Everything You Need to Know About Personal Development

As the world continues to evolve at a pace many struggle to comprehend, one thing that can help you stay centred and competent is continued investment in your personal development. While many see this as a path to career growth, my view is that personal development must continue agnostic of careers.

Let’s first define what personal development is.

What is Personal Development?

Everything that develops you as a person, is personal development. You may compartmentalise this into arenas such as your emotional, spiritual, physical, mental, and social growth. I’d add financial development because having your finances in order is critical to the above.

Another way to see this is to take a holistic view - as all things impact all things, and it's about the totality of your inner engineering.

Another way to see this is to take a holistic view - as all things impact all things, and it's about the totality of your inner engineering.

Why it matters?

As we progress through life, many of us focus on external outcomes. For example, scaling a business to a certain size, getting a six-figure income by a certain age, winning certain medals, and so on.

In pursuit of these goals, we often forget to explore basics such as who we are and why these milestones and metrics matter so much to us?

How would having a million in the bank change your life??

What would it do for you?

How would being married by a certain age impact the trajectory of your life?

If we lack deeper understanding of our pursuits, external recognition can feel hollow. Alternatively, having programmed our minds to derive our joy from external approval, we could become dependent on it.

Through continued personal development, you gain a deeper understanding of your inner compass and are better able to articulate why things matter you and why they don’t.

If we lack deeper understanding of our pursuits, external recognition can feel hollow. Alternatively, having programmed our minds to derive our joy from external approval, we could become dependent on it.

Key points

1. It’s okay to feel frustrated with where you are

There are times when we feel frustrated with where we are. We’re either hitting constant roadblocks or having achieved external accolades, we feel trapped.

At such times, we wonder if we’re being ungrateful for what we have and try to counting our blessings.

In my view, frustration with your current life is red flag that signals a need for personal development of some sort - a sign that your inward and outward journeys are misaligned and something isn't adding up.

It’s a positive sign - a calling of sorts.

.. frustration with your current life is red flag that signals a need for personal development of some sort - a sign that your inward and outward journeys are misaligned and something isn't adding up.

2. The benefits of personal development transcend career success

As I mentioned at the start, many often view personal development as a key part of career growth and a price for continued success.

While developing yourself will help your career, its benefits transcend career growth.

The mindset to adopt here is that investing in your development is not a flavour of the day but a lifelong commitment.

3. Personal development is your commitment to your future self

In keeping with the above point, we also seem to believe that developing us is someone else’s job. For example, we rely on firms to provide funding for us to learn and grow.

While it's good to have an extra bit of support, you mustn't assume that it’s someone else’s job to develop you.

Developing yourself is your job. It's your commitment to your future self and must continue even if no one else cares.

Given you have 24 hours each day, you must aim to set aside at least 30 -60 mins a day to enhance yourself. More if possible.

Developing yourself is your job. It's your commitment to your future self and must continue even if no one else cares.

4. While the journey continues, seasons change

Although personal development is a lifelong commitment and not a flavour of the month, flavours change over time.

For example, based on who you are today, you may determine a set of habits that serve you well, such as reading for half-an-hour, or working out for an hour. Yet, over time, you may realise that you need to alter the books you read, or maybe spend more time travelling, or meeting people.

Not all habits that serve you well today, will continue to serve you in time to come. So it’s important to evolve your habits as you evolve.

Not all habits that serve you well today, will continue to serve you in time to come. So it’s important to evolve your habits as you evolve.

How To Begin Your journey of Personal Development?

The first thing to do is to get a deeper awareness of yourself. From there, you need to understand your motivations, blockers, and set meaningful goals.

Though it seems simple, many struggle to get things done and so one option is to work with a coach.?

My job as coach is to help clients through the above journey and when working with them, I follow my 5D framework to triangulate mindsets and method to create success.

• Discover: Here I spend time for to get to know you, build trust and align expectations. We also focus on your self-discovery, such as who you are, what your values are, and so on.
• Desire: Then we try and understand what your desire is. As mentioned above, our frustrations and desires evolve in time and it’s crucial to understand what’s playing on your mind in this moment.
• Determine: Then we spend time to determine what's holding you back and what we must do about it. Here you take away new ideas, a plan and actions.
• Deliver: Then, in the time between sessions, you deliver against the plan. For long-term engagements, you can contact me through the week for urgent queries - those little enquiries that come to mind when you’re stuck in traffic, or just about to fall asleep. You may even choose to meet weekly so I can keep you accountable.
• Delight and Deliberate: Finally, we celebrate success while deliberating over what worked and what didn't, and we need to do to go further yet.

Conclusion?

Personal development comes in many forms and can mean many things to many people. The only question you need to ask is - what does it mean to you? What does a more content and fulfilled version of yourself look like and what’s holding you back from stepping into that life? ??

This inward look can drastically increase your self-awareness, clarity, and confidence so that you can discover inner joy and also enjoy your external success, greater resilience and improved relationships. Click here to book a discovery session today.

About Me:

I’m an accredited executive coach and a?senior leader in the financial services industry, with over 25 years of corporate experience.

During my career, I've held substantial leadership roles in prestigious firms such as?WNS,?HSBC,?Barclays?and?BSkyB. I’m also a prolific writer and published author.?

You can?click here?to contact me for coaching engagements. Also, you can click?here?to follow my fortnightly newsletter so that you never miss a post.?