10 Key Reasons Why Personal Growth And Development if Good for You (and your life)

If you want to do great things, move ahead in your life, reach your desired level of success, you must grow and develop. Without growth, you will stagnate and stay where you are, which can leave you feeling frustrated, anxious, depressed, and with a life of regret.

There are many benefits to work on your personal growth and development, which will benefit you both personally and professionally:

Better selves – your life will improve in all areas when you work on your growth and development.
Better life – armed with new growth, your life will improve as you feel more confident in dealing with any challenges you may face.
Connecting with our deeper selves – when you work on self-development, you will make deeper and stronger connections with who you are.
Making the necessary changes to be more effective within ourselves and our lives – you can’t make a change until you know the reason, the motivation, and the means to do so.

What exactly is personal development and what are some key reasons to pursue it?

What Is Personal Development

In short, personal growth is seeking to develop ourselves and improve. It applies to a wide variety of areas within yourself and in your life, including mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, work and career and relationships and social life.

Personal growth can help you deal with issues that cause you pain, strife and problems in your life. Personal development can expand your skill set, capabilities and unlock hidden potential you never knew you had.

Through the journey of personal growth, we strive to evolve and transform ourselves to be our very best selves and live our best lives.

With personal growth we strive to evolve, transform ourselves and to be our best and live our best lives. It’s important to keep in mind that personal growth is a highly individualized experience and varies from person to person. Your road to self-discovery and personal development is a journey unique only to you.

10 Key Reasons To Seek Personal Growth And Development

It really is a shame when people choose to live their lives without ever knowing who they are, without exploring new possibilities, without analyzing why they do the things they do, or feel how they feel, or that they simply accept feeling unfulfilled or unhappy with the status quo.

1. Self-Discovery

When’s the last time you really spent time with you? Thinking deeply about who you are, who you want to be and how to get there is one of the keyways personal growth; ithelps us to know ourselves, evolve, and even transform to become our best selves. Self discovery is an exciting journey – you can’t grow until you know all of who you are (thoughts, feelings, actions, reactions, etc.)

“An unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

2. Rewrite Your Story

No matter the issue, problem or obstacle in your life, you have full control in how you address and fix those for yourself. Personal growth allows you to look at yourself in an honest and comprehensive way to address where growth is needed and develop yourself in positive and proactive ways.

Self-improvement has become more important than ever in the modern world. From a high stress modern world, relationships, and social media to our own personal goals and dreams, it’s easy to fall into being stagnant without devoting enough time to making positive changes within ourselves and in our lives.

Personal growth and development allow us to take a proactive approach to develop new skills, create healthy habits, better ourselves in unlimited ways and to ultimately evolve into the best version of ourselves by taking conscious steps toward self-improvement. You can rewrite the direction of your life anytime you want (if you’re feeling frustrated in an area in your life, that is likely the story to work on).

3. Improve Your Self-Worth

Psychology Today defines self-worth as our “thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and how that’s tied to the perception of our worthiness.” A healthy balance of self-worth can impact every aspect of our lives and even our physical and mental health. When you value yourself, you will achieve your desires have confidence achieve them.

4. Stronger Security In Who You Are

By making personal development (and all that it entails) a way of life, you’ll become more secure in your beliefs and who you are as a unique individual. That security will give you a great sense of inner happiness and peace of mind. How so? Because when you work towards your values, you’ll increase your sense of purpose.

5. Perspective

Personal development helps put situations in the right perspective. Knowing what you can and cannot control in your life will make your focus more concise and targeted to hit your personal and career goals.

6. Develop An Inner Tolerance

Personal growth is tied to inner tolerance. Meaning that when we gain to better understand ourselves, we’ll hold some self-compassion for setbacks and mistakes. Inner tolerance will also keep negative thinking at bay and help us to take on situations more practically. Treat yourself as you would one of your friends, who have quirks and flaws, but who you are tolerant of.

7. A Boost In Confidence

When you begin to notice the work you’ve put in your personal development journey, it’ll build your confidence to keep going. You’ll suddenly have the desire and motivation to take on bigger challenges. Remember, those big challenges start with small, incremental steps. Recognizing your accomplishments leads to having more confidence, write them down at the even of every day.

8. Improve Mental Health

Various options exist to improve yourself, within the realm of mental health, from adopting healthier coping skills to better managing stress and everything in between. When you put strategies in place that boost self-development, your mental health will flourish, too.

Your mental resilience will help you to cope with handling stress and avoid making rash decisions that can actually worsen a situation. You will improve your outlook on your ability to handle any fears or regrests Through emotional regulation, you’ll improve your overall wellbeing.

9. Stronger Relationships

When we make personal growth a priority, it can have a positive impact on those around us. By taking the time to understand ourselves first, we can then begin to better understand our relationships and the role we play in other people’s lives.

10. You’re Investing In Yourself

Lastly, seeking personal development is an investment in yourself. It’s putting yourself first unselfishly and cultivating your worth. By improving your habits, skills, or mindset, you’re telling yourself that you’re worth it. That you’re worth the effort and hard work it takes to get to your desired space. By taking care of yourself, you are expressing self-love, which is key to a better you.

Make the decision today to work on your personal development and growth; decide which area(s) need work, then choose one to start with. Your future self will thank you for the decision you make today.

If you’re ready to grow and work on your own development, reach out for help to get started. We’re here to help and support.

July 19, 2016

If I Hear "I don't want to do this" One More Time …..

Have you ever noticed how there are certain trends that come into your consciousness and that make you sit up and take notice? It could be certain numbers or people that all have the same resemblance and that can make you now be more cognizant.
As one who trends, I see this frequently; in my work with clients, I can often see five in a day who all talk about the same issue or situation. One that I noticed today involved two people – within minutes of each other – who had taken on tasks they wanted to do and involved higher performance in their jobs, and who both stated “I don’t want to do this” now that it was time to step and up and move forward. To be honest, the talk I did last week and that I mentioned, had me saying a few times “I don’t want to do this.”
Obviously, there is a lot of fear going on in these individuals that seems easier than doing the task they agreed to. They have learned to cope and adapt to being ‘safe’ by not engaging in these tasks but, yet, there was a desire to move toward them. Ideas can ‘sound good’ at the time but when reality comes, the terror of all past failures comes rushing in and now create the reality to deal with: what if I fail, what if I get laughed at, what if I get rejected, etc. It’s these perceived realities in our own head that hold us back – imagining the poor outcome before it even happens.
The way to deal? Stop focusing on the poor outcome and create the positive one that will most likely happen, or that you want to happen. Do you know the outcome to occur? NO – so why focus on something that hasn’t happened yet and begin placing that focus and intention on doing your best, working off of your skills and strengths, and only allow ‘seeing’ positive actions and responses. It’s the old “feel the fear and do it anyway” mantra. A question to ask yourself if or when you get in this situation is:
Which do you want to face more: acting on your intention of which you don’t know the outcome (and having success), OR never trying and then having to face the resulting feelings that will arise (guilt, regret, shame, or the like)?
Go back and look at what you committed to and why as this will reframe your negative thoughts to become positive. If you’re going to place your focus on a thought, why not keep it on the outcome you envisioned when you originally said yes to the task at hand?

July 6, 2016

An Exercise for Self-Validation and Self-Worth

I just finished an exercise, as homework in a coaching program I’m in, and I must say it was life-changing. I am not sure why this exercise at this particular time was so effective – as I’ve done them before- but it was. Right now as I’m writing this I feel freer, happier and more focused.

The simple exercise I was homework’d with is to write yourself a letter. Easy, yes? Not so fast. The purpose is to write this as if your ‘other self’ is speaking to you about your life: your past, your present and your future; your past mistakes and how you dealt or overcame them; significant events or people who made an impact on you; your struggles and challenges; your successes. Literally, you can write what and however you want. No one is judging this (although mine was viewed by others in the program – scary) so you can talk to yourself as you will. For example, I was encouraging while pulling no punches or letting issues slide.
This type of exercise is effective as it allows you to go deep into your buried thoughts to bring those out; those that are lurking near the surface can now make sense. Those past hurts can be forgiven and put into a place we can now live with, and we can create the future we want with some safety. Through writing, which engages both sides of the brain, bringing out highlights in our life affirms and validates those experiences, particularly the positive ones. Self-esteem goes up from reading of these accomplishments so that now we want to continue to take action and move forward on goals we want to achieve. We’re not afraid to think big or take big steps to make our life as we envisioned it on the paper.
If you want to self-validate and raise your self-esteem, then I encourage you to start writing that letter to yourself; you may want to mediate a bit before, or sit in silence, as it will give you calm and the words to fly through your fingers. This is where rubber meets the road. You will feel some emotions that will feel uncomfortable but you get to write the ending – isn’t that great?

June 27, 2016

Winding Down and Gearing Up for the Next Challenge

Well, here we are – 4 days away from the end of the 30-Day Challenge – how has it been for you? Further on your established goal, so that it now feels natural and easy? Progress being made? This is the time to ‘pour it on,’ as they say, and really finish strong.
For myself, I’ve kept at the writing (hopefully you’ve enjoyed them); I will admit that there were some days I struggled with the content – what would provide value. But, I pushed through and did it anyway – I just had to look a bit to find those inspirations. I found that once I did, then ideas flowed and the words came along with the feeling of accomplishment.
Right now, I’m thinking of my next challenge – it’s only 30 days after all; I made it through one challenge and can do it again. This is the mindset we need to take to calm our fear center and affirm our abilities so we can overcome any personal challenge we find standing in our way. I’ll hold off until Friday to reveal but this one will be a bit difficult for me; however, I realize that presenting myself with a challenge is the best way I can hold my self accountable and have ‘no excuses’ to not take action. I hope you are finding hte same. So push on- now it’s only 4 days to go; you got this!

June 22, 2016

How Comparing Yourself to Others is Detrimental to Your Health

One of the biggest roadblocks most of us experience, and which causes us to feel anxious or depressed – or even angry, is comparing ourselves to others. ‘I’ll never be as good as they are’ ‘They’re so much prettier than I am’ ‘The boss likes him better than me.’ Having thoughts such as this can hold you back from achieving your goals and stepping into your greatness.
I remember a story I heard a while back of a woman who was feeling very sad, unable to sometimes get out of bed to go to work; it seems the woman did not feel she was valued at work, reporting that other coworkers seemed to get all the accolades. She constantly worried about losing her job. Ultimately, she did after her performance lagged in her constant comparison and worry. She actually took herself out of the game, so to speak, by not believing in enough in herself and her value to show them to her organization.
Frankly, I see this over and over again – a business owner who is suffering as they tried an approach someone else did but was a ‘fit’ for their type of business; a job candidate who never goes after a promotion as they don’t feel ‘good’ enough; the manager who is overbearing to his workers, who he feels inadequate from some of his employees.
Feeling less than comes from comparing ourselves to others, which we learn early in life. It can start with a parent ‘encouraging their child to get all A’s in school as their sibling was able to, or we get scolded for something but then see our parents do the same thing. The typical brain response is to attribute an event to ourselves when we can’t make sense out of what we are being told, since our young brains are just learning how to process and sort information. Right and wrong are also just developing. Over time, we tend to believe these thoughts which seem to embed deep in our psyche.
We then feel inadequate, not good enough, and worry about any type of criticism. The results can include a host of emotional problems that may not be so transparent to others but leaves us dying inside. That little voice inside is always there for some, while for others it rears its ugly head during times of high stress or when confronted with situations that make us uncomfortable, such as when going for that promotion or even in our daily work-life. Cognitive dissonance comes into play as we search out for ‘evidence’ of those thoughts, so the coworker who walks past now becomes the person who doesn’t like us.
So how do you overturn these detrimental thoughts and stop the comparisons? I’m going to say that it won’t be so easy as these types of thoughts are deep in your brain and are now a habit. It’s the unlearning that will take time but there is hope – all is not lost:

Begin by assessing your situations for when you find yourself in a comparison mode; pay attention to your feelings as those will appear before thoughts in our awareness. By paying attention to what areas you feel inadequate or not good enough, or your self-esteem drops, this will allow you to go back and reframe both mindset and actions and will feel more capable when you are faced with these emotionally trying times
Work to resolve past hurts, as it was hurtful when you were compared to someone else, even when done in a positive manner. Parents, other family members, and even teachers – those early influencers – want to motivate and have the best intentions but may not realize the impact of their words. Take ownership for how you feel, forgive, and let go. You will feel free and so much better
Validate yourself – you have a lot of good within, i.e. skills, interests, abilities, passions, etc. Brain research shows that for every negative thought we have, we need three positive thoughts to override it so take a cue and write down at least three positives attributes about yourself; these can include: your physical appearance; hobbies or aptitudes you have; passions you pursue; compliments others give you; actions you took to enhance someone else’s day or provide help; or when you were able to figure out or fix something on your own (a process at work, changing the oil in your car, etc.), or when you stepped outside your comfort zone and took action.

The key to unlearning and changing behaviors lies with being committed to the change and then being consistent in your new actions so that new habits will begin and then become the new habits embedded in the brain. Make a vow that this is one habit you will stop right now (the ‘next’ 30 day challenge?).

Category: Personal Development