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Why YOU shouldn't be sleeping on Personal Development?

Firstly, lets make sure we're on the same page!


What is Personal Development? (or PD for short!)

There are a variety of different personal development definitions available online (1-4), all of which suggest that personal development is focused upon carrying out certain actions to increase your current ability in different areas of your life to improve your quality of life.


Why is it important for everyone?

To understand the important of PD, lets look at that last phrase "quality of life".


According to the World Health Organization, quality of life is:

“individuals’ perceptions of their position in life in the context of the culture and value system in which they live, and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns”.


Having a high quality of life is associated with contentment and peace whereas low quality of life reflects suffering and resentment. Therefore, increasing quality of life is what people naturally strive towards. Increasing quality of life has also shown to decrease mortality risk (5) which our natural survival instinct drives us towards.


Personal development is all about understanding what's in our control and optimising this to improve our quality of life. This usually covers things such as:


  • Time management

  • Personal finance

  • Networking

  • Developing good habits

  • Breaking bad habits

  • Setting effective goals


What can you do to work on your personal development today?

The first step of personal development is visualising where you want to be.


If you're struggling to do this, then take a look at some of the people in your life. What inspiration can you draw from them? What qualities might they have that you want for yourself?


After this, think about you current abilities, what strengths and weaknesses do you have? How much work are going to have to put in to become to type of person you want to be?


Finally, break down your goals into small, easy and manageable steps. This will help keep you motivated, particularly during difficult times.


So how are you going to start your personal development journey?


Bibliography:

  1. What does personal development mean? [Internet]. Definitions.net. 2021 [cited 30 November 2021]. Available from: https://www.definitions.net/definition/personal+development

  2. What is Personal Development - UKCPD [Internet]. UKCPD. 2021 [cited 30 November 2021]. Available from: https://ukcpd.co.uk/personal-development/what-is-personal-development/

  3. Personal development [Internet]. Dictionary.cambridge.org. 2021 [cited 30 November 2021]. Available from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/personal-development

  4. Personal development - Wikipedia [Internet]. En.wikipedia.org. 2021 [cited 30 November 2021]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_development

  5. Quality of Life [Internet]. 2021 [cited 30 November 2021]. Available from: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-020-09639-9

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