This article is in line with our mission to motivate people to develop and build their thoughts and abilities every day so that they can achieve their goals and be satisfied with life.

„Good things take time, as they should. We shouldn’t expect good things to happen overnight. Actually, getting something too easily or too soon can cheapen the outcome.“ – John Wooden

Our organization completely agrees with this quote by John Wooden , although we would’ve loved it if life could change in an instant. It would be so cool if you can go to the bed in the evening and wake up the next morning a completely different person. A person which has everything good in their life. But, unfortunately, the journey called life doesn’t work like that. Especially when we talk about deep, positive, and sustainable personal growth. The good changes in this area of life come slowly and at the cost of a serious grind. We also have noticed that when it comes to personal development just the “good” outcome is never enough everyone desires not just “good”, but the great, the excellent, the outrageous result, you get the idea. But people often forget that there is a price tag. An effective approach to a person’s lifetime personal growth has a serious cost in terms of efforts and time but so are the most worthwhile things in the world. In this article, we want to deeply underline the fact that personal development is a lifelong process. For many of you that realization might be a little disturbing, but don’t get scared. As we progress with the article you will find for yourself that this voyage might be the best thing that has happened to you. We believe that every adult person has to clarify his priorities and take his personal development into his own hands. As we are kids this responsibility was dedicated to the grown-ups, but as we progress with life, this has to become one of our main priorities. Understanding that this process is life-long, and embracing that fact, is a crucial component for every man’s happiness. So, it seems that this process of personal improvement is hard and endless, but don’t worry, if you have a valuable companion at the beginning of the journey you can achieve your first worthy breakthroughs in no time. To support our readers in this process is our most important goal and we will do our best to set you on the right path. We have prepared a really general outline of some of the most important skills that a person can work on, so stay until the end if you want to find what is the best first step to take. As a starter, we would like to suggest you begin working on your soft skills.  Communicate better. Humans are social beings, and acquiring a versatile skillset in this area is a must. In the end, no one can read your mind. Becoming a good communicator will open so many doors in your life. Trust us on this one. Also, having well-developed interpersonal skills is a very powerful tool. Manage your time. Another skill that will make your life feel like a breeze is to become skilled in time management. One of the most precious assets (read it – THE MOST PRECIOUS) is your time. And it is limited. You have only 24 hours a day. That’s it. Learn to make the best of them, especially if you desire to free time for your personal self-improvement. Learning mindset. Most of the time, the outcomes in life are directly tied to our mindset. If we don’t develop and nurture the learning mindset as soon as possible, we will fall behind in our lives. Learning doesn’t stop when school ends, or we acquire our diplomas. It is a lifelong process. Embrace it. Expand your comfort zone. That one is tough. To be able to leave your comfort zone is crucial. Everything good happens outside of the comfort zone, as we all know. Our tip here is to be consistent. Sometimes the change doesn’t need to be forced. Just baby step it. But don’t stop. No steps back, that’s it. Before we continue with a few of other of our favorite personal development areas, we want to mention several of the best ways to speed up your results. Don’t try to tackle your mission alone – find a coach, mentor, or therapist.  Someone said that “there are no new answers, only new questions”. If you want to leverage every free moment of your time in the best way – find a person(s) to guide you in your personal development. Make use of the ones with more experience or specific skills developed solely to help others. Consume information. Even if you have a good mentor or coach at your side, self-education is an awesome idea. Read books, watch educational videos, listen to podcasts. Success leaves trails. Devour the wisdom of hundreds of generations. It is so easy in the 21st century but doesn’t underestimate the importance of it. Care for your body. Without a healthy body, most of life loses its charm. Take care of it. It is the only one that you have, remember that. Find like-minded individuals. The format doesn’t matter. Search online for persons hungry for progress. Join local communities. Go to church. There are so many variants to join groups that can boost your efforts in becoming a better version of yourself.

Let’s continue with a list of high-priority areas of personal development that everyone has to improve in order to live a better life. To “be yourself” is not a cliche We’ve heard that one so many times. As often happens with the cliches, they lose their power due to the endless repetitions. But don’t let this simple fact fool you. To be as original as possible is so powerful. We are living in a world of fake personalities. The ones who dare to be originals and express their true self are the ones that will set the tone for the rest. Just don’t put yourself in the position of being a blind follower of some useless trend. Have the courage to differentiate, to be different if you feel that this is your true calling. Be confident and express your true uniqueness To be able to do that you “just” need to have great self-knowledge and trust your instincts. Here are some tips to build your confidence. Embrace your uniqueness – even in this era of influencers and social media, which are creating hordes of imitators, you can stand your ground and acknowledge your uniqueness. Accept the fact that there is no other person offering to the world what you can offer. You are unique. Focus on that. Search for what you can offer to the world; don’t compare to the others, and your life will become so much better. Every time give your best efforts – at the end of the day, the only significant thing is if you gave your one hundred percent effort. When you know that you will do your best when you step out of your comfort zone, you become a different person. Be persistent – the confidence can be built over time. But it takes effort. The best strategy is not to take step backs. Overcome adversity – there is no better way to boost your confidence to another dimension than the overcoming of difficulties. Actually, the most significant role models in the history of mankind have been through tough times and came back stronger and better. Don’t forget that. Accomplish goals – goal setting is a powerful tool. If used strategically, it becomes even better. Set small goals and achieve them. This propels you to your end destination faster. Leverage the so-called “winner effect”. Confront your fear – another shortcut to greatness. It is a fact that every sane person has fears. But some of us are looking fearless just because they have trained their mind to embrace and overcome the fear. In doing that, a man can find a massive boost of self-confidence. Take care of yourself – all of the mental shortcuts and strategies can work wonders for you and your self-confidence, but if you combine them with good self-care, the results are the absolute best from both worlds. Be fit, healthy, and invest in your looks. Invest in your brain and mental health Modern society has neglected the fact that it becomes harder and harder to take care of our mental health. But unfortunately, this is the brutal truth. The increasing complexity of our day-to-day life is stressing us way more than we can safely take. On top of that our world is becoming really polluted with toxins that are affecting our brains as never before. Having in mind those facts, we think that it is a must to take conscious efforts to preserve our mental health. Some of the useful tips to do that are: Have good physical health – unsurprisingly, the body and the mind are connected. What we overlook often is the fact that they significantly influence each other. Remove negative emotions from your life – it is impossible (and for sure unhealthy) to remove all of them. But maintaining self-control when it comes to anger is a sure way to move your life to the next level. Clean all of the ill feelings harboured in your soul, if you don’t take efforts to do that, there is a significant risk to be consumed by toxicity. Keep your brain active – he is like a muscle, train it, engage it, use it … One of the most important long-term factors for brain health is the desire and ability to learn new things throughout life. Don’t ever neglect this fact. Have fun – the whole life journey loses meaning if we don’t enjoy the ride. Stop taking yourself too seriously and the amount of stress in your life will be greatly reduced. Maintain supportive relationships – the truth is that we are the average of our closest people. Choose them wisely. Be present – enjoy the moment. We are so often caught in the hyper-dynamic state of our life. And if by any chance we are not, then we are worrying about the future. Take time to enjoy the present moment, then your brain will reward you as never before. Develop your social skills From our practice, we know that lack of competence in this area is destroying the lives of so many people around the world. But we know that this area can be developed like any other. Just take the time (and pick your mentors wisely) to learn more about effective communication, active listening, maintaining eye contact, showing respect, how to set and respect personal boundaries, be optimistic, smile more, and so on. It is not as hard as it seems to be. To be good and sociable human beings is in our DNA. Develop critical thinking As we touched upon lightly – our modern society is programmed to suppress our ability to think for ourselves. We need to make conscious efforts to keep that skill and develop it further. Have the courage to do it, and you will reach new levels of personal wellbeing. For the final – always continue developing your personal qualities In the end, nothing is more worthy than your character. All of your physical possessions will lose their value as opposed to your character. Strive to become a person living by a set of worthy principles. Always be honest (especially with you), keep your promises, be loyal and responsible, fair, kind, caring, and don’t stop pursuing excellence! We hope that we managed to excite you enough to take the idea of life-long personal development to your heart. If you do – feel free to join our community of people who have dedicated their best efforts to this concept. Let’s grow together as never before.

Sources: 1) bungalow.com – Self-development takes a lifetime – and that’s okay 2) essentiallifeskills.net – How to Think for Yourself 3) essentiallifeskills.net – Dare to Be An Original

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