Best Personal Development Tool Is Gratitude

If you are serious about improving yourself, what you need to know is that there are few different ways you can accomplish that. Of course, what you need to know is that it is imperative that you start somewhere. A lot of the time, people get overwhelmed by all the personal development tools that are out there. That leads to no improvement whatsoever.

A great tool for you, if you are serious about improving your personal development, is to think of the Concept of Gratitude. Gratitude is something that can be exceedingly helpful to you in your quest to better yourself, and here are four (4) ways you can put gratitude to work for you.

Step 1: Be Grateful Every Morning 

Think about what you are grateful for every morning. For most people, waking up is a chore. They wish they could sleep more often, and they do not cherish the idea of waking up and going to work. That is why you should make a real effort to get up in the morning giving thanks instead of complaining. Then, you start your day on a high note and you start helping good things to happen.

Now, it does not matter who you give thanks to. If you are religious, you may wish to thank God, but if you are not, it is as acceptable to just feel the gratitude in your heart.

Step 2: Journal Things You are Grateful For

Another way gratitude can help you is if you keep a journal about things you are thankful for. Keep the journal with you at all times so you can jot down notes if you need to. That way, whenever you are feeling down, or as if you do not have anything, you can open your gratitude journal and see all the things you like about your life. It doesn't have to be huge things you are thankful for, either. Even if you are thankful for jellybeans, that counts!

Step 3: Be Grateful for Your Family and Friends

Express your gratitude for those around you who make your life a better place. We all spend a lot of time complaining about the people who make us miserable, why not take that time and talk about people who make us happy!

Step 4: Seek for Ways to Show Gratitude

Look for ways to show your gratitude to people. You may not have much money, but you can write them a kind note. You can do them a favour, or babysit, or cook them a meal. Showing your gratefulness helps other people do the same to you. Everyone has a tough time in life, so it is a good thing when you can alleviate someone else's suffering.

Again, before you go to bed at night, think of times during the day where you were not grateful, but could have been. This teaches you how to act in the future.

Finally, as you can see now, gratitude can be a really important part of your life. Even if you start with just a little gratitude, it can grow into something that is beautiful in your life. If you want to see your life blossom, become someone who is more grateful.

How to Create a Personal Development Plan

Learn how to create a personal development plan that can transform your life for success. As the saying goes "if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail". We will discuss how to create a plan for our personal development. It can help you get in touch with your internal feelings, determine exactly who you want to be, and how you want to live your life. 

 A personal development plan is often used by young people who are always pressured by their peers. However, adults like you can benefit greatly by creating your own personal development plan. This single step in drafting your plan can transform your life for good. Below I have expatiated 5 steps you can take to craft a personal development plan.

1. Make a List of What You Admire

It is imperative to first decide exactly what types of qualities you admire in people around you that you would like to internalize on your own. This may be qualities that are easy to measure such as staying physically fit or losing weight. It may also include taking on a better and healthier diet, or living a life full of integrity.

Choosing the right types of traits that you find in other people you admire should be on the top of the list. Again, decide which three qualities you would like to incorporate in your own life, in order to begin the process of transformation. The types of qualities you should focus on are the ones that are outside your personal comfort zone. Besides, they should not be unattainable, so as not to quickly discourage you from achieving that goal.

2. Learn to Set SMART Goals

In order to be successful, you will need to set goals. If the qualities you selected above are tangible, like physical fitness, you will need to understand exactly what the goal looks like. It may include participating in a marathon, simply walking the neighbourhood, or changing bad eating habits to healthier ones.

If the qualities include living a life with high integrity, you will need to detail exactly what that looks like to you. It may mean ending bad behaviours, making better habits, or asking for outside help to achieve the goal. Read more on goal setting here. 

3. Flesh It Out

Once the goals are firmly in place, it is time to flesh them out, to give them substance. It is time to expand the plan to add meat to the bones. It is impossible to skimp during this part of the process. Expanding the plan might include attaching some form of timelines or benchmarks where you need to reach a specific goal at a specific time. Be realistic, and flesh out the goals on a timeline that can be easily achieved.

4. Find the Support

It is much easier to obtain these types of goals in your personal development plan with support. You can solicit the help of a family member, friend, therapist, physician or an exercise buddy that simply wants to take the route with you. With enough support, it is easy to achieve nearly any type of goal as long as it has been set in a realistic time frame.

5. Celebrate your Success

Finally, a personal development plan should include a way to celebrate your success. You can do this by keeping a journal, or checking off a long list of necessary goals. You can also include taking stock of past experiences and activities so you can determine exactly how far you have come on the journey of success. Remember that failures are part of the process, and you will need to forgive yourself if you need to start the process all over again.

In a nutshell, learn to create your personal development plan with these five (5) simple steps and get on the way to become successful in life. It will take time but you will surely be transformed for good. 

You may also want to read these related articles.

1. What does personal development mean to you. 

2. How to set your career goals.

Personal Development, what does It mean to You?

Personal development is a very private matter and what it means to me may not necessarily be the same thing that it means to you. However, there is one aspect of personal development that is the same for each and every one of us - the need to improve.

To be able to improve something, you first need to identify what areas in your life could do with a helping hand. The ability to identify room for improvement lies in a good knowledge of yourself.

The best way to get to know yourself better is to grab a pen and paper and make a list of what you feel your strengths and weaknesses may be. On the reverse side of the paper write down what you feel other people think your strengths and weaknesses may be.

You may find it interesting that two sides of the paper do not exactly correspond. Others may identify a strength in you that you may view as a weakness and vice versa.

Now look at the weaknesses that you identified within yourself and pick one that is not listed on the opposite side of the paper. Think about why you feel that area is a weakness while others don't. Ask yourself whether you lack self-confidence or whether you portray a different picture to the rest of the world?

This could be the first step you can take to personal development. Once you feel you have improved in that area, repeat the exercise and see whether you get the same results.

You also need to pay attention to the strengths that you listed. If you feel you have a strength that other people don't see, why are you hiding it? Remember that strengths are not automatically better than weaknesses and there may be some room for improvement so that everyone will notice a specific strong trait.

Even the strengths that correspond on both sides could always use a bit of work. Most people believe that they need to address their weaknesses in order to become a better person. Starting by building upon and bettering one or more of your strengths can provide you with the foundation you need to address other issues in your weaknesses.

If you are finding it difficult to distinguish between your strengths and weaknesses it may be beneficial to seek some professional help. A life coach or mentor is a great place to start or you could opt for more structured and traditional therapy in the form of counselling.

Professional help is not the only route you can follow and you can also turn to family or friends whom you respect and admire. They already know who you are and can help you more than you think.

Don't be afraid to ask for help along your journey of self development. It is very rare that people achieve any type of personal development or self improvement on their own and the more people you include in your journey the more likely you will be to experience growth.

What to do today

Which area of your life do you want to improve upon, write it down and start to work on it and you will love the results at the end.

Let me know what personal development mean to you. 

Career, What is it?

We will discuss about a career, job, occupation, career development, career education and career guidance.  

Career

Career is a series of jobs that is related that we do in our working lifetime. One’s career can span from one level to another, example an office assistant to Administrative Assistant to Assistant Manager to General Manager to Executive Director.  It can also be defined as an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress.  

A career can also include all the roles you undertake through out your life – education, training, paid and unpaid employment. In other words it is a sum total of paid and unpaid work, learning and life roles you undertake through out your life.  

Job

A job is a paid position requiring a group of specific attributes and skills that enable a person to perform tasks in an organisation either part-time or full-time for a short or long duration.  

Occupation

An occupation is defined as a group of similar jobs found in different industries or organisations. A career therefore is the sequence and variety of occupations (both paid and unpaid) which one undertakes throughout a lifetime. More largely, “career” includes life roles, leisure activities, learning and work.  

Career Development

Career Development is the process of managing life, learning and work over the lifespan.  

Career Guidance

Career Guidance is an inclusive term that has been used to describe a range of interventions including career education and counselling, that help people to move from a general understanding of life and work to a specific understanding of the realistic life learning and work options that are open to them. Career guidance is often thought to incorporate career information, career education and career counselling.  

Career Education

Career education is the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes through a planned program of learning experiences that will assist students to make informed decisions about their study and/or work options and enable effective participation in working life. Career education encompasses:  

- Learning about the world of work, its changing nature, the general expectations of employers, and the demands of the workplace developing self-awareness in relation to interests, abilities, competencies and values; and  

- Developing awareness and understanding of occupational information and career pathways developing skills in decision-making which can be applied to career choices acquiring the skills necessary to implement the career decisions made. (MCEETYA Career Education Taskforce, 1998).  

In nutshell, we have learnt the definitions of what a career is, job is, occupation is and the various related areas like career development, career guidance and career education.