What is Personal Development?
December 13th, 2006There seems to be a plethora of personal development material flooding our world today, or is there? I was asking myself this question recently and couldn’t figure out whether there is an overabundance of personal development resources available or was there room for more. In the end I came to my own conclusion that there is always more room for opinion, experience and wisdom, which I believe are all related to the growing movement of personal development. While I was pondering this I began thinking to myself, what is personal development? Personal development covers so many broad topics I decided to write an article about some of the things personal development means to me.
So many times I see online and in books the words “self improvement”. I have been looking for a reasonable explanation of how self improvement is different to personal development and frankly I can’t find any. The word self is a synonym for person so essentially those two words mean the same thing. Improvement is also a synonym for development but they both have a separate meaning. For example, improvement of a building means making it better. Development of a building means changing it in some way, maybe making it bigger or rearranging its appearance. However, it is being developed to make it better than it previously was so the bottom line is for me, personal development is self improvement. For the sake of this article I will continue to call this process personal development.
Those who actively participate in personal development are self driven and self motivated. Although most people can have their lazy spells, those on the personal development quest are the ones who embrace change and therefore wholeheartedly want more and are prepared to take responsibility for all their actions of the past, now and in the future. It is not usually more materialism they are after but more freedom, more choices and more happiness. More often than not, someone engaged in personal development has done so after an event or series of prolonged events that have caused them pain, anguish and a loss of freedom, choice and happiness. It’s this loss that causes them to look for answers and eventually one realizes that the answers are inside and only through development can freedom be attained. This journey may take many years, a lifetime or perhaps even longer but I won’t go into that right now.
As you begin down the personal development path, you realize there is always more room to improve. You can personally develop yourself spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, financially, mentally and physically. As you develop you will find others willing and wanting to help you, this will enable you to help others and eventually you realize that you are not alone in this world and there are and always were a network of others who will graciously help you when you need it. Often the help will come when you need it most, however, before you started on your personal development quest you may never have gotten any help when you most needed it. For me I understand through my own personal development that I am part of something larger than just me and by helping others I am also helping myself. What goes around most certainly comes around and it happens whether you believe in it or not. Selfishness and greed take second place to helping others when they need it and your help can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Although you can help someone financially, that is just one way to help. You can do much more than that by helping emotionally, giving encouragement, advice and love. Just telling someone you care and are there for them can be sometimes worth more than any amount of money.
The personal development movement has been gaining momentum ever since Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) first published his book “Self Help” back in 1859. Now this is a billion dollar industry. However, you need to be discerning as there can be a lot of conflicting information in the market place which may be confusing. With the internet nowadays there is an abundance of free information for you to ponder and make up your own mind about what feels right for you. If you give it time and it feels right there’s a good chance it is right. I never go with anything that doesn’t feel right, I have on occasions in the past and have learnt the hard way, now I always trust my intuition. If you can’t make your mind up straight away, don’t make any hasty decisions till you can make your mind up clearly and with confidence.
Personal development becomes another part of your life, just like eating, sleeping or working. The best thing is when you notice your life is beginning to improve and you can see for yourself that you are making this happen, you realize that your own personal development is intertwined in every aspect of your reality. As you improve in one area of your life everything else seems to improve and when you spend most of your time in a state of happiness that’s got to be the greatest personal development of all.
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