The concept of personal development means different things to different people. As a whole, it can be defined as undertaking activities that benefit and increase your awareness and build on your identity. Today our busy schedules can quickly overtake our lives, leaving little to no time to reflect about ourselves. Admit it, when you get really busy, for whatever reason, personal development is not high on the list of important things to do.
When we take the time to reflect on what aspects of our lives we want to improve, it helps build our sense of self and increases our self-awareness. Taking the time to really examine our qualities, both what feels good already and what we want to improve, can be beneficial in the long term. Doing so increases your capabilities in judgment and can lead to great opportunities both personally and professionally. There are several key areas where self-awareness can be improved. Read on if this is an area that you are keen to tackle.
When was the last time you really thought about the type of personality that you have? If you closely examine what your strengths and weaknesses are regarding your personality, you can take advantage of situations that suit you, while avoiding those that do not. Introverts, for example, do not do well in sales careers and will suffer a lot of stress if placed in this situation. After all, if you are an introvert, the last thing you are comfortable doing is talking with a bunch of strangers. However, extroverts would thrive in sales, if that were their interests, and should take the time to develop these skills more fully to have successful sales careers. Does this mean that if your an introvert you can’t do sales, absolutely not but you will need to work harder at it.
Have you ever considered what your main values are? Do you place spending time with the family high on your list but find that this time gets eroded away due to other competing tasks? I can easily find myself consumed by what I’m working on. On more than one occasion, my family have poked their head into my office and asked “Are you joining us for dinner?” I lose track of time if not careful. Anyone else find themselves in this situation? When your key values are not being met on a daily basis, it is difficult to feel like you have achieved much throughout the day. The more often you focus on meeting your values, the more often you will feel you’ve done something important and worthwhile.
Something else to consider … have you noticed that you have habits? Come on, everybody has habits and they differ on an individual basis. If you are self-aware of what habits negatively impact your interaction with other people, you can work to break that habit. As an example, if you are in a leadership position but you constantly make decisions without consulting your team, you lose opportunities for even better ideas. By breaking this habit, you could open up a whole new and more effective way of doing things.
When you take the time to be self-aware of what makes you tick, then you can work on changing negative behaviors and enhancing the positive ones. This can only be of benefit for you to better tackle all aspects of your life. Take the time to reflect about you for a change and look for areas that you would like to strengthen or improve upon. Once you open up this journey of personal development, you will be quite fascinated about what you find … and amazed at what you learn and become. So take the time, you’ll be glad you did.
