It is important to remember you’re not competing with anyone and there is no specific guideline on the path of life to take.
As you continue to identify the skills that you need to set life goals that will enrich your employability prospects, improve your confidence and lead you to a more fulfilling quality life, ask yourself these questions:
- In an ideal world, how would you spend your energy and time?
- What other career path would you take?
- If money was not a factor, what life changes would you make?
- What simple changes can you make to be happier?
You can answer these questions by finding out little more on personal development.
What is self-development?
Personal development is a never-ending lifelong process. It is a way that you can use to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals to realize and maximize their potential.
Whenever you consciously plan to improve yourself, you’re embarking on a personal development journey.
Why every woman should embrace personal development
- Keeps you motivated
- Allows you to reflect on your talents
- Refine your existing skills
- Increase confidence
- Reduce turnover
- Supports healthy work culture
- Improves self-awareness
- Provides a sense of direction
- Increase creativity
- Increases resilience
What areas need personal development or growth?
If you’ve heard of Maslow’s hierarchy, then you probably know that he explains that to reach your maximum potential, you have to first meet your basic needs. He terms this point in life as self-actualisation.
For you to reach self-actualization, you must have reached your highest levels of self-awareness, self-confidence, personal growth and self-realization. Here are five areas of personal development:
- Mental
Your mind plays a critical role in personal development. You need to adopt good thinking habits, adopt good practices, urge yourself to pursue ideas, and try to implement them in your daily life. You can stretch your mind by reading a book, attending a course or even watching something informative.
- Physical
You need to be in good physical shape to tackle the struggles of life. You need to take care of your body since that’s the only one you have. Make sure you exercise regularly, have at least 7 hours of sleep, eat a balanced diet and visit your doctor regularly for checkup.
- Social
You are a social creature and you need connection to learn and grow. Through social connections you gain important skills such as communication skills, relationship-building skills, problem solving and you’re able to receive and give feedback. These are all skills that you can utilize in your personal and professional life.
- Spiritual
Spiritual growth cannot be interpreted the same by everyone. It’s important to note that spirituality and religion are not synonymous. Spiritual personal development can be referred to as taking time to connect with one’s true self. It helps you have a deeper understanding of yourself and lets you uncover your values.
- Emotional
It takes emotional intelligence for you to understand what role your feelings and thoughts play. Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand feelings. Being aware of how you feel about certain things will dictate what action you will take. It’s important to be in control of our feelings in order to reach true happiness.
All the above areas need to be nurtured and cultivated for you to reach your full potential and live a happier, more content life.
Sources: Indeed, BetterUp, Allegromedia Design, Gen Twenty, Success, Leap
