We all deal with a personal vision for a successive future and career success. But only dreaming is not enough for career improvement rather it is kind of a mental illness.
Therefore, it is always important to have a personal development backup which is the most important aspect of mental growth and personal development plan.
Let us discuss what is personal development and how it influences your self-esteem, confidence, and career success. This read is closely related to your personal development journey toward future success.
Why Is Personal Development Important?
Personal development is a growth process that goes hand in hand with your life.
Self-development and Personal growth help you to deal with situations when you feel stuck in life challenges.
There exist many ideas that describe the importance of personal development in life and one of the best ideas is Maslow’s hierarchy of personal development.
Self-actualization is the most popular level of Maslow’s hierarchy and it focuses on the internal needs of a human being to attain the full potential for personal growth.
Maslow’s hierarchy includes the following personal development needs that are necessary for progression and growth.
- The bottom of the hierarchy includes Psychological Needs which are the needs for basic survival i.e. food, shelter, relaxation, etc.
- The second level involves the need for Safety i.e. security of money, health, and safety in physical and psychological danger.
- The third one involves the need for Love and Belongings that is closely related to relationship building i.e. feeling acceptance, and trustworthiness at work and with family members.
- The fourth level indicates achieving the needs of self-esteem and self-awareness. It includes respect need for others as well.
- The fifth level is about Cognitive Needs which require a deeper understanding and desire for knowledge.
- The Aesthetic Needs include finding satisfaction with the beauty and symmetry in things.
- The final level is Self-actualization which is the need to gain the full potential and positive energy to accomplish things that a person is capable of.
All the above-discussed levels of Maslow’s hierarchy indicate the fact that personal development goals can be achieved only when basic personal needs are met.
A personal development plan is a lifelong approach that can develop a purposeful life and self-help. It becomes easy to make progress when you attain the ability to find your purpose in life.
In addition to personal development being important for self-actualization, here are some of the benefits of setting personal development goals for professional development.
1) Motivation and Career Success
It is not such easy to stay motivated personally and professionally as it seems to be. But when you start your personal development journey things tend to make sense.
The Personal improvement process improves your emotional intelligence and helps you in identifying ways to succeed.
With a growth mindset and problem-solving attitude, you get the ability to ask yourself questions like
- If my current job is not working for me, what improvement is needed in my career?
- Am I showing full confidence at work?
- What will be my progress if I create a goal-setting list?
- Do I have the full focus on my future?
- What will be the benefit of learning a new skill?
The motivation to develop a curious mindset is the result of this professional development in which you gain self-awareness.
2) Improves Self-Awareness
Another benefit of self-improvement is self-awareness which leads to finding the purpose behind every practice. For career development, self-awareness is the major aspect to work on.
3) Supports a Healthy Work Culture
If your company encourages personal development in their employee and tends to develop a healthy work culture it will be beneficial for both the company and the employee.
For example, the focus of a company on making valuable relationships among employees, asking questions, and taking risks lead to a healthy work culture on the job.
These factors raise the confidence of employees and result in company progress.
4) Increases Employee Confidence
Professional development is very important for the employee to maintain their interest in their current job.
Personal development is vital in boosting your confidence and developing good skills on the job and in public.
For example, if you have good communication skills you will make the clients satisfied which will provide you with positive energy at work.
Nice conversations and professional behavior will help you to create good relationships with your boss and co-workers too.
5) Helps reflect on your skills
This benefit of personal development allows you to regain your potential and find your ability to cope with mental illness.
Personal development helps you to reflect on your talent and areas of strength that boost your confidence.
Self-development helps in redefining your existing skills and abilities to accomplish success in life.
Moreover, it makes the learning process fast and easy by enhancing your emotional intelligence.
6 Areas Of Personal Development
During the process of personal development, you need to follow the following areas under consideration.
1) Setting Goals
Goal setting is the most important area of development needed for personal growth. Goal setting is the initiative toward success and personal improvement.
Planning a schedule and setting goals are beneficial for a balanced life. As it provides you a lifelong and short-term motivation for a successive future.
2) Achieving Goals
To achieve life goals you need to follow an action plan specifically the goal-plan-do-action.
When you achieve a goal you feel confident for the next one and achieving a goal provides the necessary boost to your self-esteem.
In short, goal achievement is a plus point for personal development as it leads to personal satisfaction and accomplishment.
3) Self Improvement
Self-improvement involves the personal efforts of an individual. It includes the improvement of knowledge, character, and status.
4) Motivation
People with a big vision and purpose search for motivation and it is their basic necessity for life improvement.
Some need motivation for goal setting and some need motivation for goal achievement and your life goals are the best source to provide the necessary motivation
5) Self Discipline
A disciplined personality gives guarantee a better future and to improve self-discipline one must acknowledge goal setting.
6) Time Management
Time management plays a vital role in personal development as it provides clarity, confidence, and the capability to perform up to the mark.
Why are Personal Development Skills Important?
Personal development skills are important in many ways as these skills are necessary for personal growth and self-development.
With personal development skills, you can unleash your full potential toward success in life. Personal development skills help you create strategies and clarity in your life goals.
An approach to personal development is beneficial for improving your ability to think critically and positively.
These development skills are a great source of professional growth as well as self-development.
Moreover, personal development skills
- Broad your vision
- Energize yourself
- Provide purpose to life
- Develop a positive attitude
- Improve your thinking power
- Opens beneficial future opportunities
How To Improve Your Personal Development Skills
- Overcome your fears: Your personal fears are the biggest enemies of the improvement process. Before getting into things it is important to develop self-esteem and confidence. These characteristics only lie in a fearless mind. So, never feel fear of trying new skills for improvement rather try a new way to overcome your personal fear.
- For example, if you face a fear of public speaking then you should join courses that focus on speaking ability and communicational skills.
- Gain self-awareness: Learn the ways that can affect your productivity and personal growth. Joining personal development courses is one of the best ways to acquire self-awareness.
- Start planning: Making plans for the future assist you to realize the importance of things around you. Planning provides clarity in your life goals and gives you a purpose in life.
- Find a mentor: Talking to someone experienced always helps you to reflect on your mistakes. Your mentor can be your boss, manager, professor, or someone whom you trust and can share your problems with.
- Get positive energy to learn new skills: Always get ready to learn a new skill that can help you in developing confidence and focus on your personal development needs.
11 Personal Development Skills To Work On
Here are the important personal development skills that you must work on.
- Communication Skills: Good communication skills are necessary for both personal life and professional life. For example, if you are good at communicating your company’s matters you can work as a company coordinator. So, to boost your confidence you need the necessary improvement in your communication skills.
- Leadership skills: Leadership skills fits best in the workplace as they activate the improvement process. These skills involve creative thinking, empowering attitude, and a work ethic. For example, if you are going to start a small business you need to have the leadership skills for a good initiative.
- Social skills: Human beings are social animals so, they require the necessary social skills i.e. public speaking, building relationships, and developing confidence.
- Problem-solving skills: problem-solving skills help in coping with mental illness and are necessary to work on. A problem-solving attitude is one of the important developmental skills for personal growth.
- Cognitive agility: Developing cognitive ability helps in deeper understanding and learning skills.
- Growth mindset: A growth mindset has the ability to think optimistically. People with a growth mindset prefer hard work over dreaming for achieving their personal development needs.
- Personal vision: The personal vision involves a set of goals for future success and a positive attitude toward new skills and abilities.
- Time management: Time management is one of the great personal development skills which is necessary for your career success. Managing time in the right way helps you in the challenges of your upcoming life. This growth skill goes hand in hand with each area of life including your work ethic, personal life, and social life.
- Identifying ways for personal growth: Identifying ways for personal growth is equally important as working on self-awareness.
- Focus on a deeper understanding: Having a deep understanding and knowledge behind every reason is kind of a self-help that develops critical thinking.
- Organizational skills: Last but not least! To be active at work you need to acquire some organizational skills. A set of good organizational skills involves goal setting, physical organization, decision-making, start planning, appropriate communication, etc.
6 Steps to Develop a PDP (Personal Development Plan)
1) Identify areas of improvement
The first step in your personal development plan is to identify your areas of improvement. It requires your personal ability to think critically.
Think about your strengths and weaknesses. Which area of development needs your attention? What is the level of personal development you want to achieve in your life?
2) Work with a coach to assemble a plan
Despite the factor that it is your personal development plan you should seek the help of a supporting system.
Does it make sense? Let me be specific, take the services of a coach or mentor to set a development plan for your life and goal setting.
3) Structure your personal development goals
If you have developed a plan with the help of a mentor now move further and develop a daily routine and stick to it.
Start examining your day-to-day progress and practice consistency.
4) Get an accountable partner
It is the best way to be accountable for your progress. Sharing the status of your progress with an accountability partner helps you in providing support.
5) Honesty with your progress
This step of a PDP(personal development plan) is closely related to self-honesty.
Never give importance to unrealistic achievements that may hinder you from life progress.
Rather seeking the help of your friends and family members can be a good source of honest feedback on your progress.
6) Practice self-actualization
As discussed above Self-actualization is the most important level of Maslow’s hierarchy. It is the ability to gain the full potential to achieve your personal development needs.
Personal Development Skills At the Workplace
Here is the list of personal development skills at the workplace.
- Try to be an active listener at work
- Be cooperative with others
- Work with keen interest and honesty
- Face challenges and handle the hurdles
- Work positively with others
- Manage your time and organize your work balance
- Trust your abilities
- Feel excited about changes
Show your passion for your current job
Top Rated Courses
I have collected the list of 5 best personal development courses that can help you in your personal development journey.
1) Developing Creativity
This is one of the best personal growth courses that provide the facility of gamification and mind mapping to develop creative behavior and improve your memory.
You can find these courses on Zoe Talent Solutions.
2) Communication Skills
This is one of the effective training courses that provide the necessary practical tools to improve your communication skills whether at the workplace or in other relationships.
3) Organizational Skills
Among the most active training courses to help you organize your time, procrastination, and tasks by creating deadlines.
4) Time Management
This course focuses on training to balance work life and normal life with managing your time. It also provides a solution to work timely without stress.
5) Job Hunting Skills
One of my favorite professional development courses teaches you the necessary skills to hunt a good job i.e, building a high-quality resume and effective pitching
Highlight Personal Development Skills on Your Resume
To enhance your value you should include your personal development skills in your resume and cover letter. Your personal development skills should be highlighted by you during an interview as well.
For example, adding the following relevant skills to your resume will boost the value of your resume.
- Time management skills
- Communication skills
- Leadership skills
- Organizational skills
- Adaptability
FAQ’S
How do I create a personal development plan?
Here are the important steps to help you create a personal development plan.
- Develop goal setting attitude
- Prioritize your goals
- Practice timemengment
- Identify the opportunities
- Develop new skills
- Create a support system i.e an accountability partner
- Track your progress
What are the 5 areas of personal development?
- Mental growth or growth mindset
- Physical growth
- Social growth
- Spiritual growth
- Emotional growth
What is personal development?
Self-development is a life-long process that includes development activities to unleash the full potential of an individual.
Personal development tends to focus on personal growth, employability, and personal capabilities for career success and successful life.
Why personal development is so important?
Personal development is helpful in building your self-esteem, and confidence, increasing your skills, and fulfilling your aspirations.
Many self-improvement skills help in improving your personal life as well as your professional life.
How can I find a mentor to support my personal development journey?
Many personal development online courses and big companies help you provide the services of a mentor.
The best way to consult a coach includes the following guideline.
- Book the initial conversation with the mentor
- Clearly ask for the needed guidance
- Follow the provided guidelines
- Respect the availability of your coach
- Keep going with follow-through
What are some effective strategies for setting and achieving personal development goals?
- Acknowledge the SMART goal formula
- Write your goals
- Set visibility of your goal plan
- Break down your goals big life goals
- Develop a plan
- Take action toward your life goals
- Identify the obstacles in the way
- Track your progress