Rewind time to about 9 years ago back to 2013 and I had the exact same question. What is personal development anyway?
Back in 2013, I was going through life basically on autopilot. Not really giving any thought as to where I was headed with my career, my love life, my finances, and in general……my life.
If that’s where you are, this is the post for you. Think of it as a way to jump-start you on your new path to badassery.
What is personal development?
When you think of the words “personal development,” what comes to mind for you?
For me back before I started my journey, I thought it was basically for hippies and that it was, more or less, snake oil (boy was I way off).
The Wiki definition of personal development is activities that develop a person’s capabilities and potential, build human capital, facilitate employability, and enhance the quality of life. That sounds kinda complex though.
My definition of personal development is activities that enable you to invest in your future self. Doesn’t that sound better?
You see, personal development is a lifelong journey towards a life of enrichment and smashing goals you put in your way each and every day, month, and year.
Personal development is a way to take you from listening to the same old boring radio DJs (yes there are some good ones out there) on your way to the job you despise, to being on the radio talking about the new business you have been running successfully for 5 years.
It’s a way to go from sitting on your couch every night wondering why you can’t talk to people as easily as Gary Vee because of your social anxiety (I was diagnosed with that so I get how debilitating it can be) to being the life of the party and building long-lasting relationships with the multitude of networking tools you’ve learned.
To put it directly, personal development is what you need to go from the person you are now, to the person you have always dreamed about being. But it doesn’t just happen overnight (more on this later).
As I said, personal development is a lifelong journey where you take small steps towards a big goal/dream every day, week, and month. So it can take a while to reach those goals/dreams which lets face it, in today’s society, waiting is not our specialty (thanks a lot Amazon).
The other thing about personal development is the activity part. You have to do things in order to reap the benefits of it.
Examples of personal development activities
To be completely honest with you, this is the area that I was most unsure about when I started on my personal development journey.
I had made the decision to finally give this “new fangled thing” a shot only there was one problem. Nobody told me what I need to do and back then, I relied on being told what to do.
Thankfully for you, however, I am going to let you in on 3 things you can start doing today that will kickstart your personal development journey.
1.) Read a personal development book.
This is one that was a tough thing for me to start because I did not like reading. In fact, in high school, I did everything I could to NOT read.
The other problem is that I had no idea where to get a personal development book or even what it looked like.
Through trial and error though, along with a lot of research, I was able to start picking up, and learning from, multiple different books. And you want to know something neat (don’t knock me for saying neat)? Turns out I actually enjoyed reading these books.
Now over the past 9 years, I have read quite a few books. However, for you, I’m going to help you with a little jumpstart that I didn’t have. Here are 5 books you can get that will definitely jumpstart you on your journey;
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- 7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen R Covey
- Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Now there are many others you could start with, however, these 5 I would highly recommend you do start with because the nice part about personal development, is there are a ton of books out there that will be able to add to your journey in one shape or another.
2.) Listen to a podcast
Podcasts have literally taken off in the past 5 years. The best part about it is that you can also listen to them virtually WHENEVER.
In the car on your way to that job you hate. In the shower getting ready to go to that job you hate. In the kitchen putting your lunch together to take to that job you hate. I mean virtually whenever and wherever.
Now when it comes to podcasts for personal development I do have to warn you about one thing. There are a ton of podcasts out there that just aren’t very good and really don’t provide any value at all. Basically, the hosts thought they could get in on a “quick buck” and didn’t think it through.
This is also something that you will have to find out through trial and error depending on what your actual goals/dreams are. The upside of this is that most podcasts are between 10-30 minutes so it’s not like you’ll waste an entire afternoon trying to figure out the good ones and bad ones.
I will, however, recommend 2 that I enjoy thoroughly.
- The Ed Mylett Show (new show every Tuesday) – the reason I recommend Ed is because he is successful, however, he is extremely humble. He brings on experts in other fields and interviews them.
- Optimal Living Daily (new show daily) – the host on this one is amazing. What he does is he reads personal development blogs (with the owner’s consent of course) every day. I mean, talk about being given the answers to the test. Plus the majority of the podcasts are around 10 minutes long.
3.) Exercise
Lets face it. Exercise is an extremely important activity to include in your daily life. From its multitude of benefits to the way it makes us feel like we have accomplished something.
Not to mention the fact that when you exercise, you are literally enhancing the quality of your life which, as we learned earlier, is one of the benefits of a personal development activity.
Now I know what you might be saying though. “But Sam, I don’t have any time in my day to go to the gym for an hour and bust my butt.” To that, I call B.S. because we humans have this amazing ability to find time for things that are important to us. Exercise should be one of those important things you include in your day.
However, if you are STILL insistent that you just can’t find an hour a day to get in a good exercise, I’m including a couple of ways to incorporate even just 10 minutes of exercise into your day because we all have to start somewhere.
- Go for a 10-minute walk – there are a multitude of studies out there that show the benefits of walking. Even getting in just 10 minutes a day can help to improve your mood, heart health, and brain function, as well as reduce anxiety and depression. Plus, if you are feeling extra ambitious, listen to a podcast while you’re out for a walk. I would recommend Optimal Living Daily since most of the episodes are only 10 minutes long (look at you go you fantastic multitasker).
- Move a little while watching T.V. – here is another reason why I can’t buy the “I don’t have any time” excuse. It’s estimated that Americans 18+ watch an average of 4 hours of T.V. per day but yet most of us can’t find time to exercise. I’m not saying to stop watching T.V. altogether. I’m simply saying, move a little while you watch. Do some bodyweight squats, pushups, crunches, jumping jacks, or even just march in place.
Look, I’m not saying that you need to go out and run a marathon tomorrow to start experiencing the benefits of some exercise. I’m simply saying that if you want to incorporate some simple personal development into your day, adding in some simple exercises first and building from there could be the ticket.
Conclusion
So there you have it. A very brief introduction to what personal development is and a couple of things you can start implementing today.
I will say this one thing. Personal development isn’t always sunshine and roses and just because you start down your journey doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges and bumps in the road along your journey.
In fact, just last year around this time I was going through a bought of depression and anxiety. This was the first time that I had ever experienced depression or anxiety. I felt like I was worthless and not going anywhere.
Essentially I felt like I was back in 2013 before I had started with personal development which crushed me.
What got me out of my depression, however, was getting back to personal development. Getting back to my roots from the past 8 years at that point.
You see, personal development, as I said earlier, isn’t this magical thing that changes your life overnight. It is, however, this magical thing that can help start you down your path and teach you new tools to implement into your daily life that you can use for those times when you do run into one of life’s inevitable speed bumps.
It provides you with the capabilities to navigate those speed bumps of life and come out the other side with, potentially some new cuts and bruises, but also with the newfound confidence of being able to go through that trauma and come out a better person.
So go out there and start your journey TODAY!
