Self-development and self-improvement - the path to personal freedom

Self-development and self-improvement are gaining popularity in our country. A person who knows how to adequately assess his abilities gains confidence in himself and the future. A person who works on himself is always open to acquiring new knowledge and impressions.

He is optimistic about the future because he knows how to shape it. How to achieve this state, what needs to be done and where to start? Let's look at these questions in the article.

I started my path to perfection with yoga, and my friend seriously immersed herself in meditative practices. A year has passed, and I see how she has changed: she has become calmer, more confident, slimmer and much more pleasant to talk to. Perhaps positive changes have also occurred in me, someone from the outside will definitely notice this and tell me.

What is self-development

Self-development of a person is constant conscious work on oneself. Improving the mind, body, skills, character, behavior, culture, communication skills. The basics of self-development are self-education, self-education, self-organization.

The activity of self-development characterizes a person as an individual, as a transformer of himself, society, and nature. Without it it is impossible to achieve success. Personal self-development is an alternative to unconscious development carried out under the influence of external circumstances.

Titus Maccius Plautus very accurately defined the essence of human self-development many centuries before it became a trend for psychologists and coaches: “The wise man creates his own destiny.”

Psychology of self-development

For a long time, a person was perceived as an object of the external environment, but modern psychology looks at him as an active subject of self-development. As scientists say, his purpose is to be a self-actualizing person, that is, to have a dominant motivation for development and not strive for peace.

Recently, universities have made it mandatory for students to develop such competence as “readiness for self-development.” There is even a separate discipline that is taught mainly for psychologists and teachers - “Psychology of Self-Development”.

Psychology of self-development is a direction in science that studies the processes of self-change, active construction by a person of himself at all levels of his organization:

• physical,
• social,
• personal,
• spiritual.

The goal of self-development psychology is to understand how a person can intentionally change himself and manage his development.

Self-development books, films, and audiobooks are being released one after another. And how many different psychologists, coaches, personal growth trainers, and specialists in working with the subconscious have appeared who consider it their professional calling to help others improve themselves!

IT specialists say that the results in Internet search engines for the queries “self-development” and self-development have increased 10 times over the past decade.

Master time management

Time management, or time management, is not just the ability to carve out an extra 5 minutes for a cup of coffee, it is something more. After all, after reading various tips for improving your life, what often follows is a disappointed answer “there’s no time for this” and a refusal to take care of yourself.

But the art of time management will allow you to look at your daily routine like a clogged hard drive on your computer or a mess on your desktop. Once you remove the unnecessary things and rearrange things logically, you will begin to clearly see your goals, both in the short and long term, and how to achieve them, what to do for self-development and when. For example, take the same books: are you familiar with the situation when you have no time to read except public transport, but there are too many things to do at home? The answer is audiobooks. Combine different things in one, free up useful time. It will actually be easier for you to breathe.

Why do you need self-development?

The possibilities for personal self-development are colossal. It is valuable for:

• Human
  Self-improvement allows you to satisfy material and non-material needs. A person finds himself and becomes happy.
• Society.
  Society and civilization move forward thanks to self-actualized people.

People around you pay more attention to your ability for personal self-development than you think. For example, when deciding to hire you, the employer evaluates your willingness to improve yourself. If you are a motivated person, but at the same time have poor knowledge of the profession, your candidacy may be preferable to an experienced but apathetic specialist.

Self-development is the only way out if you are dissatisfied with your life, suffer failures, and are unsure of the future. A self-motivated and hardworking person can achieve almost anything.

Keep in mind that not all self-development is valuable. Let's look at examples:

• Self-development in asocial directions.
  You can be born into a dysfunctional family, spend your childhood in poor neighborhoods that are a breeding ground for crime, set a goal to become a bandit and not only achieve it, but turn into a drug lord who has established global trafficking of illegal substances around the world using airplanes and submarines. Isn't this about self-development? Something else: intelligence, character, communication! But its ethical value is minus.
• Self-development, in which the development of personality is asymmetrical (some become better, and some become worse).
  The most obvious example is devoting your life to a career and achieving a high position in society, because of which humanity is lost. “Machines” for making money, dishonest politicians have been intensively engaged in self-development all their lives. How are they doing with kindness, decency, and caring for their neighbors?
• Self-development involuntarily.
  Sometimes a person is forced to engage in self-development not because his personality needs it, but because there is such a request from the outside. For example, if he is afraid of losing his job or is captive of a promise, responsibility to someone else.

How to become rich and what does God have to do with it?

The “founding father” of the science of self-development and achieving cherished goals was Wallace Wattles, born in 1860. Coming from a poor farm in Illinois, he was educated in an American country school, where children were taught to read, count and write in the elementary grades, and in the middle grades they were taught geometry and US history. Wattles was an enthusiastic person and loved to read: of his own free will, he became acquainted with the works of Descartes, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Swedenborg, Emerson and many other philosophers.

All this, as his daughter Florence later wrote, led Wattles to reconsider his views on life: he joined the New Thought movement, which was just gaining strength in the second half of the 19th century. The ideological concept of this semi-religious movement was built on one key principle: everything that exists in our world is God or a manifestation of His divine essence.

Human thought is a particle of this divine energy, which means that each individual can use thought as a tool to achieve his own good.

Wattles, who always had great social ambitions, learned a lot from the teachings of the New Thought and, after losing the 1908 elections for Congress, where he was nominated by the Socialist Party of the USA, he wrote the book The Science of Getting Rich. It was published in 1910, a year before his death, and shows the significant influence New Thought had on Wattles:

Thought is the only force capable of creating real material wealth from formless matter. The substance of which everything is made is matter that thinks, and the thought of form creates form in that matter.

And further:

The Universe wants you to have everything you want to have. Nature approves of your plans. Everything from birth is for you. Believe that it's true.

Here's what he thinks about development:

The goal of all life is development, and everything that lives has an inalienable right to all the development that it is capable of achieving. A person’s right to life means his right to freely and unrestrictedly enjoy everything that may be necessary for the fullest mental, spiritual and physical development; or, in other words, his right to be rich.

The book “The Science of Getting Rich” was such a colossal success that it made Wattles’ name famous throughout the country, and his work influenced many authors of self-development manuals in the future. Thus, the creator of the acclaimed book “The Secret,” Rhonda Byrne, has repeatedly said that Wattles’ text inspired her. In addition to her, Tony Robbins also praised the book.

When The Science of Getting Rich was republished in 2007, it instantly sold 75,000 copies across the United States, becoming a bestseller even 100 years later.

What hinders self-development

Many people live for today, go with the flow, without thinking about changing themselves. They do not acquire new qualities, do not get rid of old habits and character traits.

Why is this happening? The most obvious reasons:

• Laziness.
  When was the last time you read a book? Did you do gymnastics? Did you go to the museum? Did you choose the music or film yourself, and not the radio station or television? Laziness is a string of missed opportunities.
• Stereotypical thinking.
  In a world where the economy decides for you what you will eat, wear, love, hate, think, there is almost no room left for your own intellectual and spiritual efforts.
• Lack of learning values ​​in the personal hierarchy.
  And what kind of self-development can we talk about if you “have completed your studies at school and university, have suffered, and can no longer be dragged into these networks”? Unfortunately, this is how some people perceive education, as a value imposed by parents and society. Perhaps in childhood and adolescence something did not work out, and the learning process became associated with failure, suppression of the individual, and injustice. Now everything can be different! Nobody demands anything from you. You can master web design or knitting blankets from thick yarn. Herself. Only what you want.
• Fear of failure.
  “If something didn’t work before, then a new attempt will also fail.”
  This is a harmful misconception. So many great people started out as failures. Henry Ford.
  The creator of Ford cars failed miserably in his first two projects related to the development of cars.
• Marilyn Monroe.
  The great and beautiful actress, whose childhood was spent in orphanages and foster families, spent several years hearing from film studios that she had neither beauty nor talent before she received a major role.
• Walt Disney.
  The creator of one of the largest media conglomerates was kicked out of his first job (as a cartoonist) for incompetence.
• Elvis Presley.
  At the beginning of his career, the King of Rock and Roll failed performances, listened to advice to return to work as a truck driver and accusations that he could not sing.
• Joanne Rowling.
  The writer was refused publication of her first book about Harry Potter 11 times!

Methods of professional development of personality

To begin with, it is important to choose a suitable profession; the choice can be based on the calculation of the individual’s talents and abilities, or on his preferences. And also read all the job requirements

Can you do them all?

Self-preparation.

Without independent study of the subject of your chosen profession, success cannot be achieved

Therefore, it is so important to convince yourself of the need for further self-development. The self-training method is good because it develops independence, helps in learning and comprehensive knowledge of the world

Mentoring.

Once you have mastered the self-study method, we advise you to try to apply the accumulated knowledge in mentoring. In this way, you will help not only your students to become better, but also yourself, because when you start teaching on your own, you discover a lot of new material that was previously invisible to the eye.

Personal and professional development

Personal growth is important when achieving your career goals. Internal changes and self-improvement will certainly have a noticeable impact on the individual’s work. After all, by changing from the inside, a person also changes his attitude towards his environment.

A young specialist, climbing the thorny path of the career ladder, acquires new skills through personal self-knowledge. By discovering and developing certain character traits in himself, he imperceptibly changes his behavior in the work sphere and the tactics of practical actions.

Crises of professional personal development

Sometimes the work performed has a great impact on a person’s mental state. Morally complex professions leave a particularly strong imprint on the formation of personality. For example, surgeons and police officers are faced with the unpleasant side of human life every day. After such work activity, there is often a residue of cynicism and coldness in behavior and communication.

There are other cases, for example, office “planktons” who are not happy with their responsibilities and do not see an incentive to develop professional skills. Of course, such a work conflict also affects the mental state of workers. And since the soul and body have a deep relationship with each other, all spiritual experiences flow into physiological diseases. Therefore, if you are killing your strength and nerves at a job you hate, think about whether this is what you are doing at all?

In order to avoid emotional burnout in the workplace, you will find our valuable recommendations on personal and professional development useful.

Stages of self-development

Now let’s figure out what the self-development system consists of. Yes, yes, a system, not a chaotic set of actions! It includes increasing awareness, acquiring the ability to control oneself, and developing willpower. Before you begin personal growth, you must have a plan, a self-development program.

Psychologists identify the following stages of self-development:

1. Self-knowledge.
   The tasks of self-development at this stage are to find yourself, understand your priorities, values, and calling.
2. Awareness of shortcomings.
   Everyone has them. If you think you don't have them, you're wrong. The shortcomings must be discovered. Correctable - correct, incorrigible - admit. And accept yourself as imperfect. A person who has not learned to maintain a certain level of self-acceptance seeks excuses for himself, finds faults in others and attracts the same “toxic” people.
3. Setting goals.
   At this stage you should understand what you want. It's not as simple as it seems. Usually a person easily answers what he does not want - the bad life and difficulties in which he is stuck. But it’s easy to complain that you’re a victim of circumstances, but come up with a constructive alternative! How should everything be in your life? This is a very important stage. The main thing is not to lose it.
4. Developing ways to achieve goals.
   It is important to go through as many options as possible in order to make a choice later. This stage is more difficult than the previous ones. May require turning to self-development books, films, audiobooks, courses, and possibly specialists.
5. Taking action.
   The vector was specified at the previous stage. Now you need to move in the chosen direction without losing your way.

After achieving the goal, return to the first point, and everything will be new. The process of self-development is continuous and cyclical.

"Founding Fathers" of the Science of Success

Many believe that the emergence of the cult of success is directly related to the so-called American dream, that the American dream is success embodied in money.
However, this statement is far from the truth. The phrase “American Dream” was first mentioned in “The Epic of America,” a weighty book by James Adams that he wrote in 1931. In it, the author writes that the people of the United States have “the American dream of a country where every person’s life will be better, richer and fuller, where everyone will have the opportunity to get what they deserve.”

This postulate goes back to the text of the Declaration of Independence, which formulated the basic principle of life in America, where every citizen is endowed with “certain unalienable rights,” including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

This pursuit of happiness is the American Dream, and that has always been the beauty of it - it is still happiness.

a much deeper and broader concept than the opportunity to earn more money. The creators of the Declaration of Independence—religious people, by the way—understood this very well.

The “American Dream” acquired its pragmatic meaning later, when the United States began to develop rapidly, turning into a country of opportunity where everyone could get rich if they put in the required amount of effort.

America's image of the land of opportunity has been preserved to this day: we all know dozens of stories of famous people who started with a “dollar in their pocket” and then became millionaires. Andrew Carnegie, George Soros, Oprah Winfrey, Ralph Lauren - the list goes on almost endlessly.

Directions of self-development

Before you start mastering different methods of self-development, you need to know that psychologists identify four main vectors of this process:

• creating conditions for a comfortable own life,
• achieving success in interpersonal relationships,
• realization of creative potential,
• formation of a motivation system and self-improvement in various important areas.

There are several areas of life in which you should develop consciously. The following areas of development can be identified:

• physical self-development (improving the functioning of the body for health and beauty),
• spiritual self-development (improvement of the inner world and ethical values),
• personal self-development (self-knowledge and self-improvement of character, intelligence, creative abilities, cultural ideas, etc.),
• social self-development (development of relationships with people),
• professional self-development (career building),
• financial self-development (development of money handling skills),
• leisure self-development (entertainment, recreation, hobbies).

A person must improve in all these areas, so your personal self-development list should not ignore any of them.

Self Improvement Plan

So, self-development and self-improvement - where to start? Since the first stage of self-development is introspection and determining the main guidelines, the first step is to draw up a plan for self-improvement. It is best to immediately make it in the form of a diary that you will keep daily. Since our school years, we remember the famous diaries of Leo Tolstoy, which served as one of the tools for achieving his legendary impressive results. The classic wrote: “I never had a diary because I didn’t see any benefit from it. Now, as I develop my abilities, I will be able to judge the progress of this development from the diary.”

Such a “simulator” will help in several cases at once. Firstly, this is a regular diary that organizes the chaos in your head and your personal and work life. It's helpful to have a structure for your day at hand. Secondly, keeping it itself is disciplined and requires unexpectedly great willpower; in fact, even Tolstoy gave up keeping his first diary. But, as with physical exercise, constant repetition of the action will strengthen the spiritual muscles. A diary will allow you to devote a little time every day to your inner world and self-development.

And finally, in your diary you need to write down a plan for self-improvement and activities for the next day, week, month, and constantly adjust them. But you can also enter in it:

1. Literature and other sources necessary for development, create your own education courses.
2. Your budget and expenses, constantly monitor them. The path to self-improvement is long, but such actions bring tangible benefits almost immediately.
3. Various ideas, observations, thoughts. On the one hand, they can be useful, but how often do we forget by the evening, or even an hour later, any successful plan of action? On the other hand, even if not directly related to how to change yourself for the better, such sketches help you better feel the life around you, notice previously hidden moments or cause-and-effect relationships that are useful to take note of. This fosters observation and attentiveness.
4. Creative experiments! Draw, write poetry, sketch out plans for novels - give yourself an outlet. You don’t have to devote a lot of effort to it or hope for serious results - even just a little art therapy will diversify your life and help you take your mind off particularly routine moments.
5. At the end of each day, mark 2-3 of your successes - this teaches you to analyze your own actions and clearly confirms that every day you become better than you were yesterday, and this is the main guideline for a person.

Where to start self-development

Since you are reading this article, you are already on the path of self-development. Independent search for information, and not reckless consumption of everything that is beneficial for someone to impose on you, is one of the tools for conscious improvement.

The beginning of self-development can be different: taking care of your own body with the help of health-improving and rejuvenating gymnastics, reading books, watching films, English lessons, taking professional courses, providing volunteer help... The options are endless. But remember that before you take action, you need to understand yourself and set goals (see the chapter “Stages of Self-Development”). Motivation and self-development are inseparable processes. And there’s no need for these feverish actions: “I signed up for a Zumba class and now, along with a crowd of the same losers, I’m jumping with all my might, but there’s no point”! Do only what is useful to you in life, from which you expect specific positive changes.

If you can’t figure yourself out on your own, there are many self-development teachers who are just waiting for the opportunity to help you. But here you have to be careful! Everyone is now trying to teach others how to live correctly: from celebrities, businessmen and politicians to lively housewives without education who run their Instagram channel without getting out of their slippers.

Collect a thorough dossier on your coach before entrusting your destiny to him (for considerable sums, by the way). And, of course, this should be an accomplished person, whom you are not ashamed to be like. It’s like with an eyebrow artist: you only need to go to the one whose eyebrows you like; if he can’t make beautiful arches for himself, then you will have complete nonsense instead of mesmerizing curves. And here the principle is the same. Do you know those self-development coaches who create motivation to gain wealth and prosperity, while they themselves huddle in a rented room all alone? In general, be careful!/p>

From personal growth to capital growth

The books of another popular motivational author, Brian Tracy, also began to enjoy great success in the 1990s and 2000s. As his biography testifies, he was born into a poor family and did not even finish school - he dropped out to start working as a laborer on a ship that traveled around the world.

After a tour around the world, he got a job as a sales specialist in an American company and soon became its vice president. Along the way, Tracy analyzed his life path and the path of his colleagues, developing the principles of success, which formed the basis of many of his future books and seminars.

In 1981, he launched the training project The Phoenix Seminar, and in 1985 his cassettes entitled “The Psychology of Achievement” appeared on the market. The course thundered throughout the world, so it’s not surprising that Tracy decided to monetize his popularity: he wrote about 60 books, the most famous of which was the book “Get Out of Your Comfort Zone,” which sold 1,250,000 copies.

Finally, in the 1990s, another outstanding training guru, Tony Robbins, began to rise, about whom all of Russia learned in 2018. Prices for his tickets have reached impressive figures - up to 500,000 rubles for the opportunity to personally touch Tony - although fundamentally he is no different from his predecessors, except for his charisma. But he is much more aggressive: in one of his promotional videos, Robbins convincingly pronounces a phrase that claims to be the slogan of a “brave new world”: “Self-development - or death.” Sounds threatening.

It is interesting that in the “zero” and already today, fame came to books such as “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne, where a person is no longer even required to leave that very comfort zone.

It is enough just to correctly formulate your request to the Universe. Having completed a circle in a hundred years, science, in order to achieve its own goals, returned to where it began - that is, to the works of Wallace Wattles.

To be fair, it is worth saying that training gurus are not only coming from the West. Guests from the East have also been teaching this since the 1960s and 1970s. The fashion for mysterious and thoughtful yogis these days has even reached Russia: for example, last year Sberbank was proud to invite the well-known Indian sage Sadhguru to their training. He likes to give advice that you can't argue with, like, "If you don't do the right things, the right things won't happen to you."

Self-development for men

It is vital for men to achieve goals and prove their strength and worth. Recommendations for organizing and educating self-development for men:

• Start with physical development.
• How long do you sleep? You need to sleep at least 7 hours, and get up no later than eight in the morning.
• Set aside at least half an hour every day to develop your intelligence and learn new skills.
• Analyze what you are wasting your time on and eliminate it from your life. This way you will save invaluable time for self-development.

Self-development for women

The problem for women is that it is difficult for them to find time for self-development, since they support the home and family, raising children, and often also work. Therefore, advice for women and girls on organizing their self-development is as follows:

• Set a time and date when you will begin self-development.
• Eliminate everything unnecessary from your life, free up time by reducing the amount of time you watch TV and gadgets.
• Get up early because the morning is the most productive time for brain activity, and start the day with exercise. They not only have a beneficial effect on physical fitness, but also give impetus to internal changes.
• Dedicate up to 40-50 minutes a day to gymnastics to rejuvenate and heal the body. This is the best self-development for beginners.

Have you decided to engage in self-development? Start with MelAnnett's Basic Marathon!