People of the 21st century struggle more and more to follow the rhythm of modern society.
It looks as if they are trapped in an infinite time loop, between work, bills, loans, deadlines and uncertainty, submerging in destinations of seemingly no return where even hope appears to be not the last one to die..
Each day is exactly the same as the previous one. Routine kills all dreams while the perception that time is not enough does not allow people even to try changing something in their lives.
Stagnation becomes the norm and the vision of exploring one’s life potential is too faint for our eyes to be detected.
Life appears meaningless, happiness is nowhere to be found and depression is becoming an epidemic that kills the mind, turning people into walking dead driven by the noise of busyness and the smell of the sweating exhausted bodies..
The good thing is that there is hope and it has a name. It is called “Personal Development” (PD) and nowadays there is such an abundance of resources, communities and support that there’s never been a better time to exploit its benefits.
There are many names when referring to PD. “Personal help“, “Self-help“, “Self Development” just to mention a few but in the end they are all just different labels of the same philosophy.
I am using the world philosophy because PD allows us to discover the values and principles of our own existence and to live our life serving those assets with our thoughts and actions.
Lack of knowledge creates oftentimes big misconceptions and misunderstandings. PD is no exception.
I have heard stories, too many times, that PD is exclusively for mentally ill people, which need help to overcome their psychological struggle. This is one of the biggest misconceptions and the fact that PD is also known as “Self-help”, makes that belief even stronger.
The fact is that PD covers many different aspects of our lives and according to Wikipedia, it can be summarized as follows:
“Personal development covers activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate employability, enhance the quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations”.
The most common misunderstanding is that PD is very difficult to master and requires tremendous effort and time in order to be properly applied.
PD is a never-ending effort which spans a lifetime but it is an effort which allows us to experience joy and happiness all the way.
We all want joy and happiness for all our life right? We don’t have to wait until we reach a certain destination in order to be happy.
It is the journey of life and not the destination which allows us to experience life itself and everything it has to offer.
There are no excuses that there is no time. There is always time. We all have 24 hours a day. It’s just a matter of priorities.
Being busy does not mean progress. Don’t confuse movement with achievement. Being busy does not mean that you have excuses to procrastinate for a better life any more. The fact that you are reading this article right now, proves that there is time.
You are responsible for your life
The first step towards a better life starts with you accepting that you are the only responsible for your life. It is so easy to put the blame on others in order to justify your current situation but now it is the time for you to change that mentality.
It is your own actions, which have brought you here today and it is your own responsibility, to plan the next actions, which will produce the consequences of your future.
If you are not happy with the current conditions of your life then you need to change.
It is not rational to believe that your life is going to change if you keep doing the same things that brought you where you are today.
If you decide that you need a change, then the day to start acting is not tomorrow.
It is today, it is now and it is you, only you that can do it.
Today is the day that mediocrity will start waving goodbye to you and there will be no more excuses to prevent you from working towards a future that you will be an above average person.
It might not be very easy at the beginning but you should not wish that it were easier. You should wish you were better. And you can get better. Slowly and steadily.
One step at a time. There is a famous quote, which illustrates that point.
“How can you run a marathon? One step at a time“.
You cannot start and finish the marathon simultaneously. You need to cover 42.195 meters, one after the other. If it easier to see what’s 100 centimetres in front of you than what lies 42 kilometres away from you. And you can enjoy every single centimetre in your life.
If you don’t know how to start and you feel overwhelmed that you will have to do too many things simultaneously, fear no more.
You only need to invest 15′ every day to start with. Do you remember the famous band of the 80s called REM?
They had a very famous song “Losing my Religion”. Use the band’s name as an acronym to allow you to remember that you can start each day with [R]eading, [E]xercising and [M]editating for 5 minutes each.
Do that and in less than a month you will have read one book and will already start seeing your stress levels being reduced and your fitness and spiritual levels being elevated.
Start cultivating slowly the rituals of PD and you will soon find yourself delving into the core of it, which will allow you to:
- Identify your vision for the future
- Make long-term and short-term goals
- Create tasks, which will be your actions during the week
- Invest in you and get better
Investing in you and cultivating all your abilities and capabilities will make everything easier. In order to attract success you need to get better. You might think you are already good but be reminded that good is the enemy of best. Why don’t you try best? The more you invest on you, the more competitive you become and the more value you obtain. And as you know value always pays off.
Benefits
PD will help you build a strong personality in domains such as:
- Self Confidence
- Self Discipline
- Emotional Intelligence
- Self-awareness
- Self-esteem
- Effectiveness
- Autonomy
It will also allow you to improve certain domains of your life such as:
- Health
- Wealth and Social Status
- Quality of life
- Time Management
- Financial Freedom
as well as to enhance or discover new strengths and talents such as:
- Public Speaking
- Stress Management
- Meditation
- Mindfulness
- Leadership
- Mentoring
- Coaching
- Counselling
- Guiding
- Teaching
Take action now and you will soon start reaping the benefits of what you sow.
In following articles I will guide you through the process with simple, sequential steps so that you apply PD to your life. Stay tuned..