need to be introduced in order to achieve it faster, set deadlines and what you need for this.
It is worth making a plan for the year for all goals, broken down by month, and a strategic plan for personal development for 3-5 years.
✔ Second month
You need to understand for yourself whether you are doing the right thing, what your purpose is, what benefit you bring to others, what your mission is.
To understand what your mission is, ask yourself two questions:
- What do you enjoy doing most and what brings you pleasure?
- How are you useful to people, why were you born?
✔ Third month
This is the month when you will begin a full-fledged movement towards your goal. Because I have come to full awareness of both my mission and my goals in life.
This is a period when you need to get out of your comfort zone, overcoming your doubts and fears. You need to really believe in yourself, and every day, according to your plan, move towards your goal. You shouldn’t take many goals, start with 1-3, then gradually add a few more goals.
✔ Fourth month
Manage your time rationally, study the science of “Time Management” (useful books on the RECOMMENDED page).
Schedule your time for each day and hour. And follow this schedule. Track just one day of your life by simply writing down everything you did that day.
And you yourself will understand that a lot of time is wasted: social networks, watching unnecessary and uninteresting programs on TV, unnecessary and empty conversations on the phone, etc. This is an important step in redistributing your time.
Advice. Value your time. Time is the most valuable resource.
✔ Fifth month
There is an expression among psychologists that “if you want to improve your energy, then clean the space around you.” It’s worth devoting time to this and sorting it out:
- In your house, all the drawers and all the corners, all the cabinets, boxes
- Sort everything unnecessary and give it away, throw it away or destroy it.
- Clean your computer and phone
- Disassemble all the junk, glove compartments in the car and trunk
- Wash and clean everything, throw away unnecessary dishes, broken cutlery, broken cups and plates, wipe down every shelf in your apartment
- The same should be done in the workplace.
- After a while you will feel a surge of energy
There must be room for change, for everything new. You can also change your hairstyle and wardrobe at the same time. And this is an important step in self-development.
✔ Sixth month
It is necessary to analyze your surroundings: close and distant people with whom you communicate. The environment plays an important role in self-development. They should support you, and not put a spoke in your wheels.
You can only accept criticism from a coach, a professional in personal growth, and not from a person who has not even walked this path himself and has no idea what it is about. The fears of a person who is far from your personal growth should not become your fears.
Personal growth is always accompanied by some kind of loss, and someone from your environment may leave, do not regret it. This happens on the path of personal growth, it’s just that you are not on the same path together.
✔ Seventh month
This is the month when half of the journey and plan must be completed. And this month is worth planning a vacation. Think about your vacation, what you dreamed about, that you would like to see new things, new places and get new experiences.
Vacation is an important part of the plan, so you shouldn’t give it up. Otherwise, you can easily leave the race, simply because you “burnt out” or “exhausted” over a long distance.
✔ Eighth month
How do you relieve stress? Write your methods. We give our options:
- Solitude in nature, sometimes to the sound of waves on the sea
- Relaxation exercises in the gym
- Swim in the pool, sauna or bathhouse
- Meditative practices
- Eastern practices and yoga
- Relaxation with music
- Relaxing breathing practices
- Prayers
Someone does something with their hands, someone calms down when they cook or take a bath with aromatic oils. Everyone relieves stress differently.
Master any of these practices, and ask your coach if he can give you some advice. This is an important part of personal growth - the ability to relax.
✔ Ninth month
In nine months, a new little person appears, but he is fragile and small and requires a lot of self-care. So it is here. Therefore, don’t give up anything that doesn’t work out or is difficult, but look with a coach for ways out of this situation or some options for solving your problems on the way to your goal.
This is the period of formation of your character, and in these failures it is simply tempered. There will always be difficulties, and even more so in such a new business as personal growth.
✔ Tenth month
It is always necessary to learn communication skills; many issues have to be resolved. People who are close to you can have a very negative attitude towards your self-development; they can slow down this process in every possible way. Learn to forgive and let people go.
Don’t hold a grudge against them, people are not always and not everyone is able to learn, many simply do not want to develop, they live like that, and they are fine as is. Take it easy on yourself. Go and do what you need to do yourself. There will always be enough critics.
✔ Eleventh month
You are practically reaching the finish line. You need to constantly learn something. For some reason, the financial component leaves much to be desired, they learn everything, sewing, embroidery, cooking. And few people learn how to handle money. And this is an important skill! Knowing how to handle money leads to financial freedom.
Basic rules for handling money:
- Earn more than you spend
- Save 10% for an airbag
- Learn to invest money
- Constantly acquire new money handling skills
- Set a goal to increase income in numbers
✔ Twelfth month
Here we are summing up the results, and we recommend doing the “Wheel of Balance” practice again. This practice will show what worked and what didn’t. It will show the degree of satisfaction in every area of life that is important to you. And it will be possible to set further goals.
It’s worth looking at and assessing your personal growth: what goals have been achieved, how your income has grown, what new skills have appeared, what changes in appearance have occurred. All this should be done in writing for clarity.
Advice . We recommend that during your “personal growth” you keep a diary where you write down every day:
- 5 successful things, even the smallest ones
- 5 thanks to someone who was there that day and helped in some way
- Next on the list are your planned tasks and checkboxes next to completion
This will be your diary of self-control and joy. He will be your assistant on your most “unsuccessful” days! It will help you move on and not dwell on failures.
Summary and results
Our article is slowly coming to an end. And to give you even more incentive, we list a small part of the effects on life from self-development:
- Development of strengths;
- Increased self-confidence;
- Increased awareness;
- Getting out of your comfort zone;
- New opportunities;
- Improving quality of life;
- Lots of new skills;
- Clear speech;
- Ability to listen to people;
- Early awakening;
- And much more.
Levels of Personal Growth
Your inner world should change a lot, and this will all be reflected in your appearance, and you will also get rid of the feeling of guilt if you consciously engage in personal growth.
To achieve harmony and happiness, changes must affect:
- Physical level
- Social level
- Intellectual level
- Spiritual level
The physical level affects everything that concerns the body: healthy lifestyle, proper nutrition, feasible physical activity, breathing practices, communication with nature to improve the health of the body, relaxation, sex life, etc.
Social level : these are relationships with loved ones and relationships at a professional level, other communication connections in society, adjusting all of your connections with the outside world, assessing your purpose, material security and improving life in general in society.
Intellectual level : correct setting of your goals, searching for the main goal in life, conscious understanding of the nature of your feelings, both positive and negative, working on your emotions.
Spiritual level of personal development : affects personal qualities and spiritual qualities, such as selfless help, acceptance of people with all their vices, non-judgment, the ability to forgive. Gaining knowledge not only about life around, but also accepting one’s destiny.
Theories and techniques of self-development and their techniques, their differences from each other
Our world is rich in many theories of self-development, but which one should we choose, and what is their difference? Self-knowledge and the educational process distinguished by its essence. We teach the child to meet the standards of behavior accepted by society, and the process of self-development consists in leveling the human mind from patterns, stereotypes and dependencies. Therefore, there is no single correct way to comprehend the inner world; you decide for yourself how to improve. The goal of enriching the spiritual world is to cleanse the personality of unnecessary things, liberating the soul. A bad mentor, on the contrary, will introduce a lot of concepts and speculations that will burden your mind.
Each model of personal self-development must lead to the achievement of a higher goal, otherwise change the method. The main component of all theories is self-education. Strive to read, learn, learn, and remember as much as possible. Video materials and audio books only contribute to self-learning. Another important rule says: a slob will not succeed, but an intelligent person will glean important information even from a obviously erroneous teaching. The object of self-development is a person, not a guru, a scientific concept, etc. That is, it doesn’t matter whether you read, listen, write, create, the main thing is to become smarter and freer. Your task is to find a business you like that will develop.
Do not trust all sorts of sects that preach occult and esoteric teachings that originated in the Western world over the last 100 - 200 years ago. The organization puts you in a box, no matter what it is. If your goal is to enrich your inner world and self-development, only yoga and individual esotericism can help. On the other hand, the teachings of Parfiry Ivanov, Carlos Castaneda, Rajdnish and George Gurdjieff are capable of expanding the human mind, explaining in simple text all the pressing problems of humanity, giving comfortable answers.
The last effective way of self-development is religion. The Holy Scriptures teach a person about beauty, forcing him to live better every day. In fact, the Koran, the Bible, the Book of Fates and other chronicles tell the same principles, insisting on peace, love and grace. Accordingly, every trip to church and every prayer makes you stronger.
Helpers in self-development - mobile applications
Convenient mobile apps on your phone make it easier and better to track the changes you want to make in your personal growth program and help you develop individual skills. You can download and install them in the AppStore and Google Play.
Mobile applications for self-development:
- IQ pro - tests for IQ level
- Lumosity - improves thinking abilities
- Unstuck - replaces a trip to a psychologist
- Momentum – the journey – application for motivation
- Daily curiosity - helps expand your horizons
- Words - learn English or German in a playful way
- Blinkist - thousands of book summaries collected
- Weekly is a program for accustoming yourself to a certain action
- Forest - for those who want to stop being distracted
- Quest - motivate a person to do specific things
- Headspace - immersion in a meditative state
- Moodnotes - an application for those who have internal problems
- Black rhetoric - sharp phrases for all occasions
- Quick talker - an assistant in training diction and expressiveness of speech
- Body language - will teach you to “read” people by their movements
- Knowledge base - hundreds of fascinating articles on a variety of topics
- Memorizing numbers. Mnemonics. - simple exercises to train your memory
- Speed reading - learning to read quickly
- Socionics - a reliable description of personality (tests)
- Word of the day - expand your vocabulary
Test yourself with our set of online appearance calculators.
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