Personal Development: More Than Self-Motivation and Positive Thinking

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Categories: self improvement

Personal development happens when you finally decide to change the way you live your life for the better. It must be emphasized that the whole process is not only made up of good experiences or formal workshops. Even bad experiences can help in pointing a person to the right direction in life.

But most, if not all mentors would try to fix on self-motivation and positive thinking as the two most important considerations that ensure personal development success. Well, they may be right, but a holistic approach to self-development goes way beyond these two factors. Read on to know what else is needed to help you attain self-awareness and development.

1. Personal Development Game Plan

First off, you need to have a system to reach your development goals. There is no use in simply talking about how badly you want to attain self-awareness or development. You will need to adopt a system and see the big picture. As you may know, personal development is a very broad area of interest and you can easily lose your way if you do not have a plan. You can put down on paper what you intend to do with your life and where you want to be after you undergo the program you have planned.

Always remember that only by having a definite course of action will you be able to determine if you have become a better individual or if the circumstances in your life have improved. Your plan, when done correctly, will serve as your gauge with which you can measure your progress.

2. Take the Plunge

You may have enough motivation or positive thoughts, but if you do not take action today, your personal development will never become a reality. Remember, becoming a better person does not happen overnight and time is of the essence. So, start now or lose the chance to improve yourself. Take the risk. Life is supposed to be an adventure, so if you do not get out of your comfort zone, you will be left rotting in your current situation.

3. Open Yourself to Change

The operative word in personal development is change. If you cannot handle change, then you will never be able to improve yourself. Well, you can argue that change will happen even if you do not welcome it. The question is would you rather be changed by factors that you do not control? Obviously, it is better to be prepared for or personally carry out the changes in your life. This way, you will know what actions you need to make.

4. Sit on the Shoulders of Giants

If you want to speed up your personal development, you need to learn from people who have been in your shoes before. You really do not need to re-invent the wheel. All you have to do is study other people’s experience, especially those that have become successful in their quest to become better individuals. To leverage your time and effort, it is always a good idea to have a life coach or mentor. You can also read books or listen to self-development CDs.

5. Be Responsible for Your Personal Development

You are what you allow yourself to be. In other words, the things that define you today have happened because you allowed them. If you have been lazy or indifferent all these years, you have no one to put the blame on but yourself. Even your environment cannot be made accountable for the person that you have or will become. You have always held the keys to improving your life. So, the initiative to improve yourself should come from you and whatever result you get from self-development programs is your responsibility.

Author’s Bio: Have you ever dreamed of achieving all that you want in life? Find out how in The 77 Traits of Highly Successful People. Mark Foo has brought together 48 personal development bloggers and writers to co-author the success eBook that spells out all the success secrets of the very successful people. This eBook is available to you FREE and you can grab your free copy now at http://www.77SuccessTraits.com.

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  • http://www.scottcofer.com Self Improvement Guy

    Excellent information here! I specifically agree with #4 – people like Brian Tracy, Randy Gage and a handful of other ‘Giants’ in the Personal Development and Manifestation fields are people that I consider to be my mentors and have been invaluable on a daily basis for me. I truly would not have made anywhere near the progress that I have without their help and guidance.

    Best to you,
    Scott

    • http://www.theemotionmachine.com Steven | The Emotion Machine

      Like Scott, I enjoy the idea of “standing on the shoulders of giants.” I believe it was Newton who first popularized the phrase.

      Besides motivation and positive thinking, we need to be able to model the greats and learn vicariously through them. It saves us time and effort, and gives us a more enlightened perspective on where to take our life’s future.

    • http://www.77successtraits.com Mark Foo – 77 Success Traits

      Hi Scott,

      I’m glad you find the information helpful. Like you, I have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from people like Brian Tracy, Napoleon Hill, and the likes. I am glad I have stumbled upon their works 7-8 years ago. They have made such a great impact in my life.

      Cheers~

      Mark

    • http://entreper.com Jason Webb

      I certainly wanted some guidelines to do my business ,anyway this is wonderful idea,Thanks

  • http://qupfromtheashes.blogspot.com/ quinn

    This is a great primer for any one w who is interested or considering embarking on a journey of personal development. It is scary and overwhelming territory we walk when we decide that we want to be better people but the results are worth it if they do not offer instant gratification.

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  • http://enlightr.com/cloud Craig

    Nice post. I suppose I’ve always seen personal development as motivation/positive thinking. Looking at the points the only one I tend to have trouble with would be ‘sitting on the shoulders of giants’. I tend to like developing my own way around problems and to goals.

    • http://www.scottcofer.com Self Improvement Guy

      Craig,

      Being a self-confident and self-sustaining individual is a GREAT thing, but I have to ask – why would you feel the need to solve certain problems/situations yourself when there is a vast amount of knowledge out there that you can access?

      Best to you,
      Scott

    • http://www.77successtraits.com Mark Foo – 77 Success Traits

      Hi Craig,

      I agree with Scott. Although there’s nothing really wrong with developing your own way of getting things done, you’d definitely achieve your goals much sooner if you’d learn from people who’ve been there done that. And although there’s no real shortcut in life, the closest thing to that would certainly be to learn from other people’s experience.

      Cheers~

      Mark

  • http://www.2knowmyself.com Farouk

    i strongly agree with u, some people make personal development look superficial because of focusing only on things such as positive thinking

    • http://www.77successtraits.com Mark Foo – 77 Success Traits

      Hi Farouk,

      You’re right. That’s the reason why I wrote this article.

      Cheers~

      Mark

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  • http://richardshelmerdine.com/blog/ Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com

    My game plan is to start up a new 30 day habit each month/ This month of February I am writing 30 blog comments per dya and writing for 1 hour to my blog. Wish me luck!

    • http://www.77successtraits.com Mark Foo – 77 Success Traits

      Hi Richard,

      That’s a great game plan! All the best!

      Cheers~

      Mark

    • http://www.scottcofer.com Self Improvement Guy

      Excellent plan – you should definitely see results from such an aggressive focus. Go for it Richard!

      Best to you,
      Scott

  • http://www.ahappypocketfullofmoney.com David @ A Happy Pocket Full of Money

    You said: irst off, you need to have a system to reach your development goals. – this is so valuable I hope we all remember to keep it at the forefront of our efforts!

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  • http://MotivationalSmartAss.com Avish Parashar – Motivational Smart Ass

    Nice post. I think this is why motivational speakers an personal development gets a bad rap with the general public. So many people just focus on motivation and positive thinking that that is all people think it is (“The Secret” didn’t help…)

    Your tips are solid. I would expand “Take the plunge” to “take some action, even if small, ever day.” Taking the plunge is critical, but a week later when the initial motivational high has worn off, it’s the daily consistent action that is going to make the difference.

    Thanks!

  • http://www.myrelationshipguy.com/lifecoach Guy Farmer

    Great tips. It’s a wonderful moment when people decide that they can actually do things and then take purposeful action. It sounds trite but thinking positively reframes the way we see everything. This doesn’t mean sticking one’s head in the sand in the face of challenges but, rather, approaching difficulties with an air of optimism and belief in one’s talents and abilities.

    Take care,

    Guy

  • shaun lewis

    This is really a great resource for self motivation and personal development. Thank you for sharing this. But now a days technology is pushing man to do all these. I even saw an iphone app called ‘Pocket Coach’ which is a personal mentor.

  • http://lawsattraction.org personal development

    It was great to find a site as interesting as yours with so much information. Thank you. I wonder if you would be able to advise where I could find other information sources to compliment your articles.

  • http://www.calmspace.co.uk/youngpeople.html CalmSpace

    Hi Mark,

    Your post is really interesting and informative. one must adopt change and there is only one this is constant in this world is change.we like your post. we provide Personal Development Programs. if You need more information about personal development programs, please visit our website: http://www.calmspace.co.uk/youngpeople.html

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