Surely you have heard at some point that it is important to work on personal development, that personal development is important or something like that Matses Tribe. But what is this about personal development? Doesn’t that sound a bit peddler?
The truth is that personal development is a concept that began to take place with authors such as Maslow, Rogers or Adler. Until then, as in medicine, psychology had only been concerned with talking about mental disorders and pathological behavior in humans. These authors, among others, emphasized the idea that not everything could be limited to the analysis of problems, but that one could go a little further, looking towards the future and intervening, not only in the healing of the individual, but in its most cultivable part, that is, enhancing personal development or promoting well-being on a psychological level .
Taking mental health into account, in addition to treating mental disorders and the problems they cause as they deserve, is about prevention and one of the ways to do so is through work on personal development and emotional education. In this article we explain in more depth what personal development is and what you can do to cultivate it.
What is personal development?
Personal development is the process by which new learning and skills are acquired to improve the quality of life . It has to do with values such as perseverance, commitment or acceptance. Ultimately, it is growth . You never stop growing on a physical level, right? On a psychological level the same thing happens. What happens is that at both levels, if certain harmful factors occur for you, this growth process can be slowed down or harmed. Therefore, it is necessary at the same time, it requires involvement and dedication.
Personal development, being a process, takes time and is characterized by being progressive , that is, we warn you that it is not something that happens overnight. We cannot even visualize it as an objective but rather as something we want to have in our daily lives.
Furthermore , personal development can bring you numerous benefits in your life. And that’s what it’s all about is that you feed off those benefits through the process. Some of them are the acquisition of social skills, the ability to capture, attend to and accept your emotions, know and understand yourself better, adapt better to unfamiliar situations or be present.
You could say that personal development involves changing the automatic mode (I get up-work-I go to bed) to the manual mode : why you do what you do, how you do it, why you do it and realizing the details, what happens around you and enjoy all of it. Below, we give you some tips so you can start working on your personal development.
7 key tips for your personal development
Below I will describe 7 tips to improve your personal development:
- Establish healthy habits
It doesn’t have to be spending hours in the gym or going on a strict diet. In general, personal development lies in simple habits , such as watering your plants in the morning or going for a walk. Establishing habits is difficult at first . At first we see them as obligations, but once we get used to them we begin to perceive them as just that, habits. Make a small list of those that you consider can be nutritious for your routine, choose a few and carry them out. - Set realistic goals
From the list that we mentioned in the previous section, you should keep in mind that they should not be very high and complex objectives to implement in your daily life. Remember that they should be simple. Otherwise , you will have expectations far above reality, you will not be able to do it (for example, because it is a habit that takes a long time that you do not have available) and you will become frustrated . - Surround yourself with positive people
One of the obstacles we can encounter in achieving personal development is our environment. If those who form it question your methods to achieve growth, invalidate them and do not encourage you, it is very easy for you to fall into frustration and abandon the habits that you consider beneficial to you. On the contrary, if your environment is made up of people who transmit good energy to you, you will want to continue staying there. We can’t always choose who we have to be with every hour of the day, so, if you have no other choice, try to balance your company. - Get out of your comfort zone
I would say this is the most important point. In fact, to promote personal development it is impossible to do so if we do not leave the comfort zone. What’s more, we will be leaving our comfort zone continuously. If not, how are we going to learn and then grow? Leaving your comfort zone means, until you pick up a habit, for example, remaining in discomfort or fear the first few times you do it . This is obvious, but many times we want to run before walking and rushing and personal development are one hundred percent incompatible things. - Clarify your values
Values will be your compass . With values we mean what is valuable in terms of what you want to be in your life. For example, if friendship is important to you, you will have to follow paths, that is, perform behaviors, that take you in that direction. More practical examples could be calling to find out about your friends or proposing to meet up. If you wait for the friendship to emerge or take care of itself, no matter how much you know the direction, if you don’t move, nothing will happen and your personal development will remain stagnant. - Practice self-care
Once again, we do not mean that you necessarily have to play sports or eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, although if it is for you, go ahead. With self-care we want to further highlight the importance of thinking more about yourself (at least from time to time). In many cases, what hinders personal development the most is complacency and endlessly wanting to please others. - Be aware and accept your emotions
If you are going to embark on this path of personal development, expect that emotions will appear, some newer, others more familiar, but perhaps with greater intensity. The first step is to be aware that they are appearing. Do not panic. If you feel emotions it is because you are leaving your comfort zone , and not only is it normal, but it is also human . Another brake on emotional development is to pretend not to feel and that the journey is light. Secondly, it will help you to embrace those emotions. When you do, congratulations, you are on the path to personal development.
Conclusions
Working on your personal development also means preventing certain psychological problems in the future . Focusing on our psychological well-being can reduce the likelihood of suffering from some mental disorders such as mood disorders (such as depression), anxiety disorders, addictions or eating behavior. Therefore, it is vital to dedicate time and involvement to our psychological well-being.
The path of personal development is a path that can be followed alone if you wish. On the other hand, psychological therapy also serves to travel this path with a guide and in company . However, although not everyone needs therapy, it is important to know when it is necessary to ask for help. On many occasions, we go to the psychologist when it is too late, when we can’t take it anymore and we no longer know what to do. We must get rid of the taboo of asking for psychological help and go to psychotherapy consultations sooner. In this way, we will avoid falling deeper into the hole.
In any case, the support of a psychology professional is not mandatory. What we do see necessary is to invest more in emotional education from the earliest ages and implement it in schools and institutes . Education is the best way to do prevention.