Personal growth can help you make your life more enjoyable and fulfilling. However, if you’re broke, overweight, don’t have any friends, and lack goals, where do you begin?
The key to beginning a personal growth journey is setting your priorities. There’s a lot you can do in five years, but you can’t do a whole lot in five months.
Spend your early efforts as effectively as possible:
1. Measure your current situation.
Think about a typical day in your life. Then think about a typical weekend. Write down whatever comes to mind. A partial list might look like this:
- Get up for work. I hate getting up this early and I hate my job.
- In the shower – thinking about how I can’t pay my electric bill and still go out with my friends this weekend. I don’t like my body.
- Driving to work- I love my car
Get home. The dog peed on the carpet. - Watch TV. I don’t really like it, but I don’t have anything else to do.
And so on.
2. Rate each of these experiences.
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being perfect, rate each thought. It’s the low-rated parts of your life that are dragging you down. Avoid spending your time on raising a 7 to a 10. It’s the 1s, 2s, and 3s that are wreaking havoc. Until you’ve raised everything up to at least a 5, stick with the lower-rated items on your list.
3. Create a 10.
Let’s suppose your weight is a big issue. You rate it a “2”, because it negatively impacts your confidence and self-esteem. It’s also becoming a health issue. You also believe that it hurts your social life. What is the perfect alternative? Write a little story.
I’m on the bathroom scale, and my weight is 170 pounds. This is the perfect weight for me. I look and feel good in my clothes. My doctor is pleased with my cholesterol and blood pressure numbers. Women are starting to notice me again. I have the confidence to ask out Mary for this weekend.
Now you have an objective that clearly addresses a challenging part of your life.
4. Consider the people in your life.
If you want to enhance any part of your life, there will be people that attempt to hold you back. They might not do it intentionally, but it will happen. It’s hard to kick your mom out of your life, but many other people are optional.
You may need to add people to your life. Perhaps you need a personal trainer or a few friends that have successfully lost weight. A few friends at the gym would be helpful, too.
5. What do you need?
A cookbook with healthy recipes? A gym membership? A jump rope? Compare your needs with your current resources. Can you bridge the gap?
6. Focus on your habits.
7. Learn how to be uncomfortable.
Your current situation is result of years of less-than-great habits. Better habits provide better outcomes. Make small changes to your daily habits. Then it’s just a matter of being compliant and patient.
The faster you wish to change, the more discomfort you’ll face. You’ll have to slow down or accept that discomfort is part of the deal. The ability to deal with uncomfortable feelings grows with practice.
It’s daunting to change every aspect of your life, so don’t even try! Focus on the most negative parts of your life first. You can then turn your attention to the less-critical items. Beginning a personal growth journey is an exciting time. Good luck!
Hi there,
I have read books on personal growth before, but this short and sweet article summarises everything I have read over the years into 7 short and brief Steps to Personal Growth. Thank you for making this straight to the point for everyone
I will definitely be sharing this with families and friends. Everyone needs to be aware of personal growth and it all starts with not just reading about it but also by putting what is read into practice
I could not agree more! Personal growth is so important. My philosophy to all of my clients is this, “We want to live a life by design, not a life that is by default.” That is to say we should always be taking inspired action to improve ourselves so that we might improve the world around us.
Thanks for breaking down elements of success into a handful of workable steps.
I think that discomfort isn’t something that we should necessarily get comfortable with, but I do think that it is important to notice. I have found that for myself and for many people, an uncomfortable or unpleasant situation is the best catalyst to drive a change for the better.
Great point! I think there is a gray area.. obvious too much discomfort will discourage you to move forward because you won’t see the end in sight, but just enough discomfort will force you to move from that pain point and hopefully on to a solution. 🙂
Personal growth and development are so good because this is a great way to get a head in life making life easier. We all should do whatever we can to develop ourselves. I myself do what every I can to take my life to the next level because personal growth will bring fulfillment.
YES! You are so right. It’s amazing to see the transformation of people who understand how essential personal growth is.
Personal growth is important. You constantly need to work on yourself and better yourself. So I really appreciate this article. I know that there will be other that will also appreciate this article. Thank you so much for this, I have definitely bookmarked it. I will be sure to share it with my friends and family
Hi Daniel. So glad to connect with you and thank you for the support. It’s truly so appreciated when I hear that my writing is helpful.
Hi Rachel, Personal growth is the enhancement of all aspects of our personal life. Personal growth includes the development of positive life skills and the development of our healthy life. We can improve our life by evaluating our strengths, weaknesses, good and bad habits.
Personal growth is a process of spiritual, physical, spiritual growth and it’s a process of learning and developing new skills.
I think we should make sure that we’re always growing and developing ourselves by keeping a personal growth journal to record our progress every day.
I whole heartedly agree! Thank you for supporting my page and leaving such a beautiful statement behind.