So What Exactly Does Personal Development Involve?
Ready to move with (even more!) intention?
Personal Development consists of a series of intentional actions that promote growth in areas of your life that are important to you (mindset, physical health, professional achievement, holistic balance, etc.). It's the cumulative acts of strengthening and sustaining the parts of you that nurture your sense of health, well-being, and empowerment. If you’ll allow it, personal development can be a lifelong journey of connecting with yourself and the things in this world that bring you joy and fulfillment. So what exactly does personal development involve?
Developing your self awareness (that is, awareness around your values, needs, and interests).
There are forces across a number of our environments that keep us from connecting with our values, needs and interests, like social and cultural norms, our insecurities, and rigid expectations from the people around us. In order to promote personal growth, you have to put yourself on a journey of learning and knowing yourself. You have to understand where you have come from, where you are, where you are going, and, very importantly, why you want to move in a particular manner. We deserve space to understand who we are as individuals and as community members. We deserve to intimately understand our authentic selves. Our needs and interests change over time: we deserve to give ourselves grace as we navigate the ebbs and flows that are innate to our personal growth journey.
Responding truthfully to your values, needs, and interests.
Once you have embarked on the work of learning and connecting with your needs, you’ll gain more clarity around the authentic actions that support your health and well-being. The goal of self management work is to engage behaviors and thoughts that align with your needs and sense of well-being, and this is especially important when navigating stressful situations. Responding to your needs in ways that are authentic to you takes time to develop, as we are learning (and unlearning) information in an effort to connect more fully to our joy, happiness, and peace.
Understanding the world around you and the people in it.
We don't live in a vacuum, and we need relationships and communities in order to feel healthy and well. Yes, it is an important and precious skill to be able to hold space for ourselves, but we also need to learn how to empathize with the experiences of others so that we can coexist and live harmoniously in community with one another. Expanding our awareness of other people is an essential part of living a rich life; it broadens our ideas of the world and how we see our place in it. Social awareness is an important part of existing in supportive communities and finding spaces where you feel a sense of belonging.
Connecting with others and managing healthy relationships.
Your ability to generate awareness for other people's identities, experiences, and perspectives impacts your ability to engage in healthy and diverse relationships. Growth in our ability to manage relationships not only adds to the depth and meaning to our human experience, it harnesses our capacity for seeking out social support in moments when we are vulnerable and need help. It also enhances our capacity to identify and articulate the boundaries that help us feel safe. Having the tools to discern relationships that are helpful and nourishing from those that are harmful and detrimental is a major component of your personal growth, development, and wellness.
Problem solving with critical, creative, and empathetic thought.
Your responses to life’s opportunities and challenges help shape your growth journey. Personal development is a meditation in holding space for yourself, and even if the actions and thoughts to support your intentions are not always so obvious or easy to access, the work you do to nurture self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship skills ultimately help to inform decisions that make space for you, the people you care for, and the things that bring you joy. In this life, you’re going to make mistakes, and you’ll run into imperfect people along the way. Your job is to leverage your skills and resources to have compassion for yourself and advocate for the things you need in order to stay connected to and engaged with your journey.
What are your intentions for personal growth and development?
Are you living in your purpose? If not, what will it take to shift more in alignment with your purpose?
What have you learned so far on your personal development journey?
Want to learn more about how you can promote your personal development with intention and authenticity?
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