The Personal Part

This is a very peculiar part for a lot of people. While everybody
agrees that having a lot of professional knowledge is critical, most
people don’t put a lot of stock into the idea of personal development.
Personal development takes on many different forms and can go in
an infinite variety of different directions. After all, no two people are
exactly the same.
Personal development includes things like making sure you get enough
sleep, meditating on a regular basis, reading life-changing books,
listening to inspiring audio programs and maintaining a healthy social
life where you’re regularly exposed to people who help you learn the
lessons of life that can’t be found in a book. Consider how much you
know now that you didn’t even consider ten years ago.
That kind of knowledge is a component of your personal development.
As a person grows mentally, they change. While their personality stays
basically the same, their view of the world is surprisingly fluid. I know
my outlook on life has gone to a whole different plane over the past
decade or so. The irony is, personal development doesn’t just happen
from experiencing a certain number of years in your life.
Personal development also comes about proactively. You can choose to
devote your time to developing in a personal way. There are a lot of
books you haven’t read that could potentially be life-changing. And
even if you hate to sit there and read something, you can pick up some
CDs or audio files of most self-improvement books and listen to them
during your commute. How many hours a week do you sit in the car
anyway? Forget the old stigma about being the kind of person who reads
self-help books. The only people who will think any less of you for that
are the kinds of people who are too insecure to admit they aren’t perfect.
And if you think those kinds of
people are going to be miserably
stuck in the same place they’re in
today in ten or twenty years (almost
like a prison term); you’re probably
on the money. A wise person
once said that if you aren’t being
criticised, you aren’t doing anything. While criticism isn’t absolutely
necessary, meaning you shouldn’t actively seek to be criticised, it’s
nothing to be afraid of.
I know I’m getting to sound like a quote book with all of these old
sayings, but there’s another one that perfectly sums up why self-help
material is worth any price you pay for it. Paraphrased, the saying goes,
“change your mind, and you change the world”.