Personal Development Tips Start the discussion!

What is Personal Development?

Personal Development is the process of improving oneself through activities such as increasing consciousness, enhancing employment skills and building wealth.
The underlying idea is actively setting goals for activities that make you happy (often referred to as ‘personal development goals' ) and get your life on a new path.

Personal Development Process

Personal growth should be seen as a never-ending process that aims at continuous personality development and increase in self awareness. Multiple useful tools are available both on the web and in personal development centres.
If you are looking for personal development tips, you can make use of personal development plans & personal development templates, self improvement courses, personal growth podcasts, personality development classes and self development books.
If you prefer working on a one-to-one basis, you can turn to a personal development coach who will offer you some highly tailored advice.
They will help you identify your personal areas of improvement, design effective self development strategies that are most likely to lead you towards success and, lastly, they will regularly monitor your personal growth.

Why is Personal Development important? 5 reasons why you should invest in Personal Development

Personal Development aims at turning you into a successful person who leads a happy and fulfilled life. Oxbridge Academy lists 4 reasons why Personal Development is important and we are adding a crucial 5th one!

1) It improves your self-awareness: while working on your personality development, you discover your very own personal areas of improvement.
2) It forces you out of your comfort zone: a good personal development plan can help you confront your weaknesses and experience an accelerated personal growth as well as skill development.
3) It boosts your confidence: the more you keep developing yourself in the areas of your life that need improvement, the more you can boost your confidence.
4) It develops your strengths: accurately setting personal development goals can help you quickly enhance your strong points.
5) It improves effectiveness in business: personal development empowers you and your company to produce better results and meet your targets; skill development and personal improvement are key in this process.

How to get started with Personal Development? Inspired by 10 tips for Personal Self Development by Matt Morris:

1) Start now: set your personal development plan and put it in work today, do not wait until tomorrow.
2) Pursue baby steps strategy: establish detailed personal development goals and tick them off one after the other.
3) Embrace change: remember that self development = personal growth = change. You will not be the same anymore; your self-awareness will increase and you will become a more conscious human being.
4) Be grateful and recognise your worth: make sure that you don’t forget about those areas of your life or professional expertise that you are happy about whilst discovering those that need improvement.
5) Challenge yourself: review your personal areas for improvement and set an ambitious but achievable personal development plan.
6) Follow your passion: the most effective self development strategies underline the importance of well spent free time (following your passion) in the process of becoming a successful person.
7) Keep going and NEVER give up: self improvement is a long lasting and demanding process. It may get extremely difficult at times but will bring you outstanding results in a long run.

Personal Development in Business Context

Personal Development in HR & Management context is defined as the process of improving your skills and increasing the amount of experience that you have in your job (Business English Cambridge Dictionary).
It can be seen as a means to develop a more qualified and motivated team in a company and work in a happier and more pleasant environment.

Investing in Personal Developmentcan benefit your business in several ways:
- Personal development plans may increase employees’ confidence that plays a crucial role in how your company is perceived by its clients.
- Personal development plans are likely to minimise staff turnover and improve unity in your Team.
- Personal development plans increase Team motivation and satisfaction from their work.
- Learning and growing processes coming from personal development sharpen the existing skills of the Team.
- Through increased self-awareness, personal development contributes to uncovering hidden talents.