As human beings, we are in a constant state of personal evolution. Jobs, relationships, responsibilities bring with them unique sets of joys, fears, and challenges. How we deal with all of it will determine the type of person each one of us becomes.
Personal development is about evolving our selves. Personal development will pay professional dividends. It’s about constantly assessing and critiquing the choices we make and the self discipline we can harness. “I really want to go to that party, but I still need to write that paper…” “I really like my job, but I don’t see any future in it.” How we deal with these situations defines the person we are at the moment. Understanding this will help us develop into a stronger person moving forward.
Embracing Difficulty
We develop by accepting the reality of our situation and working within it. Quite often, the everyday problems we face have workable solutions. How we deal with each determines whether or not we grow and improve.
Getting some help from external sources is an often overlooking strategy when it comes to personal development. The most successful people don’t do all the work themselves, they enlist other people more skilled in their specific fields to contribute. You don’t have to know everything, you just need to know how to get the best result.
If things fail, it is important to ask the hard questions. You are worthy of an answer. If your love life is in a rut, talk with your partner and work things out or enlist a relationship expert. Instead of fuming over losing that promotion, ask why you were passed over looked. Taking positive steps toward a viable solution almost always yields positive results, at the very least you will learn something that you can apply moving forward. Doing so will go a long way in diverting future failure. If you are committed to personal success, you need to also be committed to personal development. Here’s why…
#1 – You Will Be Less Fearful of Failure
One of the key reasons people fail to excel in many areas of life – school, work, relationships, and so on – is because they let fear govern their actions and decisions. You’re afraid you won’t pass a class, so you drop it. You’re worried your significant other is growing distant, so you end the relationship to avoid the humiliation of being dumped later. You watch others get promotions at work while you’re always left in the dust. It must be time to move on… or is it?
Learning the reasons behind these occurrences is critical to personal development. Why do you find that class so daunting? Why did you not get that promotion? The answers to these questions aren’t always obvious or easy to accept. It may take some investigating to find the answers but they will pay great dividends later on.
#2 – You Will Have a Better Handle on Your Emotions
The ability to step back and examine situations from the outside, is an essential process for personal development. It allows you to consider things from the standpoint of logic and reason without letting emotion gain too strong a foothold.
Yes, it is imperative that we take personal responsibility for everything that happens to us. Successful people understand this better than most. They can identify and consider all sides in a given situation. Doing so requires an ability to set aside emotion and ego and deal with problems in their most raw forms. When you learn how to separate an issue from the fear of its effects, the question becomes much easier to manage.
#3 – You Will Learn How to Be Constructively Self-Critical
This is the toughest one, but it is probably the most important. Once the situation has come full circle, it’s time to ask, “Did I deal with that the best way I could have?” Then comes the hard part: being honest with yourself.
Sure, you can convince yourself that you did when you really didn’t, but that only impedes personal development. Worse, it almost guarantees that you will keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
Applying a little constructive self-criticism to certain situations forces us out of our comfort zones, but that only serves to force us to adapt. Successful people do not wallow in a rut. They look for ways out. Sometimes, the only obstacle to success is not admitting failure, which brings the conversation full-circle. Personal development is all about learning how to embrace failure so that you can start again with a renewed sense of purpose and direction.
Final Take On Personal Development
The truly successful people in this world understand that personal development is a mandatory part of the success equation. They also recognize the need to be more pragmatic and less emotional when dealing with failure. Lastly, they understand that personal development is an ongoing process. We never run out of things to learn about ourselves, and we never find ourselves in a place where there isn’t room for improvement. If we actively seek out those opportunities, success is practically inevitable.