Personal Development 101
I thought I will download something that has been on my heart for some time. It is the subject of personal development. People ask me often why I sit up late at night doing things when I could be sleeping soundly. Often I do not have and answer that is understandable. How do you explain to someone that you want to invest time developing yourself even after you have spent years studying for a career.
Personal Development and Education are Different
Education starts and ends somewhere. You go to elementary school, on the first day of school, and end at the terminal grade. You go to college and you graduate. You start a program and stop when it ends. That is education. At each step, you get an evaluation and maybe a certification. Education has a destination. People can tell you how far they went in their educational pursuit. They reached a destination. Then they stopped. It does not matter if they stopped because there was no other thing to study formally or because circumstances forced them to stop.
Personal development on the other hand is different. It is a life long self improvement process. Usually there is no evaluation, not exams to take, no certifications to gain. So the motivation is purely personal. Because of that, many people regard personal development as optional.
Public Versus Private
Pursuing a course of studies is usually a very public thing requiring registration, commencement, and graduation ceremonies. Personal development on the other hand seems to have no start or end date. It is a private matter that can be pursued relentlessly without the need for anyone else to know.
My Personal Development Goal
Being on the WA site is an act of personal development for me. And should be for all of us, because I will not know for what else anyone will be here. Other personal education goals will include things like taking measures to maintain my health and wellness like eating right, drinking enough water, and getting adequate rest. These are not things anyone will grade me on, so in a sense they are optional. Which brings in the skills we all need to succeed in our personal development. Even if no one ever saw it, I am determined to continue building my website until it ranks on the first page in google searches.
Stretching Beyond My Comfort Zone
Personal development has the tendency to push us out of our comfort zone. To a person surfing casually on a website, it is easy to see faults, and criticize how things are flowing. Not being able to put things on my own website as I see on other people's finished websites have enabled me to see that the finish product goes through a painful process. I can better appreciate websites now. And because I am building one, I am beginning to notice what a beautiful website looks like, and how I can make mine as beautiful. This is a skipp acquired through the discipline of developing my skills to build websites.
Determination Will Keep You Going Another Step Forward
Times of discouragement have come along. What kept me going was the determination to get it right this time. To see it to the end. To have and online business running. I have a job now, but I went through a two years spell when I had to self employ to survive. I did every legitimate thing to get through. Now I believe taking time to develop these skills now is crucial for the future.
Personal Development Skills Get Better With Use
When you work your muscles, they get stronger. As I have tackled the different tasks on my website building, I have become better. I can find low hanging fruit keywords with accuracy. I can now organize my keywords to flow logically in my content. My skills have gotten better with use. By writing this blog, I was making that one more step that comes only from tenacious determination. My body told me long ago to go to bed. I answered my body affirmatively. Yes I will retire after this one extra step. One more step is all you need to go further than where you are now in the proces of your personal development. One more step gets you closer to success.
Recent Comments
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Thanks for your insights Ken, I have some news for you though....I personally don't differentiate between education and "personal development" at all...to me they are one and the same process, whether they are "private" or not.
Sure any process of this nature involves discomfort and pain, that's a given, but it brings with it development and growth. It's also known in the "trade" as "Lifelong Learning", it simply never stops!
Just an "educators" perspective...I do enjoy reading your posts!
~Arthur
Yes - and look after the body in the process! Part of the self-development journey, I believe!
Thank you , so powerful analysis Ken . Very deep understanding of the development process . After this I have no excuse at all . I wish you all the best .
Amen. Excellent discussion of personal development.
I come here to collect my thoughts and connect. It's my outlet late at night before I go back to all my work the next day developing my network affiliate marketing.
Logging on to WA helps me regenerate and get ready for tomorrow. I get to explore and grow here. I love personal development late at night ... GrampaMike
Thanks for your and it aligns very much with my beliefs and why I am here as well. Enjoy the steps in your journey, each one takes you closer to the truth :)
Exactly where I am right now. Tomorrow will make a week I've been here at WA and I have been up til the early am everynight reading trainings and blog posts from other members, watching my course videos, or working on my site. The people around me don't understand Im working towards a long term goal. Which as you mentioned it will have its bumps in the road but the end result is worth it. Thank you for sharing.
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I like the first 8 words in your last paragraph. I think that sums it all up!