What is personal development?

Dear Tristan,

I am confused as to what personal development means and what is involved in that. How is personal development different from self-help, self-improvement, human potential, or personal growth? Can you help explain this to me?

Thank you,

Janet Merlo

___________________________

Hi Janet,

I agree with you. There is a great deal of confusion in this field about what exactly personal development is — and what it isn’t. I will do my best to explain to you what personal development is.

What is personal development?

Personal development is the enhancement of specific life skills necessary to facilitate happiness and success in personal life. These life skills are the building blocks that make up all the success or failure you have in life. Personal development skills become the foundation for all your achievements in life and have a direct relationship to winning and life success.

One of the main differences between personal development skills and other skills you may possess is that personal development skills are used 24 hours every day, whereas you may only use your programming skills eight hours per day in your framework. When you talk to someone, you are using personal development skills. What you decide to eat is personal development. When you validate your feelings – this is personal development. Even managing your sleep habits belongs to personal development.

Personal development skills are life skills that must be honed in order to reap the benefits of a life worth living. Investing time in developing yourself personally results in a peak performing individual who lives a more fulfilling life than those who do not choose to develop themselves.

What is not personal development

Personal development does not involve diagnosing or treating a disease or injury. There seems to be general confusion in the field of personal development as to what it is and what it isn’t, and since there are so many books in bookstores and bookstores that miscategorize mental illness books in the self-improvement section of the store, let me make the point. A key characteristic of a person who wishes to practice personal development is that they are generally healthy, normal individuals, and are able and willing to move on with their lives. In other words, they want to become high-performing individuals.

On the other hand, a person who is unable or unwilling to move on with their life and pursue happiness and life success because of past illness, trauma, or injury preventing them from doing so needs therapy or therapy to aid in their recovery. These are individuals who do not perform normally and whose goal is to perform in a normal capacity. In other words, they want to recover.

Many other faces of personal development

Within the scope of my coaching practice, I see personal development, self-improvement, and personal growth as similar. I see self-help as a little different from personal development in that self-help topics tend to be less focused on personal growth and more on addressing a specific condition, and so, for this reason, there are so many books in self-help sections of bookstores and libraries that focus on addressing problems, rather than creating peak performance.

The ten components of personal development

The definition of personal development varies from person to person, but through my experience as a personal development coach and former police officer, I have discovered that there are actually ten key areas that make up an individual’s peak performance. These areas of focus are:

1. Purpose of life: Having a life purpose gives meaning to all the activities and goals that you have set for your entire life. We all know how to consume the time we have in life, but unless we give meaning to those activities that occupy our time, our life will be completely meaningless.

Life purpose subsections include:

• legacy
• Valuable
• emotions
• talent
• spirituality

1. Setting goals: Goals are the starting points that allow you to reach your legacy in life. Any successful person knows that in order to achieve personal success in life, you must challenge yourself and expand your scope to achieve more than your status quo. Goal setting is a powerful success skill that enables you to win the game of life.

Subsections of goal setting include:

• visualization
• Strategic planning

1. productivity: The problem a lot of people make when they set goals is that they start cutting corners to get what they want and end up bitter and frustrated in the end because goal achievement doesn’t work that way. It’s like someone who wants to stand on the podium and get a gold medal at the Olympics without putting in the time to train. While we cannot take shortcuts to reach our goal, we can shorten the time it takes to reach those goals by being more productive. Successful people are masters of productivity and it’s no mistake that they can achieve more in less time than most people out there. Learning how to be productive and make the most of the time you have is an important part of personal development.

Productivity subsections include:

• time management
• organized
• prioritization
• to delegate
• Get things done

1. incentivize: If goals are the path to personal success, motivation is the fuel to get there. Motivation is a necessary aspect of personal development because almost all of us know that lack of motivation greatly hinders the process of achieving a goal. Learning how to master your motivations can help you reach your success faster than you ever thought possible.

Motivation subsections include:

• Important
• an example
• accountability partners
• Principles of pain pleasure

1. self conscious: Emotions can either enable or hinder our performance. Emotions act as a thermometer that tells us the quality of the experience we are having. Therefore, it is necessary not only to understand our emotions, but also to learn how to use them effectively. Self-awareness includes inner communication, which is the ability to truly connect with yourself and identify your inner desires and needs.

Subdivisions of self-awareness include:

• emotional smartness
• responsible
• Anger control
• Unconditional love
• gut instinct

1. marketing: No matter how good you are at a certain skill or how much you want to contribute to others, it won’t matter if people don’t know about it. Massively successful people throughout history have all known how to market themselves which is crucial to everyday life. If you’re married or want to become one someday, that involves your marketing. If you’ve ever had a job interview, you’re using marketing skills. Those who know how to market themselves or their products simply get more luxuries than those who don’t know how to market themselves, regardless of actual competency or skill levels by the fact that people are familiar with it.

Marketing subsections include:

• marketing for you
• marketing services or products
• networks

1. Physical health: Your body is the vehicle that transmits your thoughts and intentions into the real world. Therefore, you want to have a car that is well maintained and runs without problems. Keeping your body functioning optimally involves eating right, exercising, and monitoring your stress levels.

Subsections of optimal health include:

• fitness
• My diet
• Sleeps
• pressure

1. relations: The definition of synergy is the bringing together of two or more entities with the goal of creating more than either one of them alone. All superior relationships in your life must involve synergy and creating synergy with others involves empathy and communication skills. Life success is never a one person project. It involves many people and involves synergy.

Relationship subsections include:

• sympathy
• communication skills
• negotiate
• conflict resolution
• Interpretation of body language

1. Leadership: Every successful person who has ever lived has been a leader in their respective fields. A leader is one who clears the way for others to follow and has the courage to stand among the group. A leader is an agent of change and is flexible enough to deal with unexpected events that come his way. They show others the path when that path is not clear.

Leadership subsections include:

• courage
• decision making
• solving problems
• responsible

1. Money management: In order to achieve personal success, you must reach financial freedom, which is the point where you make enough money that you don’t have to worry about money. Money is energy and you have to learn how to manage this energy for optimal personal development

Money management subsections include:

• leading businesses
• receipt value
• investment
• Money management

I hope that clarifies your personal development.

For passion and purpose,

Tristan

Copyright © 2007 Tristan Loo. All rights reserved.