4 Signs That You Need To Work On Your Personal Development
Thanks to the popularization of mental health and personal well-being, the concept of personal development is gaining popularity. More and more people are going to therapy, or signing up for workshops or buying self-help books to work on it.
But what does personal development consist of? How can you know that you need to work on your personal development? Keep reading the article and we will answer these questions, telling you 4 signs that you need to work on your personal development and 4 steps to get started.
Personal development is a form of self-improvement through the growth of our abilities and skills, which seeks to improve our quality of life. Specifically, it allows us to improve emotional management, our interpersonal relationships and our ability to make decisions, among other aspects of psychological well-being.
This growth can be in different areas of your life, such as family, work, personal or even spiritual. It depends a lot on what aspects of your life are most important to you, that is, what areas of your life fulfill you the most as a person. It is a completely personal decision that is best you make alone.
This process is always progressive, so it needs time and for us to respect our own pace. Personal development must be understood as an inexhaustible path towards an idealized goal, because we will always be able to continue learning and growing as people.
The goal is not to be the most “developed” person in the world in all areas of your life (that would be very difficult and tiring), but to feel comfortable with yourself and achieve a good quality of life. Through this path, we will find happiness in itself, because we will be working on aspects that fulfill us, that bring well-being to our lives
How do you know that you need to work on your personal development?
The most important sign is that you feel general discomfort. We are not referring to discomfort due to some unpleasant situation, we cannot avoid that type of discomfort. It’s more in the sense that you are not satisfied with your life, an absence of happiness. It is possible that your life does not fulfill you enough or that you find it empty. If you feel this type of discomfort, you need to work on your personal development. Here we leave you 4 more specific signs:
1. You find it difficult to adapt to changes
Do you feel like your life is a roller coaster of emotions? When there is a bump in the road, do you break down easily? These are signs that something is wrong. As we have seen, There can be two types of discomfort: discomfort due to a specific situation and discomfort extended over time, more like an absence of plenitude
If when an unpleasant situation occurs, you feel that it overwhelms you, more than other people, or you think that it overwhelms you excessively, it is because your base level of well-being is low. That being the case, anything that lowers your level of well-being will affect you even more.
2. You feel disconnected from others
It is possible that you feel that you have hardly any people in your life or that you have a deep bond with none of them. If so, you may feel alone. Human beings are sociable animals by nature and we will always need company
This may happen to you because you have trouble relating to others or opening up on an intimate level. Maybe with the skills and experiences you have so far, both are too difficult for you.
3. You live on automatic
Do you feel like you’re not enjoying the moment? That everything you do is out of habits and customs? Are you more focused on what is happening in your head than on what is happening around you? This may be a symptom that you need to develop your abilities to anchor yourself in the present and be able to live it fully.
Does it happen to you that you don’t know what to do when you are alone? Don’t you know what you like? Could you define what you are like, including positive aspects? Do you find it difficult to be with yourself? Depending on your answers, you will know if you need to work on your personal development
To have a foundation of psychological well-being, you need to get along with the person with whom you are going to spend the most time: you, with yourself. And to like you, you need to first get to know yourself and your tastes.
How to work on your personal development?
There are many ways to start working on your personal development, such as reading these types of articles as a first contact. We have already mentioned other alternative ways in the introduction: with workshops, self-help books and therapy.
We leave you here the main steps you can take to start working on your personal development:
1. Define in which areas of your life you want to develop personally
Not all areas of your life seem equally important to you, as we have mentioned before, it is a matter of personal taste. Therefore, you need to define what areas you are going to focus on to develop your capabilities and those that you believe will bring you well-being, what your values are.
Some examples of values can be family, friendships, knowledge and curiosity, work, sports, nature, honesty, generosity, spirituality and religion… Choose the ones that fit your way of being, and remember not to choose so many that you cannot cover them If you’re having a hard time knowing which ones are most important, give them all a numerical value that represents how important they are and sort them by those numbers.
Once you know what values or areas of your life you want to focus on to develop, specify them even more: define objectives or goals to achieve within each of them. As we have said, personal development is an endless path. That’s why It is especially important to define objectives along the entire path, both short and long term, so as not to despair at seeing an unattainable end
The objectives will in fact be the ones that show you the path. To make them concrete, ask yourself when you are going to do it, in what way, with whom, how many times… Every time you achieve one of these goals, you will feel more fulfilled and satisfied with yourself. Remember who covers a lot, squeezes little. Go little by little.
3. Identify difficulties and prepare
Ask yourself what is holding you back right now from changing your life. You may act out of habit and find it difficult to get rid of your old habits, or you may have catastrophic thoughts that are frightening you and preventing you from getting going. Analyze the situation and look for ways to change it sequentially You can learn to change both aspects, looking for alternatives to incorporate into your new life.
4. Change your life
The time has come to stop planning, you have to get going now. Get out of your comfort zone little by little and test how the actions aimed at meeting your new goals go. If at any point you find a goal too difficult, break it down into smaller goals that are easier to accomplish.
If you see that your well-being is not increasing, you continue to feel dissatisfied, reevaluate the values you have chosen These may not be the most important to you or you may not be giving yourself enough time.
And, above all, remember that you are working on your personal development to achieve a higher quality of life and psychological well-being, so the most important thing is that you enjoy the journey. If you need help, psychology professionals can help you.
