Why Personal Development ???

Here is a thought, What makes someone make $10000 in a month and someone else $5O.What makes someone enjoy their relationships and another miserable when they are with their spouse or friend, how is it that someone is in great shape of their liking and you are always complaining about your body. Sometimes, especially when it comes to finances, you might think that someone grew up in a household where they never lacked or they have a good education maybe it was simply handed to them or any other reason one can think of. I asked myself these questions when I was 18 in my final year of high school and I love what this great mentor of mine John Maxwell said, Growth is the only guarantee your tomorrow is going to get better. My first thought was what do you mean growth, am growing anyway. He went on to say the biggest mistake most make is to think that growth is automatic, as we get older we become better smarter and wiser. But to be honest you might come across a 40-year-old man that acts and makes decisions like an 18-year-old boy. 

I began to delve more into this statement and I figured that the moment someone decides to grow is the moment they start to better their lives. This is time I got introduced to personal development and since then I never stopped learning, I am not the same person I was two years ago when I decided to go on this growth journey of personal development. I would love to share with the rest of you some strategies that I used to grow personally and those I am still learning, and how personal development played an important role in every area of my life, the career I chose and into me increasing the level of my self-awareness.

What then is personal development? I like to think of it as an ongoing, never-ending process of learning, improving, discovering, upgrading and implementing skills that cause you to be the best version of you, have the best version of your relationships, finances, carrier, etc. As human beings, we are constantly evolving but imagine evolving into a better person. There is nothing such as stagnation. Its either you are moving backward slowly or you are improving in that area of your life. There are different areas of personal development, you can develop yourself spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically socially financially or any other area you can think of. Merriam Webster describes it as the development of one’s capabilities or possibilities. From the above, it shows that personal development is very closely related to self-actualization which refers to the desire that everybody has to become everything that they are capable of becoming. 

As I mentioned before growth is not automatic it is intentional, you have to decide to grow. The moment you stop learning you stop growing, personal development is about learning and becoming better, there are so many ways you can grow yourself but the first step is to look for an area you want to grow. Say you want to better your relationships, try to grab books on relationships and communication, check what is working for you and what is not working, be intentional every time u get to spend time with other people. 

To achieve anything above average in your carrier, businesses, relationship, finances, health and any other area of your life, we all need to continuously grow and develop ourselves. Assuming that growth is automatic keeps us stuck in mediocrity. In his book, 21 Irrefutable laws of leadership, John Maxwell speaks of the law of the lid. The law of the lid simply says “Leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness”. I like to use this law to illustrate the importance of personal development and growth. Your ability to grow/ develop personally is the lid that determines your level of effectiveness. On a scale of 1 – 10, if your potential to grow is a 9, your success can never exceed 8. This has an inverse impact too if your lid is a 4, your success will not exceed a 3. What am I trying to say, your health, finances relationships carrier, etc. does not far exceed your personal growth.”  When you don’t grow, you are likely to die average in that area of your life.

One other thing about personal growth is consistency. When you decide to go on a journey of personal growth, you have to be consistent. Most people like to say motivation does not work it gets you excited for that moment, I came across this quote and it said motivation is like bathing you need it every day even twice lol. When u decide to grow, you don’t need to read 10000 books in one day and think you will be fine for the rest of your life, just consistently do a little at a time, consistency  is a major ingredient in your growth journey. John Maxwell speaks about the law of consistency, motivation gets you going but discipline keeps you growing, you need to exercise your discipline muscle to succeed on this growth journey.

In the next article, I will share with you five ways to help you in your personal growth journey. #dolifebig#personalgrowth#bestversionofyou!!

tanyafungai