On Personal Development

#148

I enjoy bettering myself every single day. The days in between where I take rest and either do nothing or something that doesn't add as much value to my life, such as mindlessly scrolling through Instagram reels, I used to call 'cheat' days. I've now upgraded to use the term 'self-care' day. It helps put a positive spin on things. It also reminds me that amidst super productive, high energy days, it's okay to sleep in a little extra once in a while and focus on introspection.

Here are a few tidbits around how to focus on personal development:

Keep learning

This obviously resonates with me the most because I'm always about learning more and learning new things. Some, I like to expand breadth-wise while others, I enjoying exploring deeper to understand a concept further levels down. In today's world of MOOCs, there's no restrictions on modes of learning - you've got online courses, self-paced interactive courses, textbooks you can order and have delivered within a couple of days, online tutors, and much more! Even merely reading books around self-improvement go a long way in enhancing your skills, be it technical skills, soft skills, or even things to focus on every day, such as meditation.

Find a mentor

At work, mentors have helped me in different ways. At home, my husband proves to be an effective mentor as I'm able to go to him for any kind of help. I get coached by him in various streams of life, be it self-reflection, mental strength, physical fitness, and so on. By finding someone who knows something you don't yet know but want to learn, I believe this is the fastest mode of learning - what better, quicker way to get to know something from an expert than straight from the horse's mouth! Finding a 'Guru' in any field - spiritual realm, goal-related, life coaching in general (Thanks Mom!), topic-wise, will go a long way in not only helping you realize your own potential but also achieve your goals in a more streamlined manner.

Another way to go about this is to find role models. You can always do something I call 'cross-domain emulation', meaning find a role model in one field, admire what they do and how they do it, and then in your own different field, mirror their experience. It's more like learning about values through others.

Daily reflection

Be constantly aware of how you can improve. I've switched my daily 'done' stuff into weekly reflections - they give me greater happiness as it helps me see how much I've actually accomplished in an entire week! Especially across categories - work, household, personal goals, new habits, hobby

Positive visualization

Visualize your journey to the top to be successful. This helps energize me even if I'm lying down but not sleeping, to take a ten-minute break. Optimistically visualizing you attaining your goals will also allow you to step outside your comfort zone and take up something scary. Imagine yourself to be a superhero - how would you tackle every obstacle in your way? Try to be uncomfortable for 5 minutes each day - see how this transforms you into a mentally stronger individual. Even if you're only visualizing ideas or a vision that you haven't yet started working upon, try to take action on it by converting them into meaningful goals.

At the end of the day, remain humble and grateful for everything you're working on to improve yourself and don't worry if you are unable to view immediate results - it's all happening behind the scenes. Quoting the lyrics one of my favourite Miley Cyrus songs:

They say that good things take time

But really great things happen in a blink of an eye

In retrospect, I wholeheartedly agree and I hope you do too.

Stay safe!