Doing the Work of Personal Development
Personal development is lifetime work. In fact, it may be better termed personal evolution in that you are evolving throughout your life and becoming a different version of yourself over time. As with human evolution, personal evolution takes time and strategic change.
The key to personal growth is to adopt a mastery mindset. Simply put, it’s an understanding that learning is infinite. There is no end to your ability to adapt, change, or reinvent yourself. This is the belief that you will learn more and refine your abilities and viewpoints throughout your entire life. It is set opposed to a performance mindset which is the belief that you need to do things perfectly or risk failure. There simply is no possibility of failure with a growth mindset. All events, all outcomes, are information you can use to learn, refine, and grow. There will be discomfort in the process but there’s value in that too. “Learning is inherently vulnerable,” as Brené Brown puts it in her 2017 SXSWedu talk. You must be willing to be vulnerable and open to examining who you are and how you show up in the world in order to grow. You must allow yourself to be vulnerable to change the world and stand up for justice.
There are many ways to approach personal growth:
Pay attention to what’s going on around you with the intention of becoming aware of how you and others respond in different situations. This is where most people start.
Journal about your responses along with what you’re thinking and feeling at the time. Over time you’ll have a record of the changes you’re making.
Read books on topics that interest you and allow you to understand your thought patterns, behaviors, and society in new ways.
Listen to podcasts, watch TED talks, or find other media that speaks to you. This allows you to more deeply connect with researchers and experts because you can see or hear them. You get a feel for who they are and their passion in sharing information.
You may choose to go on a retreat to explore a particular topic or engage in quiet reflection.
Hire a coach for individual coaching sessions. This is deep inner work and has the potential to be even more life-changing because it speaks directly to your personal experiences, inner thoughts, and behaviors. It’s an ongoing relationship that may last a couple of months up to several years and allows you space and time to create large changes.
Try one or more of these options or develop one that is as unique as you are. You simply can’t go wrong when you seek to understand yourself and the world in new ways.
Whatever you choose, you’re on the right path. Do the work.
The transformation will be slow and life-altering. You may uncover values that you hold dear but are not honoring, find that your body and mind are out of alignment, or identify old thought patterns that no longer serve you. You may seek new ways of getting in touch with universal wisdom. You need only stay open to the process and curious about what you are learning. Cultivating a true mastery mindset can take time but it is a skill, like anything else, and can be learned. Breathe and start, every day learn a little more and change a little more. Small steps really do lead to big changes.
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