What is Personal Development and Why Is It Important?
Personal development is the belief that you are worth the effort, time, and energy needed to develop yourself.
Denis Waitley
The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to stay at home and robbed us of the ability to gather with friends and family. It took many lives and broke many relationships. It also made a lot of us think about our lives and the future we want for ourselves. The crisis reminded us of the importance of prioritizing wellbeing and learning to be agile in the face of constant and unpredictable change. The best way to do this is by investing in your personal development. By continually evaluating yourself and upgrading your skills and experiences you can be better equipped to meet the emerging needs of our world.
So, you might be asking yourself what is personal development and whether it’s worth your time and effort. Here, I will do my best to clarify this and make a case for investing in your growth. To start with, let’s clarify what personal development is not.
What personal development is not?
Personal development is not about being too critical of yourself or always being unhappy with yourself. It is about being self-aware and self-reflective and knowing your weaknesses and areas for improvement. You know you can be a better person and you feel there is a better way to live your life.
Personal development is not about aiming for perfection. It is about seeing yourself as a ‘work in progress’ as opposed to being a perfect and final product. There is a lot to add to you, you can mold yourself into whatever person you want to be.
Personal development is not about making others happy. In essence, the desire to change and improve should come from within, instead of an external environment where you want to please others or fit into other people’s description of you.
Personal development is not about living in anticipation of the future. It is about embracing and enjoying the present moment while getting better day by day.
So, what is personal development?
Personal development is a conscious effort to self-actualization. It is a process to get to know yourself and how you work on the inside. It relates to proactive learning, growing through your experiences, embracing the unknown, and taking risks that will challenge you to get uncomfortable. It is an urge for progress and lifelong learning.
There are two important words that make up the process. It is personal, meaning you focus on yourself, try to change, and improve yourself and not others. And, you do it your own way. Secondly, it is development, which means moving forward and making progress. Development is a process rather than an end goal. And it is a dynamic process where you constantly change and evolve. So, you should define your personal development process the way you want: What areas of your life need the most of your attention? In what ways do you want to develop? How do you want to develop? And most importantly, why do you want to develop?
Personal development is a holistic process, which involves the mind, body, and spirit as well as different areas of one’s life such as relationships, finances, or career. You might go through this process if you decide to get fit, improve your health, increase your savings, pursue career growth, prioritize your family life, get rid of limiting beliefs, commit to your spirituality, or set and achieve a lifelong vision.
Why commit to personal growth?
Most people genuinely want to get better. Not better than others, but better versions of themselves. There is unlimited potential within each person. The personal development process provides an avenue to access and uncover this potential, and practice it in ways that serve you and others.
There is so much to your life than merely surviving from weekend to weekend. You can thrive and enjoy life every day by purposefully choosing a path of growth and fulfillment. Personal development serves as a color palette that you can choose from to enrich your life, to make it more vivid, more beautiful, and more inspirational. A life that can be admired and remembered long after the creator is gone.
Personal development allows you to stretch your limits, get out of your comfort zone, and challenge yourself in ways that will transform your personality. The constant aspiration to grow and learn gives you a higher meaning and something to look forward to in life. Why sell yourself short when you know what you are capable of?
Unlike other things in life, personal development is under your control. Maybe your promotion depends on your boss’s attitude, you are born with a chronic illness that you cannot fix, the economy went through a recession putting you jobless, or your partner no longer loves you and filed for divorce. Unlike these circumstances, which are outside of your control, the path to self-growth and self-actualization depends on you, your attitude, your actions, and the thoughts you choose to believe in.
Personal development can also positively affect other areas of your life. For instance, if you improve your communication skills, this can help you improve relationships with your colleagues at work and strengthen your connection with your partner at home. Growth in one area spills over to other areas of your life and helps you maximize your investment.
So hopefully, by now you are convinced that it is worth investing your time and energy in developing yourself. Next, check out my 5-Step Guide to Personal Development which helps you determine where you are at the moment, where you want to be in the future, and how to get to that desired state.
