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What Is Personal Growth and Why Is It So Important?

Vishen Personal Growth

Personal growth is the development of your skills, wisdom, and character. Discover now how it can bring you closer to the life of your dreams.

If there was ever a time to invest in your personal growth, it’s now. Also known as personal development and self-improvement , it’s one of the most important buzzwords of our time.

This concept has built an entire empire around its name. You could say it’s the Beyoncé of one’s well-being. 

Philosophers, theologists, and psychologists are continuously trying to figure out the way to live up to our greatest potential.

If personal growth is your thing, here’s what you need to know about the self-growth game:

What Is Personal Growth?

Why is self-growth so important, what are the main challenges of personal growth.

7 Personal Growth Quotes to Inspire You by Mindvalley Authors

Ready to unlock your greatness? Let’s dive in.

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Personal growth is the improvement of our skills, knowledge, wisdom, habits, behavior, and personal qualities. Personal development allows you to reach your full potential, be your best self and live your happiest, most successful life.

Personal growth definition

Think of personal growth as any positive mental, physical, and spiritual transformation. It’s not just about learning — it’s about applying whatever you learn so it becomes part of who you are .

Here at Mindvalley, we believe that your growth should always come first. After all, it’s through self-growth that we’re able to show up in the world as the most extraordinary version of ourselves.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs , self-actualization, a.k.a. personal growth, leads to the highest form of human fulfillment. 

Sure, we need to breathe, eat, sleep and have a social network around to keep us sane and safe. But if you want to explore your limitless potential, you’ll need to explore the last step of the pyramid. And once you do, you’ll discover that self-actualization enhances the way you enjoy all other aspects of the triangle too. 

Personal growth can make you a sort of Buddha but a badass at the same time. Peaceful but highly productive. Kind but resilient. Loving but assertive. Healthy, but with the fun-loving nature of a child.

Visual of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Types of personal growth

Personal development can improve your self-love, relationships, career prospects, spirituality, and mental or physical health, just to name a few . It’s homemade. Or self-made. It’s personal to you.

Examples of personal development goals

It can sometimes be difficult to find a place to start. So here are a few examples of personal growth goals to get you inspired:

The true beauty of self-growth is that the possibilities are infinite. Whatsmore, you can grow towards your goals in whichever way you choose, whether you’re 8 or 80. And the more you grow, the happier, and more fulfilled you’ll be now and in the future. 

Not sure where to start? Complete this quick and fun quiz to identify your key growth areas.

Personal growth gives you the tools you need to thrive in an ever-changing world. If you want life to get better as you get older, you’ll need to become a better version of yourself.   

It goes way beyond polishing your halo. It’s vital if you want to live a happy life. It’s also the key to success in every single area of the human experience. 

Personal growth is important if you want to have:

There’s nothing more important than your growth as a person. That’s why Mindvalley offers a vast array of personal growth courses that cover all aspects of personal growth. From improving your romantic relationships to clean eating, from entrepreneurship to spirituality, you’ll find everything you need under one roof. 

What’s more, the world needs you to be the best version of yourself. Because it’s only when you’re the strongest, happiest you that you can go out there and help others .

Your personal growth is caused by change — big life events, struggles, new relationships, and spiritual enlightenment. It can happen by accident through forces outside your control. 

Co-founder of Mindvalley, Kristina Mand-Lakhiani shares an interesting approach to personal growth causes. She underlines the fact that growing from pain can happen, but it might be unnecessary. What can drive true transformation is our curiosity to learn the best skills on how to play this amazing game called life.

I prefer transformation from curiosity. It’s when you keep asking yourself questions. Wondering why the world works the way it does. And how do you master this game? — Kristina Mand-Lakhiani, Mindvalley’s co-founder and pioneer in the personal growth industry, trainer of Live By Your Own Rules Quest

But with any change, there’s always something there to test you. Here’s a list of challenges that can seem like blockers to your transformation:

That said, whether you’ve noticed it or not, you’ve adapted and grown into different versions of yourself your entire life. You developed the resilience to leave your mother’s side to go to school. You then learned to share your toys, then your time, then your money.

Maybe you chose to embrace kindness over selfishness (most of the time). At some point, you probably lost someone you love along the way, so you found a way to cope with overwhelming emotions. All this causes personal growth.

But once you have built the experience to be self-aware, you’re ready to facilitate transformative learning and personal growth on purpose. It doesn’t just have to come about from pain, suffering, and survival. You can facilitate personal growth through reading, therapy, podcasts, and best of all, courses.

You can find plenty of best-in-class self-growth resources on Mindvalley. Sign up for FREE and join the world’s most powerful life transformation platform.

How to Achieve Personal Growth

The great news is that you’ve got a variety of options to choose from when it comes to how you want to focus on your self-improvement. The bad news is that it could get difficult to pick one when so many tempting options are available.

Here go a few of the best personal growth resources out there.

#1: Personal growth books

If the good old method of reading books goes right up your alley, the sky is the limit, as the saying goes.

Books open up a whole new world of possibilities while comforting you with the process of absorbing wisdom through the pages. Whenever you’re ready, make yourself some tea, sit down in the coziest chair, and grab yourself a self-growth book.

To make it easier for you, here’s a list of 10 Must-Read Personal Development Books by Bestselling Mindvalley Authors .

Vishen personal growth

#2: Personal growth podcasts

Podcasts are a fantastic way to add a touch of personal growth to your daily routine. They’re easy to access, packed full of wisdom, and can be listened to whenever you’re running your daily errands and chores.

This way you can sprinkle some personal growth onto your daily activities, such as driving your car, cooking dinner, doing the dishes, or eating lunch.

If you need some inspiration for the next podcast to listen to, here are 5 Podcasts to Support Your Personal Growth Journey .

#3: Go out of your comfort zone

As you may know already, nothing grows in your comfort zone. The idea isn’t to turn your life outside down and go bungee jumping when you wake up tomorrow morning.

What truly matters is that step by step, you do something small that challenges you. Here are some examples of how to get out of your comfort zone on a daily basis:

True growth lies in the new habits that we slowly create, as they will end up creating a new version of ourselves.

Not sure where to start? Get some inspiration from this article: Use Your Discomfort Zone to Your Advantage — Here’s How .

#4: Meet new people

New connections have the power to elevate your consciousness when you’re around people that inspire you. Gently pushing yourself to get to know people outside of your usual social circle will help with improving communication skills and finding out a fresh perspective.

Looking for inspiration in your environment might redefine your idea of success. As you are surrounded by people who aid your personal growth, you’ll not only be motivated to work on your development more and more but will also see how possible it is to achieve your goals.

  If you’re looking for a tribe of like-minded people, check out the Connections by Mindvalley app , which you can use to stay in touch with the community, wherever you are in the world.

Personal growth at Afest

#5: Professional help

Why choose to do everything on our own when someone can easily point us in the right direction? It saves time, money, and energy to learn from someone that has already done it.

A 2020 study showed that 80% of clients who hired a life coach have reported an increase in self-confidence and overall well-being. Personal growth is indeed a one-man job, as you can’t pay a fitness trainer to work out for you. But you can hire them to teach you how to do it.

If you, yourself, want to learn how to help others, life coaching could be the thing for you.

#6: Write down your true life goals

Knowing your goals will act as a roadmap to your personal growth journey. And for this task, you only need to ask yourself The 3 Most Important Questions . 

Asking the right questions will not only bring more clarity to what your dream life would look like but will also sketch out the first directions in your self-improvement plan.

#7: Find out your personal growth level

Maybe one of the most essential things is to know where to start. What that means is finding out your personal growth starting point.

What You Probably Don’t Get About Personal Growth | Vishen Lakhiani – Video

You can then move on to pick up the best development tools for your specific level.

Words can move us so deeply that will trigger action taken immediately. Especially when coming from people whose work is profoundly inspirational.

How to Make a Self-Improvement Plan 

When it comes to personal growth, actions speak louder than words. So grab a journal and pen, and start your plan via the following four steps:

How to continue your journey

You can make sure you’re always growing and developing yourself by:

Fuel Your Future

Once you start your personal development journey, you may never go back. And not because you can’t, but your life will improve so much that you might not want to.

If you need guidance on how to explore any area of your life and find the answers you’re looking for, here is where to begin. Mindvalley is the place for personal growth expertise. You’ll find everything you need to know about leveling up your mind, relationships, health, career, or spirituality. 

What’s even better is that personal growth doesn’t have to be a lonely ride. Along your journey, you can connect with the Mindvalley tribe, a global community of people aspiring to meet goals similar to yours. So welcome in.

Try Mindvalley for Free

personal growth biography

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Vishen is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, New York Times best-selling author, and founder and CEO of Mindvalley: a global education movement with millions of students worldwide.

He is the creator of Mindvalley Quests, A-Fest, Mindvalley University, and various other platforms to help shape lives in the field of personal transformation. He has led Mindvalley to enter and train Fortune 500 companies, governments, the UN, and millions of people around the world.

Vishen’s work in personal growth also extends to the public sector as a speaker and activist working to evolve the core systems that influence our lives - including education, work culture, politics, and wellbeing.

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Amy White is the senior editor of Mindvalley with a track record of over 100 personal growth articles and published books collectively. When she's not writing, she's probably in a downward-facing dog chanting Om Shanti.

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Guide – Personal Growth

Personal growth: a guide for beginners.

PLUS: 18 Practical Ways to Better Yourself

What is personal growth?

Personal growth is the continuous effort to better yourself: mentally, emotionally, materially and spiritually. It is essential for becoming mature, fulfilled and successful. It is also called personal development or self improvement.

Why is personal growth important?

Personal growth affects every part of our lives, including our happiness, relationships and achievements. People who embrace personal growth tend to achieve more and thrive in life—A fact recently proven by Stanford Professor Carol S. Dweck’s research into “the growth mindset.”

Growth mindset vs. fixed mindset explained

People with a fixed mindset believe everyone is born with a fixed amount of smarts, talent or creativity. So whenever they try anything new, they always feel like their intrinsic worth is being judged. This means they hate failing, making mistakes or receiving negative feedback. They care more about proving how great they are than learning.

On the other hand, people with a growth mindset believe new skills can be developed through hard work and the right strategies. They view mistakes and failures as a normal part of learning, so they are more open to new challenges.

With a growth mindset, people tend to be:

personal growth biography

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. – Carol S. Dweck PhD, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Types of personal growth, with examples

Here are the most popular types of personal growth, with examples of what each type looks like:

How to achieve personal growth?

If you’re starting to feel overwhelmed about where to begin improving yourself—don’t worry! The great psychologist Abraham Maslow discovered that a person’s development naturally passes through several predictable stages of growth which are now called “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.”

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs says that humans must first satisfy their basic needs before they will want to satisfy higher needs. For example, first you need food to eat before you will care about finding love.

personal growth biography

Abraham Maslow divided all human needs into 5 categories, then he arranged these needs into a pyramid. The most essential needs start at the bottom of the pyramid. When one level of needs is satisfied, then our focus naturally shifts to the next level up.

This pyramid provides a map for your own personal growth. For example, take care of your basic physical needs like food, shelter and rest first. If you’re not getting enough sleep, then fix that first. Then your next priority is safety. This includes feeling emotionally safe (by learning therapy techniques to reduce stress and anxiety) and being financially secure (perhaps saving an emergency fund).

Got it? Just work your way up the pyramid!

The peak of Maslow’s pyramid is self-actualization. Everyone fulfills this goal in a unique way. For example, some people express themselves creatively, others do altruistic activities like volunteering, and others may follow a spiritual discipline.

The 7 best personal growth books

The best source of wisdom to better your life are books. The problem is—countless new personal growth books are published every month! So to make your life easier, here are the books which are most often recommended online.

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear

atomic habits

Quick Summary: Atomic Habits shows how each of our habits, good or bad, follow the 4 steps of The Habit Loop: Cue, Craving, Response and Reward. More importantly, this book shows how we can hack these 4 steps using practical techniques, backed by scientific studies and interesting stories.

Best Quote: “Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.” —James Clear

[Read our full summary of Atomic Habits by James Clear.]

2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

think and grow rich

Quick Summary: Think and Grow Rich is a classic self help book, based on Napoleon Hill interviewing 500 millionaires including Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. He says the formula for riches is first having a burning desire for them, then following a definite plan and having faith that plan will succeed.

Top Quote: “One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.” —Napoleon Hill

[Read our summary of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.]

3. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

the power of now

Quick Summary: The Power of Now introduced a generation of western people to the practice of living mindfully. Eckhart Tolle uses direct, simple language to explain how escaping the endless chatter in our minds causes an immediate improvement to our mental well-being.

Top Quote: “If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.” —Eckhart Tolle

4. Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

daring greatly

Quick Summary: Daring Greatly shows how to break the shame that keeps us isolated. Brené Brown explains why vulnerability is actually strength, and how we can courageously “get into the arena” of life to cultivate truly fulfilling relationships.

Best Quote: “Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” —Brené Brown

5. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

the four agreements

Quick Summary: The Four Agreements shows how to love yourself more, not take things personally, and heal your relationships. Don Miguel Ruiz shares wisdom from the indigenous Mexican Toltec culture to help us stop living in this false “dream” of social rules, expectations and judgments.

Best Quote: “Real love is accepting other people the way they are without trying to change them.” —Don Miguel Ruiz

[Read our summary of The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.]

6. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

personal growth biography

Quick Summary: How to Win Friends and Influence People offers practical tips for how to be friendly and get along with people. Dale Carnegie says people are naturally selfish and preoccupied with themselves, so life goes much smoother when we consider the other person’s perspective.

Top Quote: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in you.” —Dale Carnegie

7. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey

personal growth biography

Quick Summary: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People shows how to become more effective and independent. Steven Covey breaks it down into several principles including acting proactively, beginning with your end goal in mind, doing actions in order of importance, listening to understand and more.

Top Quote: “It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.” —Steven Covey

[Read our summary of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People]

18 practical ways to better yourself

Perhaps the most important idea in personal growth is that small daily improvements can transform your life. So don’t try to change everything at once, just aim to be 1% better every day. Here are 51 practical ways you can make each day better than the last.

1. Read for 30 minutes every day.

I find books to be incredible fountains of wisdom. Unlike shorter articles or educational Youtube videos, books can give us a deep understanding of a topic.

Let’s say it takes you 10 hours to read a book. (That’s the length of the average audiobook.) So if you read just 30 minutes per day, then you will finish 18 books every year.

And if you want to save time and find out what are the best books for YOU to read next, then browse our book summaries.

2. Follow a morning routine.

If you want to be productive, then you must start your day off on the right foot. If the first thing you do in the morning is scroll through social media bleary-eyed lying in bed (we’ve all done this, right?) then big corporations have already stolen your focus.

In his book The Miracle Morning , Hal Elrod shares the story of how he got his life back on track after a brutal car accident. He did it by designing and following a 1-hour morning routine. I think his routine provides a great foundation for your own personal routine.

Hal Elrod’s 6-Step Miracle Morning Routine

3. Breathe deeply for one minute.

Breathing deeply into your lower belly (also called abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing) has many health benefits including:

Most importantly, breathing deeply can evaporate stress and anxiety. Dr. Herbert Benson says deep breathing activates our body’s natural “relaxation response” which counters the “fight or flight” response that makes people feel stressed or anxious.

4. Write down where you will be in 3 years.

Dan Sullivan has coached countless entrepreneurs to achieve more business growth. He says the most important question he asks his clients is this:

If we were having this discussion three years from today, and you were to look back over those three years to today, what has to have happened, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy about your progress? – Dan Sullivan

So answer the question. Visualize yourself sitting down in 3 years. What has changed in your life so that you feel happy about the past 3 years of work? This can be in your emotional life, relationships, career or business. Dan Sullivan says answering this simple question gives his entrepreneur clients a tremendous amount of clarity.

How to send yourself a future email

forest trail nature

5. Take a 2-hour “forest bath” every week.

Have you ever wondered why a walk in nature can feel so good? The rustle of tree branches, the feel of the wind and the warmth of the sun. I think most of us intuitively feel that getting into nature rejuvenates us and flushes out stress.

But with more of us living in concrete cities or sterilized suburbs, we are becoming disconnected from the natural environment our organism was designed for. So why not make an effort to revisit nature every week? Find a quiet place with trees. Turn off your phone. Focus on the subtle sounds, smells and textures. Wander around. Follow your curiosity.

Japanese people call this practice “Shinrin Yoku” which literally means “forest bathing.” Numerous studies conducted by Qing Li show forest bathing has very real health benefits.

6. Sleep 7-8 hours every night.

Matthew Walker is a professor of neuroscience at UC Berkeley and a specialist in sleep. In his book Why We Sleep, he says that not getting enough sleep is a factor in ALL major mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and suicide.

A lack of sleep also has very negative effects on our physical health. Walker says “Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer.”

Matthew Walker’s Top 4 Sleep Tips:

[Read our full summary of Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker.]

7. Write a weekly review for self awareness.

Having some regular reflection time is essential for both self awareness and self improvement. So set aside some time at the end of each week for a review. This is the time for you to step back and look at how your week went.

This is a great time to write down your top priorities for next week also. David Allen, productivity expert and author of Getting Things Done, says having a weekly review is essential for everyone. Otherwise we get lost in the same old habits and patterns.

8. Eat your next meal mindfully.

Studies show mindful eating can aid weight loss and also prevent binge eating and emotional eating. How? Probably by reducing stress and getting us in touch with our body so we know when we are truly hungry.

5 Mindful Eating Tips from Harvard Medical School

Here is a quick summary of Harvard Health’s tips for eating more mindfully:

personal growth biography

9. Enjoy a “digital detox” day.

A “digital detox” means taking a total break from your electronic devices. Why? Because numerous studies show overuse of technology is linked to disrupted sleep, attention problems and relationship disconnection.

There’s no complicated method to this. Just turn off your phone, hide your computer and tell your friends you won’t be available for 24 hours.

If you’re wondering “but what will I do?!” then this is a good sign you need to try this! You will no doubt fill the time with less stimulating but more fulfilling activities. Grabbing a meal with a friend, picking up that book that’s been sitting on your shelf, etc.

10. Find out your partner’s Love Language.

In 1995, Dr. Gary Chapman wrote a book called The 5 Love Languages that only seems to be getting more popular with time. In short, he explained that everyone has a different way to feel loved and appreciated, based on their individual personality. By finding out what your partner’s love language is, you can meet their needs and expectations more effectively and avoid misunderstandings.

Dr. Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages

11. Choose hobbies that give you flow, not pleasure.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote a groundbreaking book called Flow . This book explained why we should do more activities that put us into a “flow state” and less activities simply for pleasure.

A flow state happens when we are fully engaged in some activity that requires skill, challenges us, takes up our full attention and makes us lose track of time. When we are in a flow state, we feel deep enjoyment. For example, we may be put into this state by:

On the other hand, some activities give us only pleasure. Pleasurable activities are more about consumption like watching movies or eating at restaurants. Pleasure activities don’t provide a challenge or opportunity for improving a skill. They provide some superficial and fleeting good sensations, but don’t improve our overall happiness.

12. Declutter your home.

We all own many items we no longer need or want. Stuff tends to creep into our lives and fill up our closets. That’s why decluttering is so important—this means discarding items which you no longer value. After people declutter, they usually report not a feeling of loss, but relief.

Arguably the queen of the minimalism or decluttering movement is Marie Kondo. She is a Japanese woman who wrote the bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up . She even has a Netflix reality show where she personally helps people make their homes organized and beautiful.

The KonMari Method in 5 Steps

Marie Kondo teaches people to declutter with a specific method. Here is the cheatsheet:

13. Remember you’ll die.

A couple thousand years ago, Marcus Aurelius was the Roman emperor, which basically made him the most powerful person in the world. However, this also meant he faced incredible opposition, violence and vicious attacks on his reputation.

One technique he used to remain calm in the middle of it all that was to remember death. He always kept in mind that he and everyone who knew him would be dead soon. A pile of bones buried under the ground or a pile of ashes. This allowed him to remain emotionally stable, not care so much what people said and focus on his most important values.

Concentrate every minute like a Roman—like a man—on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can—if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable. – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

[Read our full summary of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.]

14. Stand up straight.

Standing up straight makes us look taller and our bellies look flatter. In voice training classes for singing, good posture is one of the first lessons because it helps us breathe deeper and speak clearer.

Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson says standing up straight has even deeper benefits. It is body language that signals to everyone around us that we are worthy of respect and status. At the same time, our own brains receive this message and increase the level of serotonin in our brains, making us feel more confident and relaxed.

To make this point, Peterson has famously cited research involving lobsters. When a lobster displays dominant or meek body language, that actually changes the level of serotonin measured in their brain. Comparing humans with lobsters may sound strange at first, but we do share many of our basic brain systems with other animals. (That’s why experiments done on rats or monkeys can be very relevant for humans.)

To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open. So, attend carefully to your posture. Quit drooping and hunching around. Speak your mind. Put your desires forward, as if you had a right to them—at least the same right as others. Walk tall and gaze forthrightly ahead. Dare to be dangerous. Encourage the serotonin to flow plentifully through the neural pathways desperate for its calming influence. – Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life

15. Drink one cup of green tea daily.

Green tea has some surprising health benefits. Researchers monitoring people’s brains through EEG machines found drinking green tea increases alpha brainwaves . This makes you feel more relaxed and alert simultaneously. These brainwaves occur when monks meditate, but drinking green tea seems to get you there too, which may explain why it is such a popular drink worldwide.

personal growth biography

16. Communicate “non-violently.”

Most of us never learned how to communicate inside of relationships openly and honestly. Instead, we picked up very bad communication habits like blaming, shaming, criticizing and being passive aggressive.

In the book Nonviolent Communication, psychologist Marshall B Rosenberg explains a simple framework for healthy and effective communication. This book is highly recommended by countless therapists who say it can help us dissolve conflicts at work and build personal relationships where everyone feels seen, loved and respected.

Marshall Rosenberg’s 4 steps to Nonviolent Communication

17. Test lifestyle changes with 28-day experiments.

Tim Ferris is a serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, successful investor and top podcaster. He says his success is based on doing many experiments. Whenever he wants to make a change in his life, he sells it to himself as a short-term “experiment.”

It’s hard to commit to a big lifestyle change like a new diet, but it’s relatively easy to say you will TRY something new for like 28 days. This is how Time launched his podcast . He told himself he would just TRY it for 6 episodes. He found out he loved interviewing people, and now his podcast is one of the most popular ones in the world.

18. Write down your top 3 priorities the night before.

Research shows our ability to make good decisions becomes weaker throughout the day. This is called decision fatigue . So if it is late in the day and you aren’t sure what you should be working on next, then you might automatically begin doing something unproductive or impulsive.

One way to stay focused on the work that matters for your future is to make your decisions the night before. Write down your top 3 priorities. Keep this list somewhere always visible.

Block time-wasting websites and apps.

Can now limit screen time and set time limits for specific apps on Macbooks and iPhones. https://www.macworld.com/article/3295880/android-digital-wellbeing-vs-ios-screen-time.html

Stop watching the news.

Or at least cut back significantly. Link to Mark Manson article. If something truly important happens, you WILL hear about it. Then search specifically for that event on Google. Otherwise you’re getting a lot of noise designed to trigger your amygdala, the fear center in your brain. News professionals carefully study which headlines attract the most views and shares. It is typically something that arouses a strong physiological response in your body like anger or outrage. However, putting your body into stress daily is very unhealthy and destructive. Link to Contagious book. Better use that time to read or watch content with depth. More books and documentaries, you’ll actually be better informed than other people because you’ll actually understand the historical context behind current events. Rather than drowning in a sea of noise.

For example, I spent a few months following the news every day and I didn’t really consider how much it colored my worldview in a negative and anxious way. When I started only checking the news once per week for a short burst, I found my life became a lot better and calmer. I highly recommend an article written by Mark Manson called  “Why You Should Quit The News.”  It explains how we can be informed and understand the world better by paying far less attention to whatever inflammatory news is most attention grabbing this week.

Stop Your Bad Habits With 10-Second Barriers

Make bad habits more difficult?

smartphone distraction in morning – put phone across the room. Put social media apps into a folder on that says “are you sure?”

junk food – put it on a high shelf or in a locked plastic container. Better yet, don’t buy it in the first place. I schedule one big cheat meal per week where I pig out. It helps me avoid compulsive eating of junk foods the rest of the week.

james clear – leave guitar where you can always see it, hide video game console in closet, buy an outlet timer to turn off wifi router.

it’s all about getting rid of the immediate gratification. If you’re forced to pause, then the rational thinking part of your brain called the prefrontal cortex will have some time to step in and regulate your impulses. (Studies show this is exactly what happens.) But you need to remove that instant candy from your environment.

Don’t set goals, set implementation intentions

when – then

Don’t set goals, create systems

goals decrease motivation after completion, also reinforce happiness = future

everybody at olympics has the goal the be number one, but only the ones with the best systems win. bike race britain example. small optimizations of the systems

Create checklists for complex activities.

Although this tip sounds simple, it can change your life. Atul Gatuwande wrote The Checklist Manifesto which is all about checklists. He’s a doctor who was able to save countless lives by making simple checklists more commonly used among doctors.

Learn a language.

To make this fun, combine learning a language with travel plans to some place you find fascinating. Imagine how cool it will be to go to Japan and order coffee in Japanese. Studies show that being bilingual wards off brain decline.

Eat half a cup of cruciferous veggies daily.

These include broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprout, collared greens, etc. Cruciferous veggies contain some of the highest levels of vitamins and nutrients of any food. In particular, Dr. Greger highlights a compound only found in cruciferous vegetables called sulforaphane. Studies show sulforaphane has promising health benefits for preventing cancer and brain decline.

Write down a definite plan for your #1 goal.

Think and grow rich 6 steps. “Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.”

Take a yoga course.

Far more than a physical exercise. (Although it can be a physically demanding too, especially hot yoga) Many studios let you try it out a few classes without a big commitment. The body awareness cultivated by yoga appears to be very effective at healing traumatic patterns in the body. The Body Keeps the Score.

Eat 1 tablespoons of ground flaxseeds per day.

Dr. Michael Greger is a huge fan. After a few weeks, they appear to lower blood pressure as well as many of the top medications. They also look very promising for slowing down or even stopping prostate cancer. (Though further research is needed.) Can mix this into a daily smoothie or oatmeal. Bake a dozen muffins then freeze them, eating one for breakfast every day.

Love someone else without wanting them to change. (ruiz quote) Full acceptance can be transformational for a relationship. Therapists call it “unconditional positive regard.” without judgment

Practice Abstinence (NoFap)

For thousands of years, most religious traditions have made a connection between sexual abstinence and spirituality. This is not a coincidence.

There’s a whole online movement called “NoFap” which promotes the power of abstinence. It is mostly young men who make us this movement. They say they aim for abstinence not for religious or moral reasons, but primarily because masturbating saps confidence and motivation.

Especially for young men, the temptation of porn makes it difficult to avoid masturbation. Scientists call this a super-stimuli. A teenager can now see more naked people in 10 minutes than their grandfather would have seen over 5 lifetimes.

Write down 3 things you’re thankful for.

I’m the first person to gag when I hear the word “gratitude” but it really works according to science.

Do an act of kindness. Although humans are generally chasing their own selfish interests, research has shown that doing acts of service for others is ironically what makes us more happy. (link study) So do something out of the ordinary. If you see a homeless person outside, buy them a sandwich or meal. Next time you’re at a restaurant, tip 50% and leave. Search where your local food bank is and buy a box of canned foods for them.

Eat mostly whole foods.

If you try to learn about nutrition, you will run into experts contradicting each other. Should you eat low fat? Should you eat low carb? Should you eat vegan? All the noise online distracts us from the fact there IS a basic consensus among health professionals about how to eat healthy.

Virtually every expert and health authority agrees that we should eat less processed foods and foods that contain added sugar. For example: pizza, sugary cereals, cookies, soft drinks, fruit juices, etc.

So what to eat instead? Whole foods, which means foods that are unprocessed and don’t go through a factory. Apples, oranges, leafy greens, eggs, fish, whole grains, etc. All these are “whole” foods because they come in the same form they grow in nature.

Reduce stress with daily mindfulness

scientific benefits of mindfulness

Be vulnerable with someone you trust.

(daring greatly) dissolves shame

Track your consumption habits.

You’ll find out a lot of your money is flowing into areas that are not returning much (if any) fulfillment. Your Money or Your Life quote about “we have learned to seek”

“We have learned to seek external solutions to signals from the mind, heart or soul that something is out of balance. We try to satisfy essentially psychological and spiritual needs with consumption at a physical level.” – Joseph R. Dominguez

Break a sweat every day.

Every day would be ideal, but 1 time per week or 3 times per week is a great start.

Research shows you probably won’t lose much weight with long low-intensity exercise, contrary to popular opinion.

However, exercise has excellent benefits in other ways. born to run

Lifting weights doesn’t have to be complicated. Follow the Stronglifts 5×5 program for a simple beginner’s program. You just have to learn 5 exercises, and you can begin getting stronger week by week.

Face a fear.

Modern psychology is very clear that the way to decrease anxiety about something is to voluntarily face the situation. When you do this repeatedly, the “fear center” in your brain (a part called the amygdala), becomes desensitized to what you fear. So take a step out of your comfort zone. One thing most people are terrified of is speaking in front of groups. You can practice public speaking at Toastmasters gatherings. Another fun idea is to join an improv theatre class, available in most cities. (You literally improvise the scene you are acting as you go!)

There’s no better way to expose yourself to fresh perspectives than to experience people living differently firsthand. My ideal travel is to take a few months off (maybe between jobs) and travel cheaply, experiencing countries like a local. I like to spend as little time as possible in the tourist hotspots. It’s about seeing how people in other parts of the world really live, not ticking landmarks off a checklist.

Save 1% of your paycheck.

(scale up to 10%) small wins build confidence.

One of the biggest obstacles we all face in our lives is fear of rejection. Whether it’s applying to a great job, communicating our romantic interest or sending in our book manuscript to a publisher—fear of rejection can be terrifying. When we are rejected, it can feel like our very worth as a human being was judged and found not good enough.

Well, it turns out salespeople suffer from this fear a lot. And obviously it severely affects their success. So there was a book called “Go For No” that helped many salespeople succeed. The basic idea is in the title: they taught salespeople to “go for no.” Every day the salesperson had a goal of getting 5-10 “no”s before they finish work.

The side effect is that if you try to get more “no”s, then you also get more “yes”es. Salespeople who followed this way became very successful. Rather than avoiding “no” out of fear, they now saw each “no” as a step on their way to success.

The other person can either say “yes” or “no” or make some excuse. If they don’t say yes, graciously move on. But you’ll never reach your goals without going for no.

Try fasting. Obviously this isn’t medical advice, see your doctor before you do anything drastic. For centuries fasting has been a part of spiritual practices to give the body a chance to clean and rest. Today intermittent fasting is popular and it shows great benefits for both health and weight loss.

Watch how you talk to yourself. The Four Agreements first rule is “be impeccable with your word.” Your world is created by the words you choose to use in your head. Don’t go against yourself. (ruiz quote)

Treat yourself with the same compassion you would give a friend. Thinking of it this way reveals the harsh and abusive ways we often talk to ourselves.

Learn a new way of cooking. Whether it’s Italian, French or Thai food, you can add more deliciousness into your life by learning to cook some new dishes. A local class would be a great experience, but you can also look at online courses often taught by famous chefs, or look for the right books or follow online recipes.

breathwork – pranayama or taichi

Learn how to dance.

memory training

Learn to sing or play a musical instrument.

daily journaling

writing project

clarify your values

Spend less time with toxic people.

Start a daily journal. Clears your head of excessive thinking.

martial arts

Make a room in your home beautiful. Hang up artwork or photos you find inspirational.

80/20 rule – focus on most important work

build your support network

Top 10 Personal Growth Quotes

Feel free to set these quotes as your phone background or share them with your friends.

1. “We are what we repeatedly do, excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

will durant quote

2. “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” —Lao Tzu

lao tzu quote

3. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

eleanor roosevelt quote

4. “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” —Carl Rogers

carl rogers quote

5. “Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

marcus aurelius quote

6. “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in you.” —Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

dale carnegie quote

7. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.” — Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

viktor frankl quote

8. “What other people think about you has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.” -Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass

jen sincero quote

9. “One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.” — Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

napoleon hill quote

10. “Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” —Brené Brown, Daring Greatly

brene brown quote

Want more quotes? Read our article “The 55 Best Personal Growth Quotes”

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Career Development

19 Career Women on Personal Growth & the Life Lessons That Have Mattered Most

And the 3 psychological needs behind every inch of progress

Compass and paper that says "grow"

Growing within your career is one thing, but have you ever stopped to take a look at your journey of personal growth? 

Personal growth can be described as a process that takes place over the course of your life to help you evolve into different versions of yourself. 

According to Psychology Today , personal growth comes when you allow it in. Meaning, there has to be an intellectual approach of improvement by creating awareness and gaining perspective so one can let go of things like destructive thoughts, or instinctively reacting to triggers. The article goes on to say that personal growth happens in the moment, as you experience life, and through being mindful. “When we’re in touch with that place within ourselves, when we can begin to apply this quality of awareness to every single aspect of our lives, especially our relationships with others (personal or professional), then the world begins to look different.” 

Personal growth is an ongoing process that requires the desire to improve, change, and the motivation and willingness to do so. Let’s talk about how to achieve personal growth and what career-driven women have learned on their own personal and professional journeys.

Read more: 25 Professional Development Goals You Can Pursue Right Now

How to achieve personal growth

There are plenty of self-help books that will get you on the right path to learning how to achieve personal growth, but beyond literature, there are steps you can take on your own to facilitate growth.

The first is to actually want to grow. Then it’s figuring out what personal growth means for you and what area of your life you want to focus on. Is it your career? Your thoughts and beliefs? Specific qualities that you are lacking or character traits that you are missing? It’s not enough to just read books and articles like this one—you also have to put it into action. 

There’s an idea called Self-determination theory or SDT that maintains that pursuing three goals or needs is important to contributing to personal growth. Those three basic psychological needs are competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Here’s a look at how they can contribute:

The need for competence is for one to feel capable and effective. If you don’t feel competent, then you may feel unworthy and even unmotivated. 

Relatedness

This relates to the desire to connect with others and be treated as a valuable member of a group or even society. This need helps you feel connected to others. 

Autonomy 

The need for autonomy is the desire to experience being in charge of your own actions. Entrepreneurs may experience this because it allows them for more flexibility versus working as an employee. 

To achieve personal growth and get these needs met depends upon the individual’s desires. You can discover your own through tactics like meditating , which empties your head of noise that might be distracting you from your own wants. You can also use visualization or affirmations.

“Write your goals down and post them where you will see them everyday. This will keep you accountable as well as motivated to stay focused,” says certified life coach and author Chelley-Cheyenne. Start asking yourself those hard questions of exactly what you are wanting out of life, your fears, what you are grateful for, and even how to face challenges and bumps along the road.

19 career women on personal growth and the life lessons that have mattered most

Marina khan, customer success manager at  pendo.

“My greatest life lesson personally and most importantly in my professional career has been that there is no substitute for hard work. I may never have been the smartest person in the room but I learned quickly that my strong work ethic and drive would help contribute to my overall growth and success. Learning, working hard, failing, and then doing it all over again with the mind set that life / work and everything in between is a marathon and not a sprint has helped me not only achieve balance within my personal life but has attributed to optimizing the time I have to its' full potential and capacity when I am 'on the job.'”

Monica Montenegro

Human resources generalist at  boats group.

"’If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you.’ This phrase is one that I have ingrained in myself over the years. It's easy to do things we're naturally good at; whether it's personal or professional, we enjoy instant gratification and the feeling of confidence when we excel in something. Therefore, we naturally only want to stick to those things. However, when we challenge ourselves by doing something that isn't necessarily our strong suit, we might feel unsuccessful if we don't succeed at first, but the gratification that comes after is much bigger! There's so much beauty in challenging ourselves and exceeding our expectations. We develop new skills, we push ourselves to new levels, and we become stronger and better! This approach has helped me always push myself outside my comfort zone and not be complacent with where I am in life. It's a constant motivator to continue growing and making myself proud.”

Read more: How 6 Women Made Their Greatest Career Comebacks

Natalie Shawver

Content marketing manager at infotrust.

Shawver says her greatest life lesson has been this: “I try very hard to ‘assume positive intent’ when it comes to my relationships (personally and professionally). People generally aren't out to get you—and just because their approach to something might not be the way you would have done it, doesn't mean they are trying to upset you. Reminding myself that we all are doing our best and we're human helps me keep things in perspective.”

Jenna McLaughlin

Sr. manager, technical account services at pendo.

“My greatest life lesson (so far) has been to first embrace the chaos of life versus fighting it. We have A LOT on our plates between work, family, and just trying to be a healthy, happy human. Flowing with it all and focusing on what is in my control has helped me become overall brighter and happier on a daily basis,” McLaughlin says. “This mentality has also allowed me to grow beyond what I thought I was capable of in my personal and work life. The idea of focusing on what is in your control allows you to tackle things head on while continuing to move forward. If you stay focused on what is happening too much around you or behind you, you can become stuck or paralyzed. This year, I was able to take on a new role at an awesome new company while figuring out life with 1-year old twins. I also recently was accepted to a nonprofit board. Old me would have likely stayed where I was, uncomfortable to take on these new challenges. This new mantra is helping me to push through all of this with a smile on my face and excitement for the challenges ahead!”

Senior Account Partner at Boats Group

“My greatest life lesson that I have developed over the years; is how to be patient. From where I was, to where I am now I have grown tremendously in this department. I had very little to no patience when I first came out of college, and now people compliment me on how patient I am. Working at Boats Group, I have to continue working on this department because this is something that you have to continuously work on. This is valuable when you work in the technical support and customer service industry”

Meghan Hodge

Account executive at infotrust.

Hodge shares her greatest life lesson here: “The most influential, loving and kind people I've known have all been generous of spirit. Generous with their time, patience, compassion, and mentorship.  Be in the moment, really listen and share your generosity of spirit.”

Stephanie Jean Sackman

Sr program and enablement manager at pendo.

“Someday your kids will be grown, and you will wish fervently you'd held them on your lap instead of your computer,” Sackman says of her greatest life lesson thus far. “Most of my career I took my job so seriously it crowded out everything else. I had no balance. I was so afraid of failing or being perceived as a failure I worked myself to the bone. These days, I still work hard and I am still afraid of failing, but if one of my kids calls, I put my work down and answer the phone. They are the most important thing to me and I want them to always know that.”

Frankie Gonzolas

Product manager - engagement at the zebra.

“The greatest lesson I learned as a team leader/people manager was that it’s not enough to be great at strategy and creating execution plans for your team to work on to achieve goals. As a leader, you have to actively bring your team with you on the journey. It’s important for their growth to be part of the process and to feel true ownership in their work. It seems obvious but finding the balance of when to take the lead and when to step back and let others lead, takes trial and error.”

Lisa Bettin

Field marketing manager, emea at markforged.

“Perfection can be misleading. Being flawless doesn’t mean everything. We are taught that we have to win first places, that we always have to smile. That’s tough and doesn’t necessarily make us happy. I learnt the hard way that imperfections are part of our everyday personal and professional lives. And I realized that dealing with imperfections makes us who we are. We can be sad and frustrated or we can actually learn from our imperfections and transform them into something positive. It’s all about that.”

Allie Brandwein

Client success manager at infotrust.

“Be adaptable and flexible—its important to be organized and have a project plan, but always allow for flexibility in the plan, as expectations and internal/external needs can change.”

Stacey Shirling 

Vp of client success at infotrust.

“My dad would take us to malls, parks, different cities and have us people watch. We would talk about what we noticed about people and questions we had. He was big in psychology and sociology so he wanted us to have a curious mind that would seek to understand and not judge. I still love to people-watch, especially when I am traveling. You learn more from a persons actions than you do what they say.”

Elizabeth Gaffron

Commercial account executive at pendo.

“My most recent life lesson (as greatest life lesson is a loaded question!) is to advocate for yourself. I'm just coming back from maternity leave and as I'm in sales, instead of accepting the terms of my maternity leave and return, there are areas where I pushed back for what I thought was fair and my company actually agreed! As my hip hop dance instructor always says, "A closed mouth don't get fed." You never know what is possible and the changes you can make within an organization until you ask the hard questions and aren't afraid to advocate for yourself and others.”

Ultimately, what works for one person with developing personal growth may not work for others, you have to have an open mind to discover what will aid you best in your personal growth path. 

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50 Best Personal Growth Quotes for Your Next Chapter

A pen resting on a paper of handwritten personal growth quotes overlaid with the text “It is never too late to be who you might have been.” - George Eliot

Looking for some inspiration to kick off your next chapter a positive way? Regardless of your goals, these words – from some of the most notable authors, scientists, philosophers, politicians, business professionals and athletes – are sure to resonate.

Bookmark these 50 best personal growth quotes to draw upon in the months ahead:

1. “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” - Jane Goodall

2. “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” - Albert Einstein

3. “Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.” - Carrie Fisher

4. “One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” - Abraham Maslow

5. “The swiftest way to triple your success is to double your investment in personal development.” - Robin Sharma

6. “Don’t go through life, grow through life.” - Eric Butterworth

7. “We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” - Oprah Winfrey

8. “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” - Bernice Johnson Reagon

9. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” - Amelia Earhart

10. “People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” - Rob Siltanen

11. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” - Frederick Douglass

12. “I would like to think that all of my successes in life are really just the fruit of my failures.” - Yvie Oddly

13. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” - Maya Angelou

14. “I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” - Larry Bird

15. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

16. “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” - Edith Wharton

17. “By doing the work to love ourselves more, I believe we will love each other better.” - Laverne Cox

18. “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.” - Henry Ward Beecher

19. “Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.” - Ella Fitzgerald

20. “Take criticism seriously, but not personally. If there is truth or merit in the criticism, try to learn from it. Otherwise, let it roll right off you.” - Hillary Clinton

21. “You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.” - Shonda Rhimes

22. “Sometimes in life we take a leap of faith. Remember, the leap is not about getting from one side to the other. It’s simply about taking the leap…and trusting the air, the universal breath, will support your wings so that you may soar.” - Kristi Bowman

23. “Recognizing that you are not where you want to be is a starting point to begin changing your life.” - Deborah Day

24. “Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” - Steve Maraboli

25. “Be patient with yourself. You are growing stronger every day. The weight of the world will become lighter…and you will begin to shine brighter. Don’t give up.” - Robert Tew

26. “Permit yourself to change your mind when something is no longer working for you.” - Nedra Glover Tawwab

27. “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you…never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe

28. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” - Babe Ruth

29. “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” - Thomas Jefferson

30. “Pain, pleasure and death are no more than a process for existence. The revolutionary struggle in this process is a doorway open to intelligence.” - Frida Kahlo

31. “Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.” - Chinese Proverb

32. “You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness.” - Diane von Furstenberg

33. “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

34. “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” - Carl Bard

35. “It is never too late to be who you might have been.” - George Eliot

36. “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” - Malala Yousafzai

37. “Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experiences that reveals the human spirit.” - e.e. cummings

38. “'First things first' might be a cliche, but it's a useful one that means prioritizing what matters most to you and believing there is no wrong answer.” - Stacey Abrams

39. “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” - Confucius

40. “We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” - Rick Warren

41. “If you don’t make the time to work on creating the life you want, you’re eventually going to be forced to spend a lot of time dealing with a life you don’t want.” - Kevin Ngo

42. “The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.” - Benjamin Mays

43. “When we’re growing up there are all sorts of people telling us what to do when really what we need is space to work out who to be.” - Elliot Page

44. “Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.” - Stephen Covey

45.  “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” - Ernest Hemingway

46. “The power of imagination makes us infinite.” - John Muir

47. “When someone tells me ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.” - Karen E. Quinones Miller

48. “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” - Les Brown

49. “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” - Warren Buffett

50. “With self-discipline most anything is possible.” - Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt’s words may well be the key to your success in your journey ahead. Whether you’re pursuing a new dream , working hard toward ongoing goals or making a plan to transform your life  in some way, self-discipline will be a major component in seeing it through.

If you find any of these quotes particularly inspirational for your personal growth consider printing them out and posting them in the places you view often throughout the day. Sometimes a simple quote can impact your day in the most positive of ways.

Know someone who needs a bit of motivation? Share these quotes and help them on their personal growth journey.

A degree can change your life. Find the SNHU online college degree  that can best help you meet your goals.

Rebecca LeBoeuf ’18 is a writer at Southern New Hampshire University. Connect with her on LinkedIn .

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About southern new hampshire university.

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SNHU is a nonprofit, accredited university with a mission to make high-quality education more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Founded in 1932, and online since 1995, we’ve helped countless students reach their goals with flexible, career-focused programs . Our 300-acre campus in Manchester, NH is home to over 3,000 students, and we serve over 135,000 students online. Visit our about SNHU  page to learn more about our mission, accreditations, leadership team, national recognitions and awards.

personal growth biography

Trending Post : Books Made Into Movies

Imagination Soup

Biographies That Encourage a Growth Mindset

This post may contain affiliate links.

Why would you read biographies that encourage a growth mindset wit your kids?

Ever met a child who has a fixed mindset?

Kids who say things like, “I’m not good at math,” or “I’m not smart enough.”

For these kids, we can encourage a growth mindset by reading biographies of famous individuals.

Mindshift recently published an article showing a study that when students were exposed to famous scientists’ “struggle stories”, it helped them not just see the scientist as an individual who persevered, but it also shifted the students’ own beliefs about their potential. This study done at Teachers College, Columbia University and the University of Washington prompted kids to learn more about the struggles of three famous scientists: Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Michael Faraday. The goal was to teach growth mindset by showing that each famous person has a backstory with many challenges. The good news is that it worked!

“ The researchers identified stories as a learning tool because of stories’ ability to influence readers’ beliefs.”

So what struggle stories/biographies can we introduce to our children? Here are some of my growth mindset biography recommendations, a few of which are autobiographies.

You can find growth mindset picture book recommendations here and growth mindset parenting tips here .

Growth Mindset Picture Book Biographies

biographies that encourage growth mindset

Books for Independent Readers Ages 7 – 18

personal growth biography

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personal growth biography

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, teacher, author, and freelance writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Brightly for Penguin Random House, USA Today Health, Colorado Parent, and Parenting.

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12 Comments

Thanks for this great list! We have several memoirs (most are young reader editions of memoirs I’ve read and loved) at home but when I set out to look for some quality biographies as part of my home school curriculum, I really struggled. I appreciate you sharing these!

Hooray! Finding good books is the best. Keep in touch if you need anything else — I’m happy to help.

Success Consciousness

What Is Personal Growth and Why You Need It

You might have come across the term personal growth and wondered what it means. Personal growth is also called self-improvement and self-growth.

What Is Personal Growth?

This term refers to various techniques for improving one’s habits, behavior, actions and reactions.

Here are a few examples to clarify what is personal growth:

Successful personal growth requires motivation, the desire to improve, and the willingness to strive to make changes.

You also need to be willing to get out of your comfort zone, and sometimes, do things that are uncomfortable, but are for your own good. An open mind and the desire to learn and grow are also important.

Personal growth is an ongoing process that starts from an early age, but mostly shaped by parents, teachers, and the environment.

However to make the most of it, you need to become aware of the process, know what it is, and take the right steps to grow and improve yourself .

Life Has no Limitation

Sometimes, problems and difficulties are the triggers that awaken the desire to grow, and lead to making changes in one’s life.

At other times, people are inspired to take steps toward personal growth after reading an inspiring book, watching a movie or reading about people who achieved success.

This often leads people to new paths, to making changes in their lives, expanding their knowledge and self-awareness, improving skills, and developing new ones.

How Do You Learn Personal Growth?

There are many books, articles, workshops and coaches teaching personal growth. If you find this topic interesting, and something you want to do, you can find all the information you need by searching for it on the Internet.

Personal growth can help you in all areas of your life. It can help you at work. It can change your attitude toward work, and therefore, open new opportunities for advancement.

Personal growth can help in growing emotionally and mentally and becoming a more considerate, loving and positive person.

It can also help you see your mistakes and negative habits, and lead you to correcting and changing them.

There are many techniques for personal growth, such as creative visualization , repeating affirmations , developing a positive mindset and meditation. Personal growth also involves counseling, coaching and reading.

A very simple and useful method for personal growth is to look at your behavior and your life with an open and unbiased mind. This will show you what changes you need to make in yourself and in your life.

Looking at how people behave and act can also help you. In this way, you can recognize positive and negative traits of character and become aware, whether you possess or lack them, and in this way, learn what you need to improve in you.

People are different from one another, and what works for one, might not work for another. This means that you must explore the various techniques and ways for personal growth to find what is suitable for you.

“Growth begins when we begin to accept our own weakness.” – Jean Vanier

“The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible.” – Richard M. DeVos

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15 Examples of Personal Growth Strategies

It is extremely common for individuals to want to continually aim towards self-growth that can be utilised positively throughout life. When we are able to effectively grow ourselves attaining enhanced quality of life , achieving more goals, becoming more confident, losing your fears and further trusting in yourself may be achieved. Likewise, it is important in order to attain personal growth that we set personal growth strategies in place to do so.

Below are 15 personal growth strategies examples that can help assist your personal development and growth journey to grow stronger in all areas of your life.

1. Increase Your Willpower

Willpower is extremely important to effectively grow yourself. Having the strength and resilience to handle difficult situations and manage all obstacles effectively is extremely critical for success. Likewise, when aiming to grow willpower should be of top priority. To develop and grow strengthen willpower through getting through difficult situations and overcoming obstacles and problems with an increased open mindset.

2. Practice Active Listening

Active Listening is critical to successfully increase one’s self growth. Specifically, through effectively undergoing and practising active listening paying specific attention to others will allow others to see the value that you hold in their opinions. This will allow you to learn more through others and further grow yourself as you may gain an increased concentration to the words that may be extremely important through the people surrounding you.

3. Stop Limiting Beliefs

Key to efficiently achieving personal growth is to critically stop limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs involve individuals creating assumptions that may create a feeling as though you are blocking the potential to complete something. This is done through limiting beliefs about yourself, the world and life whereby you may feel as though you can’t do something because you are incapable of doing so. This mindset is extremely negative and in order to grow effectively, individuals must stop limiting beliefs and start having courage in oneself. Moreover, identifying your limiting beliefs, overcoming them and reinstating how you can positively achieve your dreams and goals is essential.

4. Read More

A largely successful strategy to develop self growth is through reading more. Reading effectively aims to expand one’s knowledge and vocabulary by keeping one informed and well equipped. Moreover, reading books, articles, data and further reading anything in general allows for the self growth of skills such as a stronger analytical and thinking skill. This is seen whereby reading will allow you to analyse detail and in turn critique situations more clearly and creatively.

5. Stop Procrastinating

Procrastination is a major personal growth killer. In turn, it is critical as a self-growth strategy to stop procrastinating. Procrastinating ruins the quality of our lives and reduces the time we have to be extremely productive. To stop procrastinating strive to utilize time more effectively, aim to reduce distractions and focus on working in areas that allow for productive behaviours.

6. Develop Personal Skills

A powerful strategy to improve your personal growth is through developing personal skills . This may be done through developing existing skills and aiming to develop and acquire new skills. Simply identify the skill you may want to attain, then outline a strategic action plan for how you may achieve and successfully acquire or develop said skill. Once done undertake the plan and further refine and continually aim to grow and enhance the skill continuously.

7. Learn from Mistakes

Mistakes and failures are critical to the self growth of yourself. It is critical for one to realise that one of the most effective growth strategies is picking up information and data from the mistakes or failures you have experienced and working towards developing and ensuring that the same mistake or failure doesn’t happen again. All experiences have meaning, and it is important to think positively from the negative situations in order to confidently move forward throughout life and achieve personal growth.

8. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

Getting out of your comfort zone is a largely successful way in which you may be able to implement a personal growth strategy throughout your life. Comfort zones hinder one’s ability to experience change, gain new skills and develop as an individual. Moreover, when one escapes their comfort zone, they are able to adapt to various obstacles and challenges more effectively, becoming more confident and creative in situations that surprise yourself.

9. Manage Stress

Managing stress is critical for personal growth to be achieved. The strategy that is managing stress is important as it allows individuals to become increasingly productive, resilient, happier and healthier. Moreover, when stress is managed personal growth in other areas of life become more easier as one does not have to deal with the anxiety that comes through being stressed out and likewise causes burnout. In turn, understanding how to manage stress effectively is extremely critical to personal growth.

10. Share Yourself

Sharing yourself is a largely successful strategy to effectively experience strong self-growth. To share yourself consider becoming a teacher for others in need. If people need your help either at work, at school or wherever don’t be afraid to assist them. Assisting others gives you the opportunity to practice and develop on the skills and things you already know, effectively reinforcing the neural pathway that you have instilled within your body.

11. Wake Up Early

Waking up early is a great strategy to experience self growth. This is largely due to waking up early giving you more time to get the day started and utilise your time to be largely productive. Moreover, studies show that early riser is increasingly happier, healthier and additionally efficient.

12. Challenge Yourself

Challenging yourself is an extremely efficient strategy to boost your personal growth. To effectively challenge yourself consider undergoing activities that are extremely difficult that have the ability to test, push and develop skills that are unknown to you. Moreover, challenging yourself allows you to understand how to handle unknown situations and further stressful situations more effectively, preparing yourself for the future.

13. Set Goals

An extremely well utilised strategy to effectively enhance self-growth is setting goals . When setting goals, a clear path of your end objective may be seen. This means that a clear sense of direction towards where you want to go and how to get there can be planned out and realised. Moreover, when goals are set motivation levels are likely to be increased as goals give individuals something to aspire towards aiming to complete and further fuelling the desire to complete tasks at hand.

14. Growth Mindset

To effectively achieve personal growth, effectively having a growth mindset is a critical strategy to be utilised. When you exhibit an attitude that you want to develop your personal skills, attitudes and other key areas, you will do anything in your power to ensure that you are working towards growth.

15. Show Strong Work Ethic

Showing a strong level of work ethic is extremely critical to the self growth of oneself. When you work hard whilst further going above and beyond in all that you do, you are able to experience an enhanced personal growth much more effectively. This is due to the corresponding associated skills, and abilities being enhanced in the work that you complete. Working harder means that these skills and abilities are being pushed further than before and are being improved.

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What Are the Significances of Professional Bio for Coaches?

It is true that self-branding works like a magic or even creates some difference for the individuals. It is the best choice to get the desired job with no hassle at all. The personal coach biography has a lot of importance in many aspects. First of all, it is ideal to land you the desired clients for long-term. A  professional bio writer tries their level best to make this document more valuable in front of plenty of the people. There are some genuine reasons that can tell you about the major significance of coaching bio. Take a look at these points for it.

These are the legitimate reasons to go for writing the personal coach biographies. You have to do this for sure. Otherwise, the only you would be responsible for any losses regarding the professional career in the end.

Check our free personal coach biography example!

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13 Life Coach Biography Writing Rules

The well-written personal coach biography can play major role to provide you the good clients. But it is not enough to gain the success. One also needs to rectify the whole biography and make modifications in it accordingly. Take a look at 13 important rules that make your life coach bio stand out in the crowd. You’ll definitely get amazing response once writing the personal coach biography by yourself.

These 13 rules are necessary to follow if you haven’t thought of following the tips and tricks of bio writing. Every personal life coach who’s all set to take their professional career to the next level needs to create the best biography. Other than the résumé, you also have to work on writing a biography and never take it lightly at all. Writing a competent biography is also important than creating the resume or CV.

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Overcome Fears and Limiting Beliefs: Things to Avoid in Personal Coach Bio

There are many things that you have to avoid before writing the biography about the personal coach. People who don’t pay attention to these points always face trouble in various ways:

Biography Keywords for Life Coach

Here are some outdated yet modern keywords used for writing the personal life coach biography. You also need to follow these keywords for the best ultimate help.

Ideal Biography Structure: Mastering Coaching

If you read the celebrity bio facts , you will get to know more about how they searched for the best personal life coach. This would definitely feasible for making the right search of the life coaches without spending a lot of time. Here are three important sections that would be quite helpful compose an awe-inspiring biography. These sections can give you long-term goals to impress the clients by doing less effort.

The life coach occupation stats show that people who professional background in the beginning of the biography are likely to get the success. In short, the positive outcomes would be given to you. Add the ample details about the professional background. The info regarding where you’ve worked, the number of firms you have joined and many other work details. The certifications that you have got in the respective field would give you a plus point for sure. Try to avail it.

Well, the years you spent in qualifying or acquiring education are also added. Apart from the details of education, you need to mention the total number of years in the biography. Secondly, the training is also necessary to discuss in the bio. You are supposed to include each and every detail about your personal qualifications. Education also matters when you think of searching for the life coaching assignments.

Your personal background is mandatory too. The clients would be quite interested in knowing who you’re rather than your interests. Discuss your hometown, the place where you pursue the educational career and many other details that can present the real you. It is quite important to build up the trust and impressing the clients. There are plenty of clients but you need to make the selection of most reliable ones. The personal extra-curricular activities, other achievements and different information can make your bio stand out in the crowd. This is what you should do to come up with the quirky biography from all the other ways. Simply, follow these steps and read more on mastering coaching to execute a triumphant biography for the personal life coach.

Who is Your Ideal Client?

People who pay more attention to every part of writing the bio are likely to get best work opportunities. In the end, they also earn well by getting chances of working with trusted clients. It really matters with no doubt. Think about it and also ask your dear ones to do the same. An ideal client is the one who ask these types of questions being shared below:

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Our competent authors can help you out in composing the best drafts. We do offer the variety of services so that you can focus on other useful tasks:

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Personal Growth: A Definite Guide To Self Growth

Furqan Ashiq

Furqan Ashiq

self growth

The most successful people place a great deal of importance on further personal growth and development. They are at the peak of their careers but are still taking time out of their busy schedules to push themselves endlessly out of their comfort zone and unleash more of their inner potential.

So, what does personal growth mean to you? It is a process of spiritual, physical, social and  spiritual growth  that lasts a lifetime. It’s a process of active learning and developing new skills long after formal education has been completed.

The beauty of personal growth is that the possibilities are endless – you can learn as much as you want in your field. And as you continue to grow, you will be embarking on an extraordinary and meaningful path in life.

For personal growth, it’s never too late, even if it’s your first time. Now is definitely a good time to be doing this!

What is the process of Self growth and development?

There can be no universal strategy for personal growth and development, as each person is an individual.

Every path to personal growth and development is an individual’s life’s journey. It is up to the individual to decide what path to take and where that path will lead. However, there are a few questions that will help you on your journey.

What is the situation now?

Identify your strengths and weaknesses , and your good and bad habits.

What’s your favourite state?

Let’s look at what you want to improve and why you want to improve that attribute.

What am I supposed to do? What do you need?

Find the knowledge and experience you need to get closer to your ideal self. You can find the resources to help you reach your ideal state.” The Dreamer’s Awakening workshop is a great example of a workshop that contributes to social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual growth and development.

What is a reasonable period of time?

Make a list of activities and events you’d like to try at any time. Use it as a checkpoint to help you achieve your goals.

How do we learn about personal growth?

There are many books, articles, seminars, and trainers that teach personal growth. If you think this topic is interesting and want to do something about it, you can just do a search online and find all the information you need.

How Self Growth Can Change Your Life

Personal growth can help you in all areas of your life. I hope this helps you with your work. It can change the way you think about your work and increase your chances of getting ahead.

Personal growth can help you grow emotionally and psychologically to become a more loving, compassionate and positive person.

It also serves as a guide to help you notice, correct and change your mistakes and negative habits .

There are many techniques to help you grow yourself, including creative visualization, repetitive speech, developing a positive mindset, and meditation. Personal development also includes counselling, coaching, and reading.

A very simple and beneficial way to grow personally is to look at your actions and your life with an unbiased and open perspective. In doing so, you will know what you and your life needs to do.

Observing Other People Life

Observing the actions and behaviours of others can help you. Thus, by identifying the positive and negative parts of your personality and being aware of whether or not you have them, you can understand what needs to be improved within you.

Everyone is different, and what works for one person may not work for another. That’s why you need to explore different personal growth techniques and methods to find the right one for you.

Turning the dead time into a time of self-empowerment

Too many of our days are filled with useless activities. I don’t do anything at times like this. The daily commute, going to Starbucks for coffee, going to the shower, it’s like every moment that wastes precious time not doing something really meaningful. Fortunately, there is a way to turn dead time into productive time: listen to podcasts and audiobooks.

Listening to audio books and podcasts wastes a lot of my usual time.

Group 1

Personal Growth: Definition, How To & Examples [Guide]

Personal growth is important, but it’s not always easy to find the time and motivation for it.

It can be hard to find a personal development plan that fits your needs, or even know what you need in the first place.

In this article, we’ve got you covered with our advice on how to grow as an individual through personal growth and development . We will discuss some of the benefits of personal growth and why it’s important for your development.

More importantly, we’ll speak about how to make it happen.

What is Personal Growth? Definition

Personal growth is the act of developing as an individual. The term can be used to describe personal development in several areas including mental, physical, and emotional health.

These areas are often interlinked and the ultimate aim of each personal growth goal will be to enrich all areas of your life.

Personal growth will help you become a better individual and benefit your health and wellbeing in many ways. It’s also useful in many aspects of your life including your career or business, relationships, and much more.

What is Personal Growth – Definition

A personal growth journey is not easy though – it takes time and effort to improve yourself in the ways which you want. A key to personal growth is to make sure you know why you want to improve yourself first.

Before you can start on your development plan – you need to know what it will entail. You should do this before you begin any kind of goal setting.

Examining your reasons for wanting to grow as an individual will help keep you motivated throughout your life too.

If you are having trouble with motivation then here are two useful tips: Focus on why it’s important to you and use the S.M.A.R.T method for goal setting which we’ve previously discussed here.

The main thing is to focus on what you enjoy about your life as a whole, rather than just looking at the improvements which can be made within it – this will help give you motivation over the long term too.

Developing yourself as an individual means that you will improve in all areas of your life – even if it’s not always easy to see how. The benefits, however, are plentiful so it’s well worth making the effort.

The Importance of Personal Growth and Self-Improvement

An improved version of yourself is going to be much more successful than a similar person who’s not actively working on themselves.

Personal growth should improve all aspects of your life, including your health and relationships; all while filling you with confidence for the future.

Several other benefits come from becoming an individual who has developed themselves in various ways:

Increased Happiness

When people grow as individuals they tend to feel happier and more fulfilled. This can lead to greater environment for success in work as well as higher-quality relationships.

The Importance of Personal Growth and Personal Development

Spiritual Development

By growing spiritually, we often become better equipped to deal with tough situations and stress. In turn, our spiritual growth makes us feel more confident in who we are as individuals and how we interact with the world around us.

Spiritual growth is also a great way to learn more about ourselves – ultimately leading to wisdom, which can be applied to our daily lives.

Better Communication

When you are growing yourself you’ll find that you’ll have more powerful skills. Your written and verbal communication abilities improve.

This will help you build better relationships with others as well as resolve conflicts without problems.

Increased Confidence

As a bonus from developing yourself, people often gain confidence which leads them to become more successful people in all aspects of their life.

Once this happens you may find that personal growth is easier than before since it’s no longer scary or new territory.

The Benefits of Personal Growth

Let’s now speak in more detail about each benefit that comes with personal growth.

Less Stress

It’s a known fact that stress is bad for our health. If you’re always worrying about the little things in life, then it can be hard to get through them at all.

But if you make sure that you’re taking care of yourself and working on accomplishing goals – it will lead to less stress throughout your day-to-day activities.

Improved Health

If you’re working hard to achieve your goals, then it will become easier for you to continue to exercise or go out into the world and take part in healthy things.

If there’s a particular goal that you’re trying to meet – make sure that you set aside time to do exactly what it is.

Personal Growth Benefits

Increased Productivity

It’s known that more productive people tend to do better than those who procrastinate.

In an ideal world, we’d all be able to get our work done on time or ahead of schedule and then still have plenty of time for ourselves.

Greater Success

No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, making time for yourself and working hard on achieving your goals will lead to greater success in the long term.

If you don’t make a point of regularly thinking about what you have done – then it can be difficult to gauge your progress.

Improved Peace of Mind

Once you’re able to see the progress that you’ve made for yourself, it’s much easier to feel as though you can accomplish anything.

In addition, knowing that hard work pays off is a very peaceful thought – and leads us all to believe that we can truly have anything we set our minds on having.

Greater Resilience

Those who can cope well with stress have a much easier time of it. While there will always be stressful times in life, make sure that you’re working hard on those goals to give yourself better resilience.

How to Measure Your Personal Growth

The best way to measure personal growth and development is to keep track of it.

It’s always good to set goals for yourself – but then make sure that you’re doing the things necessary to achieve them.

If your goal is about learning about a certain topic, then make sure to take notes throughout the day. If your goal is about reading a new book each week, then put that on your calendar.

Some practical ways to measure personal growth include:

How to Measure Personal Growth

These are some questions that will get your mind moving and thinking about where exactly you feel as though your personal growth is headed.

Keep track of your answers (and then reflect on them after a few weeks) so that you can see just how much progress has been made.

How To Set up Your Personal Growth Goals

Setting up your personal growth goals is all about using the right tools and resources.

One of the main ways that people develop themselves is by tackling challenges head-on.

So if you’re facing something that’s challenging, then you may need to take some time to review what’s been done already and make sure that your plan will work.

Practice Creative Visualization

Creative visualization is a very popular practice that can be used in a variety of situations.

For example, if you’ve been working hard at achieving something but don’t seem to be getting the results that you want, it’s important to step back and breathe for a moment.

Then try visualizing yourself as having already accomplished this goal.

If done correctly, the brain will believe that this has happened and will then work towards making your vision become reality.

What is the Process of Personal Growth and Development?

The following are some questions that you can ask yourself to go through the ongoing process of getting better in your personal growth and development

What is the situation now?

Think about the situation now. How many of your goals are being accomplished? Where are you at in life?

Are you happy with where you are right now or do you want to improve yourself further?

What’s your favorite state?

It’s time to pick a default state that you’d like to be in under normal circumstances.

It could be anything – so make sure that you choose one clearly and make it as vivid as possible in your mind so that you know exactly what it feels like to get there.

What am I supposed to do? What do I need?

It’s time to think about all of the things that you need to do to get where you are headed.

If you’re not a very organized person, then consider getting one of those planners (where you write down your schedule – just make sure that it’s something that works for YOU).

What is a reasonable period?

It’s time to think about how long you’ll need to accomplish your goal.

If you have a deadline then make sure that you don’t forget all of the hard work and effort that it took to get there.

How do we learn about personal growth?

You must be alert about how you can learn more about personal growth and development.

It doesn’t happen overnight – so make sure that you have the necessary resources available as you need them.

How Self Growth Can Change Your Life

Personal growth often requires a change of mindset.

If you want to get better at something, it’s often important that your mind is in the right place.

If there’s a particular area of your life where you’d like to see improvement, then make sure that you put yourself into a mindset where it can happen.

For example: if you’re taking care of children or older people and they tend to be unruly or stubborn – try approaching them with more positive reinforcement instead of being frustrated (and thus having an argument).

Make sure that all of your actions are thought out carefully – and are meant to inspire those around you for self-growth as well.

Personal Growth Can Give You Greater Confidence

If you want to have confidence in yourself, then make sure that you’re working hard to accomplish your goals. If you fail at one thing, then try again – and don’t give up.

It’s normal to feel as though you need a bit of extra confidence when trying something out new.

Being able to take risks (and accepting possible failures) is the only way for us all to learn what we need to know about ourselves.

Moreover, we must be all comfortable with ourselves so that we can always continue being who we are (instead of trying too hard to be someone else).

This is all made better if you have more confidence in who you are.

Personal Growth Quotes

Here are some of the most inspiring personal growth mindset quotes to keep in mind in your life:

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein

“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually, the confidence will follow.” – Carrie Fisher

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” – Abraham Maslow

“The swiftest way to triple your success is to double your investment in personal development.” – Robin Sharma

How To Make a Personal Growth Plan?

Here are the steps that you need to take to make a personal growth plan:

1. Find Ways To Improve Yourself Each Day

It’s important to pay attention to your needs to grow as a person. When you’re looking for ways to improve yourself, focus on the little things that excite you or are interesting.

For example, if you like music, dance, or reading – try picking up an instrument, taking a dance class, or reading more. These small changes can lead to big improvements in your life.

2. List Your Short-Term and Long-Term Goals That Will Help You Grow As An Individual

To have a personal growth plan that will work for you and keep you motivated, you must have short-term goals that are easy enough so they can be accomplished.

Moreover, it’s also ideal if they are challenging enough so you can feel excited and satisfied once you accomplish them.

3. Create a Timeline and Schedule For Progressing Toward Your Goals

How To Make a Personal Growth Plan

4. Record All Progress You Make Towards Personal Growth on your daily, weekly, or monthly calendar.

Sometimes, it’s difficult to maintain the motivation needed with personal growth plans because the speed at which results are implemented may not be seen right away.

So when you’re keeping track of how far you’ve come, it can help to keep a positive mindset and increase your chances of seeing the big picture.

This leads to becoming an even more positive person.

5. Go Back Over Your Past Progress and Adjust Goals as Needed

If goals are set too high, people may get discouraged – especially if they aren’t able to reach them right away.

On the other hand, if goals aren’t challenging enough there won’t be any motivation – which is why it’s important to go back over things periodically so that adjustments can be made.

6. Create a Personal Growth Planner

Creating a personal growth planner is something that many people who are trying to develop themselves do since it helps them to stay on track.

The best way to accomplish this is by writing everything down in a notebook or on the computer. This will allow you to capture all information as well as have it organized for future reference.

7. Work on Your Mindset

To achieve long-term success doesn’t mean that all challenges need to get eliminated. Instead, it’s important to remember that the ability to cope with problems as they arise is what will determine how effective a person can be.

So try your best not to worry about things that aren’t going as planned because ultimately it means that you’ll likely miss out on great opportunities by closing yourself off from the world.

Personal Growth FAQ

What are examples of personal growth.

Every person’s growth journey looks different. For instance, one individual might grow by addressing their work/life balance. They may realize they are burnt out, and decide to take more breaks and focus on their family life.

This will improve their mental health and boost their productivity. Someone else may realize they need to be more committed to work. They may start waking up early to get to work on time and start finishing projects before their due date.

What are the 5 areas of personal growth?

Personal growth is divided into 5 main categories. These categories are mental growth, which involves your mental commitment and strength. Social growth is growing your ability to effectively communicate.

Spiritual growth is increasing your closeness to a deity, God, or simply your inner self. Emotional growth is developing your ability to recognize and control your emotions. Finally, physical growth is developing your ability to work beyond your limits physically.

What are the six personal growth?

Some individuals break down personal growth into six stages. The first is social/emotional growth, and it is centered around one’s feelings and ability to communicate with others.

Next is intellectual growth, which is increasing one’s knowledge. After that comes moral growth, which aligns one’s actions with their morals. Psychological growth is next, and it boosts the individual’s confidence and helps them understand their mental condition.

Physical growth is next, and it connects the mind with the body. Finally, spiritual growth is last, as it can be difficult to connect with a higher power or their own human spirit.

What leads to personal growth?

Personal growth takes time and effort to achieve. Someone must first realize that they need to grow for the journey to begin. Usually, the individual has some sort of wake up call to inform them they are not maximizing their potential.

Once the individual realizes this, they can start identifying where they have gone wrong and take steps to correct the negative behavior, this growing.

Overall Conclusion Of Personal Growth

Throughout your life’s personal journey, you will be faced with many challenges.

It is important to remember that these challenges are not always the same and they can take a long time to overcome because of how deeply personal growth affects our lives.

By focusing on personal growth, you can make better choices in your life and have a better understanding of the world around you.

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Tchiki Davis, Ph.D.

Personal Development: 9 Skills, Tips, and Examples

Why personal development is so important and how to improve yourself..

Posted  June 7, 2020 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

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I am obsessed with personal development because it's helped me completely change my life. Only 10 years ago, I had no connections, no money, and worked a minimum wage retail job. Now, I have a Ph.D. from Berkeley, am the author of a book on how to generate happiness in the technology age , and have created a variety of well-being-boosting programs . And it's all because I worked on developing myself. So how do you make personal development work for you?

Personal development can include any skill that you build to improve yourself—your emotions, thoughts, or behaviors. It doesn't really matter which skills you want to improve; the key to personal development is taking the right steps—steps that help ensure that you reach whatever goal you are pursuing.

Learn more from the video below:

What are the most important personal development skills? It really depends on what you're trying to achieve. But here are 9 that I have found to be important to successful personal development.

1. Start by figuring out which personal development skills you need to build. The first step in any personal development strategy is to figure out how to best use your time. It makes little sense to learn how to code if you don't plan to be a coder or to bench press 400 pounds if you don't plan to be a weight lifter. These can be hobbies, but personal development is more about building skills to reach your personal goals . So it's good to take some time to self-reflect. (If well-being is a goal of yours, take this well-being quiz to see which skills you need to build.)

2. Develop entrepreneurial thinking. Everyone can benefit from learning how to think like an entrepreneur, regardless of whether or not you are one. Why? Because entrepreneurs are innovative, good at planning for all possible outcomes, and skilled at getting others to buy into their vision or dream. And perhaps more importantly for personal development, they tend to be adaptable to all sorts of situations.

By developing entrepreneurial thinking, you better adapt to whatever your circumstances are so you can more easily achieve your goals , whether those goals are to start a business that makes a positive impact in the world , to set yourself up for an early retirement , or climb Mount Everest.

3. Develop a growth mindset . If we have a “fixed mindset,” we may shy away from challenges that could help us grow. But this can be problematic because our fear of making mistakes can lead us to avoid challenges and new experiences—experiences which would help us grow, improve ourselves in important ways, and create the life we desire.

If we have a “ growth mindset ” we seek out challenges because we value learning and growth more than we value feeling smart or knowing what we’re doing. That's why those with a growth mindset often build new skills more easily: They believe they can and so they really work at it.

4. Develop your self-soothing mechanism. High levels of stress are not only bad for our health and well-being, they can prevent us from effectively pursuing and achieving our self-development goals. By learning effective, long-lasting relaxation techniques , your body and mind will be more equipped to handle the inevitable challenges that arise when you're trying to develop yourself.

5. Develop resilience . Resilience is that super-important skill that helps you bounce back quickly after being knocked down. This is one of the most important skills for success because none of us will achieve anything if we don't keep trying when we fail. We can build resilience by improving skills like emotion-regulation , mindfulness , and positivity.

6. Develop your value compass. It's not always easy to live by our core values . But when we go through life without following our personal values, we can easily get lost. We may suddenly "wake up" and realize that we are not who we want to be or where we want to be. This is why it's so important to stay in alignment with our personal values.

What are your values? Perhaps: kindness, curiosity, creativity , hard work, or personal relationships. Define your personal values so you know which actions are in alignment with those values.

7. Create a personal development plan. A good personal development plan takes all these factors into consideration—the WHAT, the HOW, the WHY, and the WHEN. And it focuses on long-term goals . So ask yourself:

It can be helpful to create a 10-year plan to map out how you'll reach these goals.

8. Record your progress towards personal development. Keeping track of our progress as we move toward our personal development goals is key to making sure we're on the right track. Then we can pause and take a different direction if we've gone off course. By maintaining self-awareness and frequently checking in with ourselves, we can identify things that we need to devote more attention to. As a result, we can make better progress toward our personal development.

9. Keep developing yourself in new ways. The science is clear: The more ways we develop ourselves, the broader our skillset, and the more success we tend to have. So try learning some new emotional skills or do some activities to build new skills. You just might learn something that changes your life.

Facebook/LinkedIn images: GaudiLab/Shutterstock

Tchiki Davis, Ph.D.

Tchiki Davis, Ph.D. , is a consultant, writer, and expert on well-being technology.

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Men have long been silent and stoic about their inner lives, but there’s every reason for them to open up emotionally—and their partners are helping.

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The 5 Stages Of Personal Growth

Christine Hassler

Remember being in second grade, or even seventh grade, and feeling confident you'd know what it meant to be an eighth grader or a tenth grader when the time came? Not worrying that you weren't in eighth grade at the age of 7?

We gave ourselves permission to be wherever we were in our developmental process. Now that we’re grown up, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to know everything right now.

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After seeing so many people walk the path of transformation, I’ve realized there are many phases, and they don’t look the same in any two people’s lives. Think of life as your school. You’re constantly learning lessons and growing. While we need to give ourselves permission not to know everything now, it’s important to know where we are in the process. No matter our current phase, though, these three rules stay the same:

1. Don’t expect yourself to be anywhere other than where you are. Accept your current place on the path.

2. Anticipate the very next phase beyond the one you’re in, so you can be prepared for it when it arrives.

3. Be compassionate and understanding to others, regardless of their progress on their own personal journey.

I've described the five overarching phases below:

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personal growth biography

If you’re reading this, you’re either past or nearly past this phase. If you were asleep, my work wouldn’t resonate with you. But I bet you remember when your conditioning and fears ruled you. That's when you were asleep — playing the victim, assuming we don’t have the power or ability to change our own lives. Placing blame, neuroticism, fear, and lack of fulfillment are common side effects of being "asleep." At some point, we realize we’ve been living our lives on cruise control and decide to stop.

2. Awakening

Usually, after a good old-fashioned expectation hangover (when we’ve expected certain things from ourselves or others and found ourselves disappointed — again), we finally wake up and start asking ourselves why that keeps happening.

We begin to learn that our experiences aren’t random, and we start looking for answers. We connect the dots and recognize that life is about learning and finding our true selves. We have a lot of realizations — both exciting and perhaps difficult to deal with.

3. Integration

In this phase, we shift from knowing to doing. If you feel like you have a lot of information but things in your life aren't reflecting that knowledge, you’re probably in the integration phase. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and make things happen.

Awareness is not enough for transformation. We must change our belief systems and behaviors. We can let go of our old stories and upgrade our programming. Here, now, we do the courageous emotional work of healing old issues so they no longer define us or hold us back. We take the tools we have and the skills we’ve learned and put them into action.

You might find yourself getting “do-overs,” or chances to respond to situations you’ve encountered before in different ways. This is the most powerful way to break a pattern. Do-overs are the way you integrate awareness and action.

4. Acceptance

Once we’ve made new habits and are starting to inhabit this new way of being, we begin to accept. We are not new people. We’re just more authentically ourselves than ever.

Does this mean we are totally evolved and never have anything to work on? No. We are still human. The only difference is that now when we get an expectation hangover, we can move past it and into acceptance.

We stop fighting with reality and either accept it or change it. We are happy with ourselves and no longer slaves to our impulses.

5. Application and service

This phase is about a bigger vision: changing the lives of others. We feel called to share the love we feel. You might be tempted to jump into this phase before you've finished integrating. Be patient with yourself. There is no “gold star” or finish line on this journey.

To reiterate, this is not a one-size-fits-all model, but it may help to lend structure to your unique spiritual journey. Every phase is rich with learning opportunities, so be grateful for whatever phase you’re in.

Keep in mind that you may go back and repeat the phases multiple times, when an expectation hangover triggers awareness of a problem area, or new insight inspires further self-discovery.

I’d love to hear if this structure resonates with you and which phase you think you might be in.

Related reads:

Christine Hassler is a former Hollywood agent and achievement addict turned three time best-selling author, life coach and speaker known for offering radical reflection with practical direction. She teaches people how to overcome their Expectation Hangovers® in her latest book. Christine is passionate about busting the myth that life is about living by a checklist and having it all figured out. Christine believes we all deserve and are capable of discovering our passion, pursuing our dreams, and making an impact on the world. Christine leads retreats and workshops to audiences around the world. She has spoken to over 500,000 people at personal growth events, conferences, colleges and corporations. Christine has appeared as an expert on The Today Show, CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, E!, Style and PBS, as well as various local television and radio shows. She is also the host of her own live life-coaching podcast: Life with Coach Christine. She grew up in Dallas, graduated cum laude from Northwestern University and received her Masters Degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. Christine is active in volunteerism and loves living a healthy lifestyle. She currently resides in LA and loves spending time with her family and friends in Austin, Texas.

[CH1]http://www.amazon.com/Expectation-Hangover-Overcoming-Disappointment-Work/dp/1608682412

[CH2]http://christinehassler.com/podcast/

Lifehack

Personal Development

10 reasons personal growth is important no matter your age.

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Self-improvement products in the U.S. bring in an estimated 9.9 billion dollars annually according to the latest data, [1] a seemingly massive industry. That is until you compare it to the music and film industries, which come in at a whopping 61 billion dollars combined. Or the beauty industry at an enormous 265 billion. [2] Now that’s a behemoth.

What these impressive numbers tell us is that Americans spend nearly 33 times more of their hard-earned cash on music, movies, and personal appearance than they do on personal growth.

Of course, the numbers aren’t a big surprise — our society is driven by appearances and instant gratification. We all want to look good and enjoy ourselves. But the data may be illustrating just how out of whack our priorities really are.

Assuming we could collectively use a swift kick in the pants to adjust those priorities, let’s review some great reasons to actively pursue personal growth, at any age.

Those who actively pursue personal development enjoy the following ten advantages:

1. Healthier Relationships

Relationships — with your family, children, co-workers, lovers and even that primary relationship with yourself – are the foundation of life. You can’t avoid them (even when you may wish to).

When your relationships are low-quality , your life is low quality. Conversely, when your relationships are healthy and vibrant, you will reap the benefits in profound ways.

Learning and building good relationship skills is an essential part of any personal development plan. People who consciously and deliberately build interpersonal skills experience greater satisfaction in relationships of all kinds.

2. Less Stress

Given the killer that stress has turned out to be, [3] and how quickly it negatively impacts our overall quality of life, anything that reduces stress would be worth pursuing, don’t you think?

By making personal development a habit, particularly with regards to stress-reduction techniques such as mindfulness practices , you will be better able to identify, manage and even eliminate key sources of stress in your life.

3. Improved Health

This one follows very nicely from our first two advantages above.

The link between stress and health is undeniable; more stress equals more disease. Happier and healthier relationships equals less stress, and the more equipped we are to manage and reduce stress, the better our overall health becomes.

The tools and teachings of personal development and self-improvement give us a better understanding of ourselves and of the world around us. The more you understand, the more equipped you become to handle whatever life throws at you.

People who have learned to manage the challenges and stressors of life have fewer lifestyle-related diseases, and may enjoy a prolonged lifespan as a result.

4. Increased Productivity

The number one enemy of productivity is procrastination. And procrastination is often driven by deeper emotions. [4] People engaged in personal growth as a lifestyle make a habit of digging deeper into these issues, thereby increasing the likelihood of arriving at meaningful solutions.

The second largest enemy of productivity is, you guessed it, stress. Our increasingly hectic lives are often driven by the expectations of perfection and performance, and when stress enters the mix, our productivity drops. We spend so much of our time worrying and trying to multitask that our ability to focus and accomplish what we set out to do diminishes.

Self-development techniques improve your ability to focus and manage stress, help you get at hidden emotions and motivators, and allow productivity to sore.

Just imagine what life would be like if nothing stood in the way of your highest productivity. How much more would be possible for you?

5. Enhanced Self-Control

Self-control , that ability to regulate your emotions, thoughts and behavior in order to accomplish specific goals, is a cognitive ability that can be worked out and strengthened just as you would your muscles.

When setting and working towards goals for your life, it’s easy to become derailed by temptations, habits and impulses, particularly those driven by subconscious beliefs and underlying emotions.

By making self-development a regular and important part of your life, you bring to light those underlying beliefs and feelings. You strengthen your self-control ‘muscles’, making it easier to build new habits and achieve short and long term goals.

6. Greater Success

By success, we’re talking about the ability to reach those markers of achievement that each individual sets for him or herself, rather than the standard markers of ‘success’ as presented by media (i.e. wealth, popularity, fame or power). Though, ironically, if that’s what you truly want, you’re more likely to achieve it if self-development is a regular part of your lifestyle.

When we look back over the advantages as listed above, it’s easier to see why this is true; healthy and supportive relationships, reduced stress and the associated improvements in health, increased productivity, and enhanced self-control all create the necessary environment for success to occur.

7. Improved Peace of Mind

Aside from the peace of mind that generally follows as a result of such factors as lower stress levels, experiencing better overall health, and being successful, regular self-awareness and improvement practices can generate their own feelings of greater contentment and tranquility.

Mindfulness, meditation , and mind-body techniques such as yoga and qi-qong , when practiced regularly can improve focus and self-awareness, which in turn helps generate peace of mind.

Personal development practices also tend to increase your understanding of self and others, which contributes to a greater sense of peace and acceptance overall.

8. Better Parenting

Because young children and babies learn by aping their parents and caregivers, it’s vital that parents first and foremost work on developing and improving themselves.

To be a better parent, one that can serve as a good first role model for babies and young children, you need to be willing to take a long, hard, honest look at yourself.

When you spend the time on personal development and self-awareness, you are less likely to unwittingly pass along negative patterns and behaviors to your children. You’re also far less likely to fall into common parenting pitfalls such as negative reinforcement, anger, bullying, enabling, micromanaging and the like.

9. Greater Resilience

According to the dictionary definition, resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from life’s challenges, tragedies and difficulties. It’s the psychological ability to emerge from these experience and return to a healthy mental and emotional state. It’s essentially a form of emotional flexibility.

Personal development allows you to confront and work through obstacles from the inside and out. Time spent developing your emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and coping strategies will have a direct and positive impact on your level of resilience.

Life will always throw us curve balls in the form of obstacles and challenges when we least expect them. Having resilience means being able to rebound quickly, returning to your natural balance, growing and learning from the experiences instead of snapping or breaking.

In fact, developing greater resilience may well be the most important thing anyone can do to improve their overall life satisfaction.

10. Greater Happiness

And we finally arrive at the grand finale of advantages — happiness.

If happiness truly is the journey rather than the destination, then spending the time in your daily life to develop yourself will make that journey a heck of a lot more pleasant.

Imagine a life in which you enjoy good health and better relationships; a life in which you feel in control of yourself and your ability to cope well with whatever challenges come your way; a life in which you feel generally confident in your ability to succeed in your endeavors.

By taking the time to work on your personal development, you are decreasing the negative impacts of stress and ill-health, and you are increasing your ability to handle your life and relationships.

Through self-improvement efforts, you learn to identify, heal and transform underlying beliefs, traumas and self-sabotaging behaviors and habits.

All of which contributes to removing the layers of obstacles that smother our ability to experience real joy and happiness.

Final Thoughts

So next time you’re feeling crappy about your life or something in it, and feel tempted to spend money on makeup, clothes or that latest video game, perhaps you’ll think again and browse a while in the self-improvement section.

The former might change your mood for the moment, but the latter may well change your life for good.

Tips for Accelerating Your Personal Growth

Featured photo credit: Debby Hudson via unsplash.com

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Oct 28, 2021

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7 Signs of Personal Growth That Are More Positive Than They Feel

Growth hurts. it’s not like the movies..

If I’ve learned anything in the past two years, it’s that personal growth is hard. Very hard. Painful, even. Emotionally, mentally, and sometimes physically painful.

If I had to describe what I’d previously imagined the concept of personal growth to look like, I’d…

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Home » The Tony Robbins Blog » Productivity & Performance » Power through personal growth goals

Power through personal growth goals

How to develop a personal growth plan that works.

personal growth biography

Remember, as Tony says, “Rewards come in action, not in discussion.” You’ll never overcome your personal growth challenges just by thinking about them. Create a personal growth and development plan that consists of actionable items. Then put in the work to tackle any obstacle in the way of your goals . With hard work and dedication, you will become the best version of you possible .

What is a personal growth plan ?

Your personal growth and development plan is a completely customized blueprint for your life . It starts with your purpose : What will bring you the most happiness in life? From there , work backward. Determine the habits you need to develop, the skills and knowledge you must master . Establish the step-by-step goals you need to achieve to get there.

Personal growth isn’t just for those who are feeling stuck or have a major obstacle to overcome. Everyone benefits from working through a personal growth plan . Learning how to continue your personal growth is essential to building confidence , reaching your goals and finding fulfillment. If you’re not growing, you’re dying – so it’s time to get growing.

Determining your personal growth challenges

The first step of setting personal development goals is to decide what is important in your life. What does your personal growth and development plan mean to you? Does it mean becoming a better communicator with your partner ? Do you envision professional success? Would you like to adopt a sustainable healthy diet and get into better physical shape? Do you want to become better at handling your finances? No matter your personal growth challenges, there’s a way to achieve your goals.

Growth and success mean something different for everyone, but personal growth plan s usually tackle four areas of life: professional, relationships, intellectual and physical health. Within these areas, you can tailor your goals to your own life to ensure you continue to grow.

Understanding the categories of personal growth plans

There are as many personal growth plan examples as there are people, but for our purposes we can break them down into seven categories. These include:

Personal Skills

These can be the skills you’re born with – or they can be learned and acquired. To excel in all areas of your life, you must understand which of your skills are the strongest and which ones need more work.

Personal Growth

Growth requires evolution. In order to achieve business, relationship, life or physical goals, you must evolve into a different person than you were before. You must deepen your knowledge and remain open to growth.

Personal Power

Personal power applies to the authority you grant to others. If you want to grow, you need to take back some of your personal power. Stop letting other people control you.

Personal Improvement

To improve your life, you must keep a positive mindset and work hard. Any growth relies on personal improvement. If you aren’t pushing yourself to become a better person, you will never achieve your goals.

Personal Empowerment

What is the unique power that you see within yourself? It has nothing to do with how others see you. Increase your personal empowerment by holding strong to a positive image and find creative outlets that you enjoy.

Personal Analysis

Personal analysis is when you get serious with your strengths and your weaknesses. No one is good at everything. Be truthful when it comes to analyzing where you come up short and what you can do to make improvements.

Personal Objectives

Setting personal objectives are essential for creating change and achieving goals. Ambition will get you nowhere without a clear set of outcomes in mind. 

How to create a personal growth and development plan

1. identify what you really want for your personal growth.

The first step in developing a personal growth plan is thinking about what you really want . Ask yourself these questions: what are the results you crave? What is the ultimate desired outcome for your pursuit? You need to clarify what you want from your personal growth and development plan. Do you want to get promoted at the office? Strengthen your romantic relationship? Feel stronger and healthier? Whatever your personal growth goal is, name it.

Once you have a clear outcome in mind, think about your reasons behind the goal. At first glance, you may think it’s just because you want to feel better about yourself or find ways to build yourself up. These are all important factors, but to really take your growth to the next level, you have to dig a little deeper.

2. Discover the deeper “why”

To understand how to continue your personal growth, you need to challenge yourself to think of a larger “why.” Do you want a promotion so you can better provide for your family? Will a stronger romantic relationship lead to greater happiness and productivity in your life? Does being in better shape allow you to give back to your community more thoroughly?

By recognizing that you’re driven by factors larger than yourself, you’ll feel more encouraged to take on the task at hand and really commit to your personal growth plan . Your reasons need to be clear and compelling and they need to help you focus on what achieving your personal growth will mean to your way of life. When you do this, you stop pushing yourself toward a goal. Instead, you are pulled toward that goal with passion.

3. Pinpoint obstacles in your personal growth plan

Now you need to take a look at what’s getting in your way. Many people see challenges as obstacles that are keeping them from following their personal growth plan when they’re actually opportunities . Take a look at what you perceive as roadblocks on your path and see how you can remove them – or reframe and use them to get you closer to your objectives. 

It’s easy to believe that not having an advanced degree in your industry is a roadblock, but when you’re really honest with yourself, perhaps there are more insidious obstacles in your way. Maybe you just don’t have passion for your industry. This challenge is actually encouraging you to take a different path and explore a career that means more to you. You don’t have to choose between passion and profitability – when you follow your calling, you can have both.

personal growth two men sitting at table talking

4. Get the tools and coaching you need

It’s okay to ask for help. Acknowledging that you can’t create a personal growth plan all on your own is not failure . Many of the world’s most successful people turn to external tools and strategies when they embark on their path to personal growth. Check out the best personal growth books , turn to stories or quotes you find inspiring or find a mentor who empowers you. You can also work with a personal growth coach who can help you clarify your plan and develop the best strategy to achieve it.

If you can’t access a mentor, identify someone you admire and study their choices. Use Tony’s words as a guide: “If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.” How did they find success? How do they approach their daily responsibilities? What path did they take to personal growth? Whether this is someone who’s famous or someone close to you, by using tools and tapping into the success of others, you’ll more easily develop your own path to success.

5. Make sure you’re in alignment with your personal growth goals

There’s more to personal growth than setting goals and then working hard to achieve them. Many of us suffer from inner conflicts that lead to self-sabotage . We must first unlock these conflicts and get ourselves into alignment before we can take the next step toward our personal growth plan . Abiding by the law of attraction can help to achieve alignment.

Once you are aligned, you will find yourself taking action that leads to success. You’ll focus on what you really want and know, deep down, that you deserve to have the personal growth and successful life you are striving toward.

6. Write it all down

Keeping track of your personal growth plan in your head is difficult . It’s easy to make little changes and adjustments that keep you from achieving your goals. When you write it down, you have visual proof of your original plan and you can re-read it as many times as you need to . Writing down your plan and tracking your progress also helps you increase focus and limit distractions.

The world can be a noisy place and it’s very easy for your mind to fill with chatter. Having a written plan turns down that noise and brings you back to center. Some integrative systems like Tony Robbins’ Rapid Planning Method have tracking built in that helps create purpose, maintain momentum and feel an enormous sense of fulfillment throughout your personal growth adventure.

personal growth people working at table drinking coffee

7. Celebrate your successes

Don’t wait until you accomplish all your goals to celebrate. When you make progress on any part of your personal growth plan , take time to recognize it. You can perform little acts of self-care like getting a massage or treating yourself to some uninterrupted time with your favorite activities. Increase your enjoyment of the celebration by sharing it with someone else who is aware of your personal growth journey. This increases connection and makes your progress that much more rewarding.

Although the road to change feels long at the onset, as you keep track of your personal growth over time, you’ll be inspired to continue. Celebrate small milestones in your personal growth journey, and don’t let yourself become discouraged if you reach a hiccup in your plan. As Tony lays out in The Time of Your Life , it’s crucial to appreciate the work you’ve already put in as you continue on your personal growth journey.

8. Follow through and hold yourself accountable

Keep yourself accountable to your personal growth goals by regularly updating a close friend or family member on your progress. You can also work with a health coach or other type of professional accountability partner who can help you stay on track and modify your plan when necessary. It’s often beneficial for those working on personal growth to partner with another person who is working on their own plan. This allows you to go on the journey together and provide support and encouragement.

Establish your personal growth goals today

Everyone has the power to change their lives for the better. Whether you seek further fulfillment in your personal or professional life, the first step is deciding you’re ready to commit to a personal growth and development plan. With this growth plan , you will never have to compare yourself to others again. This will then lead to clarifying your true reason for wanting to change, seeking out the best tools to get you there and then keeping track of your progress along the way.

As Tony says, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” Start making changes in your life today, and you’ll soon start seeing the results you’ve always wanted.

To see which resources you can get started with today, at home, see our Growth Resources page .

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  1. What Is Personal Growth and Why Is It So Important?

    Personal growth is the improvement of our skills, knowledge, wisdom, habits, behavior, and personal qualities. Personal development allows you to reach your full potential, be your best self and live your happiest, most successful life. Personal growth definition

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    "Personal growth means the improvement of spiritual, physical, emotional, professional, and intellectual health and it is something that happens through a transformational process. I believe our growth journey is never ending, it should always be part of our life," says London.

  5. 50 Best Personal Growth Quotes

    Bookmark these 50 best personal growth quotes to draw upon in the months ahead: 1. "What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." - Jane Goodall 2. "Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." - Albert Einstein 3. "Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What's important is the action.

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  9. 15 Examples of Personal Growth Strategies

    1. Increase Your Willpower Willpower is extremely important to effectively grow yourself. Having the strength and resilience to handle difficult situations and manage all obstacles effectively is extremely critical for success. Likewise, when aiming to grow willpower should be of top priority.

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  11. 18 Ways To Achieve Self-Growth

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  14. Personal Growth: A Definite Guide To Self Growth

    Personal Growth: A Definite Guide To Self Growth Personal growth is the process by which a person recognizes himself or herself and continually develops himself or herself to reach his or her full potential. Personal growth is an important part of a person's growth, maturity, success and happiness. Furqan Ashiq 4 Min Read

  15. Personal Growth: Definition, How To & Examples [Guide]

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  17. 15 Must-Read Books on Personal Growth That Are Recently Published

    Buy one of the best books on personal growth here. 5. Crushing It! This is the most recent of Gary Vaynerchuk's published books at the time of writing it. It's been out for a while, however, this book provides a strong blueprint for how you can be growing a business in this day and age.

  18. 5 Stages Of Personal Growth

    She has spoken to over 500,000 people at personal growth events, conferences, colleges and corporations. Christine has appeared as an expert on The Today Show, CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, E!, Style and PBS, as well as various local television and radio shows. She is also the host of her own live life-coaching podcast: Life with Coach Christine.

  19. 10 Reasons Personal Growth Is Important No Matter Your Age

    Personal development allows you to confront and work through obstacles from the inside and out. Time spent developing your emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and coping strategies will have a direct and positive impact on your level of resilience.

  20. Why Self-reflection Is The Key to Personal Growth

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