Why is Personal Development Important?

Woman with Tablet Addressing Personal Development

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Focus on Personal Development

Increasing our worth, displaying our abilities, and showing personal development have continued to be pressing focuses on the job market, with our peers, and even sometimes in our families.

However, often we overlook the steps that lead to these ideas and even how we portray ourselves to others.

We often mindlessly move through the scope of our day taking repetitive steps without even realizing what we are truly capable of or how to move into a different realm when we want a change.

We don’t realize what steps to take to increase our credibility, success, or potential.

However, personal development is vital to continue gaining knowledge, increase our character, and reach our potential.

Personal growth should be something we strive for continuously and view as a positive goal for our life journey.

Keep reading to find out what is involved with personal development and ways to improve your action steps.

These guidelines apply to work, family life, and interactions with peers.

In This Article

3 Areas to Highlight for Real Personal Development

When we are tired of the same old thing and decide that we should look for something different, there is often an excitement (and sometimes dread), but the question exists, “What steps should I take next to bring about change?”

We each have our own outlook when it comes to the various parts of life, but successful personal development happens when numerous positive changes are initiated.

Let’s look at three of these areas: self-awareness, direction, and resilience.

Self-Awareness

One of the most challenging things for people is to work within their own mind and identify areas of success and those that need to be addressed.

We are our own worst critic in most cases, so we usually are quick to name flaws but often skip those ideas that show our talents and breakthroughs.

These are a large part of our quality of life and are an important part of steps toward personal development.

After all, it’s difficult to identify areas that we should focus on for change if we aren’t sure what we do well.

If our steps aren’t balanced at the beginning of the development process, desired change can become negative instead of productive.

For example, someone who is only focused on losing weight but does not identify their full potential is missing steps that will promote positive and healthy change.

Steps for Direction

Once we take an inventory of our talents, credibility, and abilities, we can begin to formulate a plan for next steps in our personal development.

We address those things we feel are missing, any areas of frustration, ideas that have potential but haven’t been successful, and aspirations that we haven’t yet addressed.

Action steps are vital but ensuring our focus on tangible goals is also important.

Otherwise, we may fail, and the slightest setback can create a negative mindset which often takes away motivation.

Personal growth progresses with forward steps, and even small steps are successes.

We are quick to berate our own efforts and can promote stalled progress when being too critical.

Baby steps are still steps and should be celebrated as such.

See this article for action steps in our relationship growth.

Resilience

We have addressed self-awareness and action steps, and the last of the three points we will look at is resilience.

There are several topics that fall into this category such as confidence, motivation, perspective, and effectiveness.

While resilience is considered as the ability to maintain or continue taking steps, even with difficulty, the other mentioned topics are positive effects that come alongside resilience.

It can birth a greater sense of ability, give us the continued grit to keep going, and even give us a better outlook which all can lead to a healthier version of self.

We can develop in many ways personally with a focus on resilience.

Personal Areas of Focus for Development

Discussing effects that promote personal development are important, but we also need to see how addressing steps for our whole being is a must.

As outlined in this article on whole body health, we have a need to maintain balance in all areas for optimal health.

See here what science says about types of personal growth.

We will discuss three main areas that we should focus on for personal growth to have a more successful outcome.

Spiritual

Although this area often gets overlooked, or chosen as a final focus, we could benefit from addressing it first.

This article on spiritual wellness explains different views of spirituality and important characteristics that are gained from a strong spiritual foundation.

This idea is often skipped because people view it as religious, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Spiritual maturity helps us gain wisdom and the resilience needed for personal development.

Check out this article to see my personal spiritual journey.

Physical

While it is often difficult for some, assessing and promoting growth for our physical state should be a focus.

Too often people only seek change in their weight or physical appearance, but there are many more physical attributes to focus on.

Overall physical health is important and should be assessed honestly before moving toward setting goals and action steps.

Without a clear foundation, it is difficult to maintain success in a forward journey.

Resilience in our daily health is vital and can only be achieved with a tangible plan and correct perspective which will promote longevity in our development.

Mental

Another challenging aspect of our overall health is mental wellness.

Just as with physical health, we should focus on those areas that are strengths and on anything we want to change.

Looking at both realms and keeping a balanced outlook is imperative in creating authentic personal development.

When considering mental health, we can also look at social wellness and emotional wellness to further pinpoint areas in which we desire personal growth. Also, consider socializing activities to promote time with others.

It is important to look at each area and focus on strengths and goals for optimal achievement of personal development.

This can be accomplished one area at a time.

For most of us, we already have an idea as to things we would like to change, but we need to look from both perspectives for a complete picture and to establish a plan moving forward.

New Plants Growing Showing Healthy Balance

Areas of Caution When Attempting Personal Growth

The final area of focus regarding personal development is things we should be cautious about when proceeding with forward steps.

Often, when we set goals, we decide that we will meet them at all costs.

While we think this brings a feeling of success, there can be negative outcomes that accompany proceeding in this fashion.

Life happens and when distractions set in, we are met with difficulty continuing our steps.

Then, we think it’s easier to give up rather than have an optimistic outlook.

Sometimes, there are issues that create problems before distractions become a challenge.

We need to be cautious about certain steps that we take without realizing they are making our personal journey harder.

Let’s look at some areas where we need to proceed with caution.

Be Intentional with Each View and Step

Earlier we addressed self-awareness, sense of direction, and resilience as areas of focus for personal development.

In each of these, it is imperative that we proceed with intentionality to bring about authentic movement.

What that means is that we cannot lose focus on our foundation, strengths, or goals if we want to experience growth.

We can’t solely focus on the goals.

Each part has its own role, but if addressed in partial manner or without intentionality, not only do we forfeit real awareness, but we likely could miss part (or all) of the forward-moving opportunities that are present.

It can be challenging, but with practice, maintaining a correct perspective can help us achieve greater results.

Often, we are close to success but don’t understand why we are tap dancing around victory.

Perhaps a closer assessment of our intentional steps can deliver a better outcome.

Don’t Rely Fully on Others for Your Answers

This idea often creates more thought about daily steps and outlooks.

Although many of us like using others as a sounding board, or even just a venting partner, we also too frequently take advice from others for every part of our lives.

When we move through our steps this unsure about our own abilities and perspectives, it can create chaos.

 

A side note here, this does not pertain to creating a plan and seeking a second opinion or acting on the desire to gain more knowledge for our ideas.

It is however based on disengaging from our own self-awareness and goals and allowing someone else to tell us how to proceed.

Trusting this type of movement solely can create incorrect versions of our abilities and goals.

It can be detrimental and time consuming when we end up operating in a realm where we don’t belong.

It is up to each of us to be aware of our strengths, goals, and maintain accurate steps to the best of our ability for optimal personal growth.

Don’t be afraid to trust your instincts and your own inspiration!

Be Proactive About Setting Boundaries

Along similar lines as maintaining our personal convictions is understanding why boundaries are necessary.

Most all areas of our lives come with boundaries, some we set and others we follow.

Often, we proceed into areas of personal development without identifying boundaries that would otherwise help create success.

For example, if we are seeking a new job, we likely have a desired salary and an idea of the type of work we’re willing to do.

These guidelines are actively considered during our search.

But what about areas where others are asking for our time or assistance continuously, and we feel obligated to oblige?

Without a second thought, we proceed with allowing others to drain our energy and time and have little to give our family or for personal time once we arrive home at the end of day.

In this scenario, those most supportive and present in our lives get only a portion of us because we have “spent” it all throughout the day.

This is one example of the need for setting boundaries.

While every part of our day cannot necessarily have boundaries set by us, there are usually areas that we can more readily control and need to decide to initiate a change to gain a greater outcome.

Final Thoughts on the Importance of Personal Development

We need personal development to continue gaining knowledge, increase our character, and reach our potential.

We have addressed areas where it’s important to stay attentive so that we can promote personal growth. In addition, we discussed the areas mentioned for seeking personal development to maintain balanced wellness.

Personal development can be challenging, but it can also be achieved if we focus on tangible steps and pay attention to the cautions to prevent. Once we use this formula to assess and set goals for personal development, we can begin to see progress.

Victories can bring greater self-awareness, direction, and resiliency. Even small successes are noteworthy and can encourage us to continue the journey for authentic personal growth.

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