5 Tips for Personal DevelopmentPersonal Development - What do you do to develop yourself? How do you increase your value as a person? For some it is reading, for some it is networking, for many it is a combination of these. I wanted to give 5 quick knowledge points regarding some ideas for personal development. 1) Attitude - Every day, each one of us has a choice as soon as we hear our alarm clock. What is your choice or should I say reaction, response or attitude? Each day we are granted on this earth I believe is a privilege. Each day we get a brand new chance to make something better, correct something that didn't work so well from previous days or even make things worse. We each control our own attitude. As Eleanor Roosevelt said "No one can make you feel bad, without your permission". How our day starts, progresses and finishes is based on our attitude. Events will happen every day to us. We cannot control some events. Our reaction or attitude towards that event determines the outcome of those events. If someone cuts you off in traffic and you chase them down and start yelling and escalating the situation, you may end up lost, hurt or worse. Take a moment, step away from your initial, gut reaction and think about what reaction will best benefit you in this situation. We are in control of our attitude, not the event. 2) G.I.G.O. - You may have heard of this before in a computer reference, Garbage In, Garbage Out. This applies to our personal development as well. If we are always filling our mind with negative news from the media or brain numbing TV shows, what type of results do you think this makes? Usually not good. If you have any amount of time in your car for a daily commute, what are you listening to? Are you listening to the news and traffic report that tells you how bad the economy has been and that stocks are down and that there is a traffic jam on the freeway you are on. You may already know the traffic news because you are sitting in the traffic jam. If we look at the acronym differently: Greatness In, Greatness Out, perhaps we can change what we put in to begin with. If we want to be great, we need great information and knowledge coming into our brain. We don't get to be great by watching Sponge Bob Square Pants or Jerry Springer. Exercise your mind and fill it with good information about topics you enjoy. 3) Personal Communication - What are we telling ourselves. This hinges on the last point. To be great, we need to realize we can overcome obstacle and achieve our goals. We also need to take action towards our goals. However, if we don't remind ourselves or keep telling ourselves that we can achieve our goals, you won't get very far. Do you have something you "have always wanted to do"? Why haven't you done it? Perhaps you have been saying to yourself, you can't so that for some reason. Ask Yourself Why Not? It is OK to talk to yourself as long as you don't answer yourself. Personal communication is a form of personal motivation or personal coaching that allows us to achieve our potential. Sometimes when I run, I keep telling myself, one more block, one more lap etc. It allows me to go past my current comfort zone and go further than I initially believed I could. The results are great. I see that I was able to go further towards or exceeding my goal and that is always a great feeling. 4) How We effect others - As part of any personal development we need to realize we are not alone in this world. We can't do everything alone. We need help and we need to associate and communicate with other people. Our attitude and what we have achieved or what we tell ourselves does have an effect on others. If you keep hearing bad news all day and your attitude towards your day is bad, how you effect, interact and appear to others will not be good. You see this all the time if you ask people how they are. Most people will respond with the duldrum Monday comments on Monday but by Friday they are happy and their response is a jovial "Well it's Friday". We need to remember that everyday is a gift. Everyday I am on the green side of the grass allows me to keep a great attitude, and this gets expressed to others. When we are smiling and pleasant we are approachable and we can help people and learn things with others. This is a great source for developing your networking skills. Try going to a networking event with a negative attitude and see how many people you meet. Then try it with a positive, happy intrigued attitude and see what the results are. 5) Visualization - I believe in the power of visualization of my goal as part of my personal development. I visualize the goal I have and myself in a scenario of that goal being accomplished. This allows me to look backwards and see what obstacles I need to overcome or see things I may not have thought of during or before my journey. Visualization also gives me the feeling of satisfaction before I have completed the goal so I know what it will feel, sound and be like to accomplish that goal. So when I achieve my goal, I "have previous experience" and my reaction is more natural. We can visualize anything we want, peace of mind in a tranquil setting, a new car, a bigger house, achieving business goals or bank account totals. This is part of Personal development so YOU get to visualize what You want. As Robert Collier said "Visualize the thing you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blue print, and begin it. Enjoy your life, who's life is it anyway?
Bob Brumm - Professional Speaker, Author & Encouragement Engineer
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