Self-development and self-improvement where to start for a woman. About life approaches

Everyone has ups and downs in life, and often we blame others and fate for our failures, but we may not see our own shortcomings. In order to change something in the world around you, you need to start, first of all, with yourself.

One day you will ask yourself the question - “where to start working on yourself?” Self-improvement is a delicate matter, you need to approach it very competently, so that at one moment you don’t feel the desire to give up everything.

Wheel of life - how strong motivation on the path of self-improvement

If you don’t know where to start self-development, how to choose the right path for yourself, first you need to understand where you are. The Wheel of Life is a system that helps you analyze your level of success.

To do this, you need to draw a circle and divide it into 8 sectors:

Career and business. Do you enjoy your work?

Finance. Are you satisfied with your salary? Do you have enough funds for financial independence?

Friends and environment. Does your environment help you develop? What do you get from communicating with friends?

Family and love. Is there harmony in your relationships with loved ones?

Health and sports. How good is your health? Would you like to make your body attractive and get rid of excess weight?

Entertainment and relaxation. Are you organizing your vacation correctly in order to not only recharge yourself with energy, but also get something useful for yourself?

Education and personal growth. What knowledge have you acquired to develop and improve yourself?

The brightness of life. Are you satisfied with your life? Does it have enough bright, memorable moments?

Each sector is your life value, which is necessary in order to feel the happiest. This way, you will put your goals in order and have a better understanding of what you need to strive for. Also, do not forget to write what exactly in each sector you lack for complete happiness.

Each sector must be assessed using a 10-point system. You must be as honest with yourself as possible. There is no need to look for excuses for your saggy belly or low salary. Just finally admit to yourself that everything is bad in these areas and you need to do something about it.

After this, connect the points on the scale with a line. If the resulting figure in the center resembles a circle, then you can only be congratulated. Are you in complete harmony with yourself and with the world around you.

If you get a crooked figure, you will be able to see which sector you need to work on in order to achieve harmony and happiness. In addition, by putting one sector in order, you can positively influence other parts.

After analyzing each sector, you must set global goals, which you need to break down into several small ones and confidently strive for them. In addition, the goal should be achievable, so be realistic and do not try to become slim like Angelina Jolie and find yourself a prince in the person of Brad Pitt.

Get yourself a diary and write down in it what you have achieved, every small victory. For example, you gave up unhealthy but tasty food. Praise yourself for this.

A positive outlook on the future is half the success

Personal self-development cannot be achieved without a positive outlook on the future. If you always think that you will achieve nothing, that there are no results, thoughts will swarm about giving up everything, you will never achieve anything.

You should greet every day with a smile, rejoice in even the smallest victories, see the positive in everything, notice changes in yourself.

Of course, thoughts alone are not enough for a person’s self-development. Actions matter. At first, 30 minutes a day is enough to read a book and learn something. You can even just not sit in the evening social networks or not watch TV, and this will already be a victory and the first steps on the path of self-improvement.

Literature for self-improvement

Books for self-development are another step towards improving your personality. There are many primary sources, such as the Bible or books on the teachings of Tao, but they will be incomprehensible to many.

Today there are a lot of books for self-development. We present you a list of some of them:

1. . It will teach you how to set realistic goals that are easy to achieve. You will be able to correctly prioritize;
2. Dan Waldschmidt "Be the best version of yourself." This book can radically change your life. It tells how ordinary people become outstanding;
3. This book will be useful to everyone, as it helps to change habits, fulfill promises made to yourself, and change your life for the better;
4. Brian Tracy "Get out of your comfort zone." Worldwide recognized as the #1 book on self-development. You will be able to step out of your comfort zone to achieve maximum goals;
5. . The author believes that willpower is like a muscle that needs to be pumped and strengthened.

All books have one main meaning - self-development never ends. You can work all your life to develop your personality, to make your life bright and unforgettable. Each of us strives to be better, but this quality must be used wisely.

A few rules for self-development

Each person lives in his own comfort zone, and we are often afraid of something new and unknown, which is why it is so difficult, and sometimes scary, to change our lives. The process of self-development needs to be turned into a habit so that you never stray from this path.

Where should you start self-development? A simple action plan will help you gradually develop this habit:

Life depends directly on our desires and actions. There is nothing impossible about it. Never tell yourself that something can't be done, just think about what it takes to make it achievable;

Break the path to the main goal into several small ones that are easy to achieve. Once this becomes a habit, you can set more goals for yourself;

In the evening, think about everything that happened to you during the day. Record your successes and failures. If you did something wrong or it didn't work out for you, think about what would have changed if you had done it differently.

Don't forget that self-improvement is a hard path, but a very interesting one. If you once decide to change your life, always stick to this thought and believe that the result will meet all expectations. Always look at life, successes and defeats with a positive outlook, and then you will definitely succeed.

Where to start self-development? Before looking for the path leading to achieving your dreams, and most importantly, to personal happiness, you should first understand what self-improvement is.

Definition of self-development

When a person wants to realize himself - to achieve his goals, explore his inner world, reveal all his hidden potential - he begins to consciously acquire new knowledge, hone his skills, and engage in introspection. This is self-development.

But for the term “self-development,” the definition often does not include a critically important point: self-improvement means being prepared for pain. Any system of self-development requires work, because the material in it is one of the most complex and still not fully explored - humans.

Understanding this, we will analyze in detail the basics of this science in order to have all the tools for self-development necessary for real and sincere work on oneself.

Three types of self-development

Although it is possible to identify the main types of self-development, it should be remembered that they are intertwined and dependent on each other, and therefore, ideally, you need to know how to develop yourself in all these directions.

Of course, these are only general directions for self-development. We can also talk about material self-improvement - the desire to achieve financial self-sufficiency. Social will increase communication skills and develop empathy, because a person is a social being, and his position in society and the attitude of others largely shapes and helps determine his place in the world. Creative self-development pays attention to the desire to create new things and self-realization. In general, it is worth remembering Maslow's pyramid: a conscious attempt to achieve a goal at any of its stages will represent a type of self-development, but, of course, it cannot exist in a vacuum and will require other work on oneself.

Five stages of self-development

There are many typologies and classifications. Some reduce the whole process to three main points: knowledge, action and being. But to consider the situation in more detail, the psychology of self-development can be presented in the form of the following structure.

The first stage is self-knowledge. A person looks into himself, both through the eyes of others - what he is in the minds of others - and with his own. It is very important to understand what he likes or seems worth it. Often, the erroneous ideas of other people, as well as the erroneous ideas about the erroneous ideas of others, can “distort” your whole life. The art of introspection, reflection and introspection is not a matter of a moment; it is learned over many years, as a result of long practice.

The second stage is self-acceptance. As a result of an honest look at one’s inner world, one’s strengths and weaknesses may appear before a person, and at this moment it is important to remain completely honest with oneself. The search for excuses, worse examples from the surrounding life, incorrect distribution of priorities can interfere with the education of the individual, or even worse - mislead that self-improvement and self-development are continuing, whereas they have long been at a dead end. Having loved oneself for its positive aspects, come to terms with some negative ones, because no one can be perfect, and having chosen the goal of self-development, a person moves on to the next stage.

The third stage is cognition. After becoming familiar with the inner world, a person turns his attention to the outer world. It is necessary to draw up a self-development plan in order to understand how to maintain and improve the current positive aspects of the personality and correct the negative ones, how they can help in achieving various goals. At this stage, both the entire diversity of world cultures is included - literature, cinema, other forms of art - as well as other people’s examples, historical or from the person’s environment. For greater effectiveness, some courses and trainings may be required that focus accumulated human knowledge and allow it to be absorbed in a shorter period in a concentrated form.

The fourth stage is action. It cannot be said that this is the most important stage because everyone is equally important. But it is a fact that it is very complex. Many gather strength and study their inner world for a long time, but in the end they never decide to act, and there are many reasons for this. Just think: in the world around us, the vast majority of people, day after day, for one reason or another, tell themselves that self-development and self-realization are not for them. An alarming number of people remain unhappy for the rest of their lives because they were never able to take action. To break out of these gloomy statistics, all human strength is needed.

The fifth stage is one that is often forgotten or not given due importance. At the beginning of the typology, it is indicated as “being” - meaning consolidation and further life with achieved results. Very often, having fulfilled his self-development plan, or rather, having “grabbed” a little of everything in a fit of enthusiasm, after six months a person again slides back to his old life. Like an eternal student, he constantly does the right thing and accumulates a large amount of useful knowledge, but in the end he does not know how to use it. This can happen for various reasons, which ideally should be tracked and eliminated in the early stages: a person’s general mental imbalance, or lack of courage to truly achieve a goal, or something else. Paulo Coelho wrote about one of the reasons: “We are all afraid to realize our most cherished dreams, because it seems to us that we are unworthy of them or that we will not be able to realize them anyway.”

Perhaps an analogy with medicine is appropriate: if you miss just one dose of medicine, the entire course will be useless. Let's not forget the popular quote from the book "Alice Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll: "You have to run as fast as you can just to stay in the same place, and to get to another place you have to run twice as fast." This is why this last stage was highlighted. Human self-improvement is hard work where you can't take a day off or take a vacation.

It is important to understand that the listed stages of self-development are not a specific guide to action. This is a cycle that anyone who has embarked on the path to self-improvement inevitably goes through, often even unconsciously, and this cycle will be repeated until the end of life, helping to reach new heights, because there are no limits to perfection. Once you get rid of one shortcoming or acquire a new skill, you need to return to the beginning, again carry out a spiritual and moral audit and again set a goal for yourself.

Five enemies of self-development

This negative point cannot be ignored either. If self-development were easy for everyone, then there would be no need to teach it and there would be no point in talking about self-improvement as a science or art, and the world around would be truly filled with happy people. Here are some common barriers that can prevent any self-development plan:

There are no proven or guaranteed ways to combat these enemies. After all, in the end, your main enemy is yourself. It would seem that any person is able to overcome laziness, reject fears, and not raise expectations of oneself. For this you need little - just tell yourself that this is nothing. And at the same time, how difficult it is, what a long training of willpower it requires. Let's consider methods of combating these enemies and ways of self-improvement.

Self Improvement Plan

So, self-development and self-improvement - where to start? Since the first stage of self-development is introspection and determining the main guidelines, the first step is to draw up a plan for self-improvement. It is best to immediately make it in the form of a diary that you will keep daily. More from school years we remember the famous diaries of Leo Tolstoy, which served as one of the tools for achieving his legendary impressive results. The classic wrote: “I never had a diary because I didn’t see any benefit from it. Now, as I develop my abilities, I will be able to judge the progress of this development from the diary.”

Such a “simulator” will help in several cases at once. Firstly, this is a regular diary that organizes the chaos in your head and your personal and work life. It's helpful to have a structure for your day at hand. Secondly, its very conduct disciplines, requires unexpected great strength In fact, even Tolstoy gave up keeping his first diary. But, as with physical exercise, constant repetition of the action will strengthen the spiritual muscles. A diary will allow you to devote a little time every day to your inner world and self-development.

And finally, in your diary you need to write down a plan for self-improvement and activities for the next day, week, month, and constantly adjust them. But you can also enter in it:

1. Literature and other sources necessary for development, create your own education courses.
2. Your budget and expenses, constantly monitor them. The path to self-improvement is long, and such actions bring tangible benefits almost immediately.
3. Various ideas, observations, thoughts. On the one hand, they can be useful, but how often do we forget by the evening, or even an hour later, any successful plan of action? On the other hand, even those not directly related to how to change oneself in better side, such sketches help you better experience life around you, notice previously hidden moments or cause-and-effect relationships that are useful to take note of. This fosters observation and attentiveness.
4. Creative experiments! Draw, write poetry, sketch out plans for novels - give yourself an outlet. You don’t have to devote a lot of effort to it or hope for serious results - even just a little art therapy will diversify your life and help you take your mind off particularly routine moments.
5. At the end of each day, note 2-3 of your successes - this teaches you to analyze your own actions and clearly confirms that every day you become better than you were yesterday, and this is the main guideline for a person.

Read more

Here we must immediately make several reservations: yes, absolutely any reading will be beneficial. But for a person on the path of self-improvement, there are several types of books that are needed first.

Visualization

When we talk about methods of self-development, this is one of the classic and most important, but also one of the most difficult. The point is that you need to imagine in detail the goal you are striving for. Imagining it as often as possible or even printing out its image will form an understanding of how to achieve it, strengthen faith in your strengths and in its achievability. But at the same time, visualization requires us to honestly ask ourselves the question: what do we want to become in a year? Five years? Ten? Such long-term planning is not only beyond the power of everyone, but it is often terrifying at times, because 5 years is a huge period of time, how can you plan it? What if force majeure occurs? What if it turns out that a mistake has crept into the planning basis and 5 years will be wasted? What if the goal is never achieved? What if?..

But it is important to understand that any goal can be achieved and that any person is capable of anything. All you need is a system of self-development in which not a single element is forgotten, and then doubts will gradually go away, and in their place will appear faith in your own strength.

Master time management

Time management, or time management, is not just the ability to carve out an extra 5 minutes for a cup of coffee, it is something more. After all, after reading various tips for improving your life, what often follows is a disappointed answer “there’s no time for this” and a refusal to take care of yourself.

But the art of time management will allow you to look at your daily routine as crammed hard drive in the computer or a mess on the desktop. Once you remove the unnecessary things and rearrange things logically, you will begin to clearly see your goals, both in the short and long term, and how to achieve them, what to do for self-development and when. For example, take the same books: are you familiar with the situation when you have no time to read except public transport, but there are too many things to do at home? The answer is audiobooks. Combine different things in one, free up useful time. It will actually be easier for you to breathe.

Other ways to develop yourself

1. Play sports. This will be discussed in more detail later, but it should be clear that other aspects of personality fundamentally depend on physical development.
2. Find a hobby. Perhaps this is not even a strong enough word. Find yourself a new activity. And then one more thing. And one more thing. It’s a stereotype that serious people devote their entire lives to one thing, because it’s strange to be a master of one thing when you can master many things at a good level. Learn to play the ukulele, jump from a tower, sculpt pots, shoot a bow - learn and quit, learn new things. All these are different methods of self-development, and all these are new facets of your rich inner world.
3. Leave the house. Namely, literally get out of your comfort zone, give yourself an emotional shake-up, discover new places and routes, see new things and, with the help of this, renew yourself. This general advice includes several:
   • travel to neighboring cities or foreign countries;
   • visit exhibitions, museums, concerts;
   • just walk the streets in good weather.
4. Communicate more with people, or better yet, with those you want to be like. Sometimes you come across radical advice, for example, get rid of those who drag you down or are simply far from your role models. But before such actions, we must remember that every person can teach something, unless we are talking about extreme cases. In general, social activity is useful in many aspects. You need to get to know more people, communicate more actively on social networks, find not only new acquaintances, but also entire circles and communities where you can become a permanent and accepted participant.

Exercises for self-development

There are various exercises for self-development that will little by little help you gain strength and energy for more serious actions or at least maintain your current form. After all, it is not difficult to reason and reflect on what needs to be done, but putting thoughts into practice is a different matter. To begin with, small-scale actions will not hurt, which nevertheless help to accustom yourself to a new order and minimal discipline. Even if things don’t come to truly serious actions the first time, these exercises will be beneficial in themselves. After all, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step—and so does the path of self-development.

1. Every evening, dedicate 5-10 minutes to something useful (except journaling). Anything - a couple of squats, an interesting article or a chapter of a book, some exercise. The main thing is to create a similar habit in yourself.
2. Get your home in order.
3. Learn something funny - roll a coin on your knuckles, ride a unicycle, play the pan flute.
4. Record yourself on camera. It doesn’t hurt to just look at your natural behavior in other people’s videos of any events. Look at yourself from the outside - it's not the same as looking in the mirror. Ask yourself whether you would like to communicate with this person, and in a possible case of a fit of hostility, stop and intelligently decide what you would advise to correct this stranger.
5. Train your memory - there are many exercises for this. This could be visual memory training - an attempt, with eyes closed, to reconstruct in the imagination the smallest details landscape just seen, auditory memory - reading aloud every day for 10-15 minutes.
6. Wake up earlier. Set your alarm 1 minute earlier every day.

You can find a lot of similar useful small activities, and all of them little by little bring a person closer to self-confidence.

Self-development of men

We will pay special attention to how men and women can improve themselves, because men and women differ in characteristics, desires, affections and much more. However, their methods of self-development often agree.

The desire for the image of a breadwinner, a protector, an attractive handsome man - this is what a man’s self-development usually involves. Therefore, it is clear that men are first recommended to pay attention to the development of the physical side. There are many options for this, such as playing sports. And in fact, platitudes and clichés become platitudes and clichés because they are true and they work. And just by signing up for 3 months in a gym, after this short period of time, you can be amazed at how much your personality will change. Will you spend small quantity money and just a few hours a week. It's not that difficult at all, you just need to have a truly sincere desire for self-development.

But this simple thing will immediately give a visible result. This is an immediate plus for your appearance: if you have not played sports before, you will be surprised at how you begin to enjoy the growth of your biceps and the appearance of your relief. Once you start, everything will begin to develop by inertia: thoughts about a proper diet, tougher training, and martial arts courses will naturally appear in your head. This is a plus for discipline: in the end, it’s worth overcoming laziness several times in the morning and creating new habit As self-respect increases, self-confidence appears.

Self-development for women

Among the important aspects that need to be emphasized specifically in the case of self-development for women, the first, perhaps, are independence and sensuality.

Despite the positive processes taking place in the world, often women still do not believe deep down in their souls in their self-sufficiency and independence, or prefer to think that they specifically do not need these qualities. But it’s enough to feel like an independent woman, and other qualities and life around you will change for the better. Often problems in this regard are related to the same crippling fear of society's attitude, the fear that society expects one to follow established roles.

But such a question as the ability to radiate sensuality and sexuality that attracts the gaze of men is more complex. It may even seem esoteric, and therefore there are many techniques of a mystical nature: various Taoist, ancient Indian techniques, all kinds of training of the “muscles of love.” You can find tutorials on body language, such as drawing a triangle on your interlocutor's face with your gaze. However, more accessible and inexpensive options are fitness classes, experiments with appearance, as well as basic self-care. One of the main problems of women who are intensely looking for someone who will love them is that they themselves do not love themselves very much and see shortcomings in themselves. Spiritual self-improvement, reading psychology textbooks - that’s what will happen faithful assistant in managing feelings. They can solve the problem and simple ways self-development is higher - just find an interesting hobby and show social activity, and the woman will immediately become interesting to any interlocutor. In addition, she will find new circle communication, which will also bring her closer to achieving her goal, if this goal is to find a soul mate.

Another interesting way to develop yourself, which is equally suitable for both men and women, is dancing. And again, you may be surprised how much this seemingly ordinary thought gives: in addition to strengthening physical fitness, and, sensuality and grace in communication and movements will increase, social skills will increase, barriers when communicating with the opposite sex will disappear, both in this case and in the future, because the language of dance is universal for many occasions in life.

Self-development advice for women is in the same category as masculinity advice for men. In fact, if desired, both a woman can successfully and profitably engage in any sport, and a man can attend cooking classes. It is always important to remember that, first of all, a person must rely on his own views about what is good or harmful for him, what shortcomings of his do not require drastic corrections, what dream to pursue. Every time you turn to the opinions of others or the supposed requirements of some social role, any methods of self-development will work for the wrong purposes and lead to a dead end, bestowing only disappointment in yourself instead of happiness.

Where to start self-improvement?

The answer to the question of where to start self-improvement is amazingly simple, because all this time you knew it yourself. Yes, useful resources about human self-development, courses, textbooks and much more will really help you. But all this comes later. Then where to start? Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and exhale. And tell yourself honestly that you want to become better. Open your eyes. Get started. The rest will take care of itself. In reality, this is the whole technology of self-development.

There is a new road ahead of you, and it is calling.

Personal self-development is a popular topic today practical psychology. Do you think that you have achieved only little in life? Maybe you're even afraid of seeming like a loser? Do you want to develop certain skills in order to open a business and increase your income? We decided to live now life to the fullest? Most people now have no specific idea of ​​the word self-development. Many people watch videos, read articles, books - they consume a lot of information on where to start personal development, but nothing happens. After all, development includes not only a load of information and theoretical knowledge, but also the formulation, achievement of goals, growth through the right environment, the development of skills, their practical consolidation, which allows you to gradually raise your level.

Genuine personal self-development is if everything you have learned is confirmed by action, in practice.

What is human self-development?

There is an opinion that it is self-development through self-destruction that is genuine and most effective, literally transformative. Is it true that the more a person suffers, the more he develops? Is it really necessary for self-development to slide down the social ladder, quit work, study, fall into bad habits - in fact, do everything that is the opposite of development?

Here we mean self-destruction on a deeper level - the destruction of one’s ego, false attitudes, movement towards one’s own, leaving one’s comfort zone, rebuilding one’s own. People who are truly highly developed, those whom we can call self-actualized, often have had their own negative experiences, dark areas personal history, when they literally sank to the bottom, sank into their shadow, and thereby integrated their personality into a single whole. After all, the direction of self-actualization often differs from development according to the norms of society, which are instilled everywhere, in every social institution, and cloud the true meanings of a particular person.

Almost for modern young man self-development through self-destruction can be expressed in leaving the university, in which, as he feels, he does not really receive the necessary knowledge, and going to work, living separately, engaging in exhausting sports - confronting himself with the real world, forcing him to use hidden resources to the limit strength In the process of such experience, unnecessary, alien scenarios are eliminated, there is a chance to recognize the real one and find, begin to act in the direction necessary for self-development.

Self-development of your global goal has self-actualization - coming to a state where the personality has become everything that it could become. And since this goal is ideal, it is not completely achievable - that is, a certain abstraction, a highest need, a vector along which it moves throughout life.

Self-actualization is, first of all, the achievement of an internal harmonious state in being with oneself, elimination or acceptance and independence from the assessments of others, greater freedom and personal responsibility without being tied to rigid guarantees of tomorrow from the outside world.

Self-development and self-improvement, where to start?

Almost all directions leading a person to self-development claim that personal development is impossible without awakening one’s own will and proactivity. Blindly following the leader or forcibly forcing oneself to follow some method is fundamentally wrong. This can be traced even from the word itself, of which “self” is a part, which emphasizes the importance of choosing your own direction.

Where to start personal development? Before self-development begins, a person usually needs time, a certain number of his own mistakes and conclusions. It is worth listening to the opinions of others, but you absolutely cannot follow them completely. Own mistakes allow a person to move to the next level of understanding through experience, which is completely different from listening to advice from others.

To jump high, you need to squat down hard. We emerge from mistakes as changed people. Here you need to pay attention not to how many and what mistakes were made, but how a person got out of them, did he draw conclusions from them and what ones, did he realize the reasons for what was happening, and will he continue to live based on the conclusions made?

Unfortunately, often a person seems to be walking in a spiral, stepping on the rake that he carries with him, making the same mistakes, self-development still cannot begin. However, if a breakthrough does occur, awareness of the need for change comes and, most importantly, desire - this becomes the first, fundamental building block in the process. Following a sincere desire, everything else comes along the way. A long journey, as it is rightly said, begins with a small step.

To start this path, you should decide what exactly you want, what the goal of your self-development is. To outline it as clearly as possible, write down on paper what you want to achieve, in what plane you want to develop. This goal must correspond to internal motivations, and not to attitudes imposed from the outside.

The correctness of goal setting can be verified through the power of desire. The stronger your motivation, if it is literally irresistible, does not pass, even when faced with strong obstacles, does not fade over time, but only intensifies - it means that the goal is defined correctly, according to your true values, and it is this that can bring you deep satisfaction. Weak or fading often indicates an incorrectly chosen or formulated goal.

Next, you need to follow the goal, taking at least a minimum of steps in its direction every day. So, if you have written down what you should develop, work every day with the methodology you have chosen. If you strive to be kinder, more complete, more harmonious, move closer to this ideal image through your actions every day.

It is very important to systematize your efforts and not to be scattered, not to run from side to side. When you choose to move in one direction, follow it. Many people rush around and disperse their efforts, and as a result do not achieve concrete results anywhere. If you have chosen a direction and have been following it for a long time, there is no need to turn off or develop in a different direction. These are just negative programs that try to turn you off the path - for example, fear of getting a significant result or fear of not being able to cope with increased responsibility and freedom. Continue moving towards your chosen goal until victory.

Then, when you, for example, develop confidence by achieving your initial goal - a broader picture of what you need will unfold in front of you, you will understand yourself better and will work more productively and accurately. Take at least one step a day - the more we do, the more energy comes in.

Working on ourselves, on what relates to our inner content, extends to others as well. A harmonious, full-fledged, confident person who loves himself and others, who knows how to act to the end - will certainly build a successful and happy reality around himself.

Self-development, be it extremely practical or highly spiritual, is the natural state of a person, although most people stop learning at educational institutions, not getting used to and not loving the efforts that lead to growth. That’s why they are so common - a person tries to choose a system that will allow him to feel safe without changing himself. However, any growth goes through great difficulties, which are brought either by the external world, if the personality is characterized by externality, or, with an internal locus, the person sets before himself.

The development of one’s personality is the most logical path and channel for investing time, money, physical, psychological and spiritual strength, since as a result of it a person acquires an asset that remains with him forever. Moreover, once you have set foot on this path and gained positive experience, it will be impossible to stop - knowledge and skills will multiply themselves, giving rise to an even greater desire to move on. You begin to see your hidden possibilities and new horizons, your views change, previous problems seem insignificant, you discard outdated attitudes with greater ease, regenerating your personality. All other goals, except self-actualization, gradually disappear; the main one comes to the fore, highest person in developing ourselves is what we actually live life for. It is impossible to achieve complete self-actualization; striving for it is already a result.

Self-development plan

We all know that personal self-development does not exist without targeted efforts, but we still often stop at theory, literally eating information and being overloaded with it, without going further, without getting the desired results. For significant growth, you need a self-development program, a plan that will help you stay on target.

The self-development program will allow you to break down a large, distant ideal goal into separate subgoals, specific tasks, operations, the achievement of which is easy to track. It will save you from misunderstanding where to move next and getting stuck at stages.

First, you need to understand why you need self-development, to narrow the understanding of this word specifically for you. After all, self-development means different things for different people: doing push-ups, squats and running in the morning, learning a foreign language, reading tongue twisters and improving your speech.

Why do you need self-development? Set a specific goal of what exactly you want to improve. For example, if it’s health, start by studying materials, books and videos on health improvement. You can realize this through sports by choosing and planning your training methodology. Or maybe your path lies through yoga? Find relevant materials or join a club.

Do you want to improve your business skills to become a successful entrepreneur? Study information like this.

First, there is always an understanding of why you need self-development. Many have not decided on its goal, which is why they are constantly looking and trying to take everything, to be in time everywhere, but in the end nothing works out.

So, you have determined the goal for which you will develop. The next point is to develop yourself so that as a result you gain specific skills for life. This is self-development, as a result of which you become more harmonious, happy, joyful.

Let’s say if your focus is on health promotion, choosing and applying a specific technique. Even a simple daily morning exercise, exercise, will ultimately give results, unlike simple reading books about health.

When you want to develop your business and have received a specific recommendation to choose a niche, try to take the first steps, test the market, launch a pilot project.

The point of the second step is to turn all the information you have absorbed into a specific skill when you take action. Best option– when you immediately find application for the acquired knowledge, then it does not flow away, but actually grows your personality.

Self-development becomes simple, interesting and understandable, you no longer have uncertainty, there is no dispersal of energy in different directions without visible results.

You will develop as quickly as you frequently perform a series of actions leading to your goal. The best, outstanding results are facilitated by daily exercise, literally 7 days a week, constantly.

• What is self-development
• • Willpower
  • Motivation
  • Memory
  • Time planning
  • Discipline
  • Psychology
  • Self-esteem
  • Self Confidence
• Relationship

• "Secret"
• "Pay someone else"

• Lao Tzu "Tao Te Ching"

What is self-development

A person’s personality is an unstable quantity. Over the course of life, it undergoes many changes depending on what tests we withstand and what tasks we set for ourselves. And even living in the same rhythm and adhering to a stable schedule, we change. Often – not for the better, since lack of development almost always leads to degradation.

Many people experience an identity crisis at the age of 30-35. At these moments we understand that simply living and working is not enough. That we want something deeper and more global from ourselves, that minimums do not suit us, and that not everything can be measured with money and other tangible measures.

Some people come to this earlier, some later, and some don’t come at all. For some people, the trigger is shock; for others, insight occurs naturally and gradually. As a result, there is a desire to take the path of self-development, stop making demands on the world and start working on yourself, engaging in self-development.

What is self-development? This is a constant and comprehensive process of working on oneself, developing one’s positive qualities in different spheres - physical, intellectual, creative, emotional, spiritual. Self-development is characterized by voluntariness and self-control, when a person learns new information and applies it in practice without any external coercion.

Why is it important to engage in self-development?

Really, why all this torment? Learning new information, tiring sports, constant stress... After all, you can calmly relax on the couch, watch TV series and enjoy “doing nothing.” But idleness is imaginary happiness, the other side of which is fraught with depression and disappointment in life.

Man is designed this way: he needs constant growth, searching for something new. Stopping moving (not only in the physical, but also in the mental sense), he begins to degrade. Swimming can be used as an example - in order to stay on the water, we must make an effort. Having relaxed and lost control, the swimmer immediately goes to the bottom.

Look around and compare happy and unhappy acquaintances. How are they different? Happy people open a new business, attend training courses, play sports, travel constantly, and learn something new. Unhappy people work at the same job for decades, have fun only with the help of beer and are constantly looking for someone to blame for their failures.

The answer to our question is simple - you need to engage in self-development in order to become happy. Anyone who has set foot on this path understands that both the process itself and the results bring pleasure. And that this resource is inexhaustible, because the upper level of perfection simply does not exist.

Where to start self-development and self-improvement

The very, very first step that precedes any action is thought. Desire, idea - call it what you want. They are individual and formulated differently for everyone. From the vague “I don’t want to live like this anymore” to “I plan to learn five languages ​​and earn at least one hundred thousand a month.”

The first thing you need to do is want it. Moreover, you need to want it long, persistently and continuously. At first, you won’t understand how to even get down to business, doubt your abilities, wander in the dark due to a lack of guidelines...

Then the answers will start coming. They manifest themselves in a book that someone gave, in an unusual person, in new opportunities (for example, going on a multi-day camping trip).

At this moment, you need to accept all constructive suggestions and all unexpected challenges. But you yourself need to constantly look for these answers, strive for them, and not sit idly by. Read articles on the Internet, watch videos on self-development, look for books, try some of the recommendations in practice. From all this, a methodology will begin to emerge, the first results will appear, and you will see your path.

This may take a lot of time - it all depends on the person himself and his starting position. For some, a month will be enough, while others will be searching for a year or two. The main thing is not to give up and remember that the search will definitely be crowned with success.

8 reasons why people don't develop

It would seem that everything is simple - you take it and develop. You bought a book and read it. Or go to the gym, pick up a barbell, and lift yourself whatever you want. But no! If everything were simple, there would be a lot more people involved in self-development.

There are many factors, the absence of which prevents us from improving.

Willpower

Psychologists have long argued about what willpower is, why some people have it and others don’t, and what to do about it. We conducted a ton of experiments and research and came to the conclusion: willpower is a personal quality that can be developed like a muscle. And its presence is mainly determined by upbringing and habits established in childhood. Lucky were those who had disciplined and strong-willed parents who developed these qualities in their children. If this is not the case in the family, well, the path will be long, but everyone is capable of going through it.

What is important in defining willpower as a concept is this: thanks to this personality quality, we can follow our decisions and do everything necessary to achieve our goals without succumbing to laziness, reluctance or procrastination.

How to develop willpower? There are two main methods: doing and not doing. Doing is performing unpleasant or boring, but useful actions, for example, exercising in the morning. Non-doing is the conscious refusal of actions that cause harm. For example, from smoking or overeating.

By the way, church fasting is precisely a practice aimed at training willpower: through refusing certain foods, we learn to control ourselves. If you dig even deeper, you will find that all religions have similar practices of renunciation - food, comfort, property, certain thoughts or actions. This is because the technique of not doing strengthens willpower much more strongly.

Willpower is a spiritual quality of the highest grade, one of the most important for a person. By developing it, you can radically change your life. Have you heard the phrase: “I know what’s right, but for some reason I do the opposite”? This is what people with undeveloped willpower say.

Motivation

Motivation is a powerful force. When a person wants something very badly, he is ready to move mountains. Did something go wrong? That means they didn’t want it well. After all, when you really want a cake, are you ready to walk three kilometers to a late-night supermarket to get it?

So, it turns out that you need to teach yourself to want correctly? Exactly! Our cunning brain is aimed at saving energy, as Mother Evolution ordered. And he will come up with excuses to dissuade his owner from unnecessary work: “Well, why is this necessary? We're already doing well! Oh look, there's a new message in the messenger! Look, look, there are kittens in the picture!”

Therefore, you need to use cunning against the attitudes of your own subconscious, which is lazy and only wants to have fun.

How to motivate yourself to work? First of all, you need to set the right goals, because even the most best motivation will not act when you do not understand what you want or set false goals imposed by society. For example, money or status. By listening to yourself, you may suddenly discover that what you really want to do is hitchhike or volunteer in Africa, and not spin around like a squirrel in a wheel to satisfy other people's needs.

So, having set the right goal, we concretize and visualize it. Business - what? What will you do, target audience, idea, team, slogan, theme colors? What kind of house? How many floors, is there a garage, basement, sauna, how many rooms?

For example, you want to start your own business, but have never done business. Create conditions in which you can understand how suitable this activity is for you: for example, register withfree business game"Your start" . This is a business simulator where you can game form start and develop your own business, receiving a lot of useful information about entrepreneurship in the process.

Once concretized and visualized, we must remember our goal and its positive emotional components. Constantly imagine yourself doing interesting projects in your business or choosing curtains for the bedroom in your home. Think positive.

Do not doubt your abilities, believe in victory and do not assume other options. People who have achieved high results in life are often asked: “How were you able to implement such a complex project?” In response, many of them say: “I made the decision that I must follow this path to the end, whatever it may be.”

Memory

Memory is very important for a harmonious personality. We constantly need the ability to remember information and operate with it: in study, work and even entertainment. You can only carry on a conversation if you have something interesting to say. How can you do this if you don’t remember the plot of the book you read or the ups and downs of your own journey?

For successful work memory is one of the main tools. The more a person achieves, the greater the flow of information rushes through him. How to deal with it if the flash drive does not hold large volumes? Write everything down? Well, no, this is not an option.

Memory, like all other qualities, can be developed through exercise. For example, readhow to become smarter in 15 minutes a day, and apply this information in practice.

Time planning

It is impossible to complete complex and multi-stage work without planning all its steps. This also applies to self-development. Anyone who wants to change their life for the better must have a plan for the year, month, week and day.

But you also need to be able to plan. Not everyone is able to make realistic and feasible plans the first time. Therefore, we recommend studying25 rules for planning timeso that this skill makes the job easier, not more difficult.

There are secrets of planning that optimize work so much that you wonder - where did I spend so much time before? To learn how to use all 24 hours wisely, go throughfree course to help improve productivity.

Discipline

Discipline is another pillar of self-development that you can’t do without. All practices aimed at improvement require constant and routine repetition. Anyone can go for a run once, every third person can last a week, and only a few can turn running into an integral part of their schedule.

Discipline is also necessary in order to refuse bad habits, both in order to adhere to the daily routine, and to accustom yourself to proper nutrition.

It also takes discipline to deal with one of the worst enemies development - laziness. Finding the answers to the questionhow to overcome laziness, we become closer to our goals.

Psychology

Our results depend greatly on our mindset and attitudes. If you think “I won’t succeed anyway,” then that’s what will happen. If we consider all rich people to be thieves and scoundrels, then we will never become rich - we don’t want to be bad. If you are sure that “all men are assholes,” then you will meet such a companion.

How to think and what to think is up to us. Find outhow to think effectively- and you will save a lot of time and effort that you spent on soul-searching, worries and destructive emotions.

Self-esteem

A person accepts only what he considers himself worthy of. Everyone sets their own level of income, attention from the opposite sex, and other life criteria.

Unrealistic self-esteem (overestimated or underestimated) prevents its owner from realizing himself in life. We do illogical things and choose to lose, subconsciously believing that this should be our fate. Failures, suffering, communication with toxic people– this is all the choice of a person with unhealthy self-esteem.

To correct the situation, you need to understandreasons for low self-esteemand try to eliminate them. Often they are hidden in deep childhood, associated with parental divorce or bullying at school - letting go of such things is very difficult, but necessary.

Self Confidence

I will succeed - they tell themselves successful people. They are confident that they are capable of achieving more, and even in case of failure they continue to believe that they will succeed, but next time.

A person’s most important resource is himself. You need to trust yourself, believe in yourself, respect yourself and love yourself.

But how many people hate themselves... They don’t even want to buy themselves beautiful clothes because they “don’t deserve it.” Before you start developing, you need to find the answer to the question:how to love yourself? Self-improvement without self-love is impossible...

A harmonious personality is strong in all planes of life at the same time. To develop yourself evenly, you need to compose step by step plan, which will include all the main growth vectors.

This plan is individual for everyone. One solves integrals in his head, but has not yet learned how to build relationships with the opposite sex, the second throws a two-pound weight with one left hand, but has read only one book in his entire life. And the third may even come to the understanding that he doesn’t really know how to do anything and has not developed any of the vectors.

When building a plan, you need to take into account all directions, but at the same time carry out supporting work where you have already achieved success (so that there is no imbalance in reverse side) and devote more time to those aspects that have not yet been developed.

Spirituality is a complex and multifaceted issue. We won't talk about religion and philosophy now, that's too much complex topics in order to discuss them now. Let's talk about those aspects of spirituality that make a person happy.

Gratitude. By learning to be grateful for every little thing, we always experience joy even in difficult times. A grateful person will be able to find a ray of hope in the fluttering of spring leaves and the games of a kitten. He easily forgives the shortcomings of his loved ones, remembering that they were there when he needed help. Gratitude is wealth.

Love. Loving unselfishly, without possessive manners, of course, without demands - this is a high art. It brings joy, just like playing your favorite instrument or looking at the ocean. True love knows neither fear nor pain.

A spiritual person always feels responsible for his actions, lives consciously, and strives to be better. He does not lose faith and does not allow himself to fall into despair, he strives to explore the world and be free from passions, addictions and negative thoughts.

What do you mean by “personal growth”? This is the improvement of indicators responsible for intellectual activity and the richness of the inner world, improving the quality of life at the mental level. Achieving goals, positive thinking, developing memory and intelligence - all this is included in the concept of personal growth.

To make it completely clear, I will say that the results of personal growth remain with us forever, even if we find ourselves completely bankrupt without a roof over our heads. A mature person will have enough knowledge and skills, fortitude and motivation, determination and self-confidence to withstand the most difficult situation. A person with low personality indicators is dependent on material possessions, and therefore lives in fear of losing what he has.

People who have gone through illness or lost their ability to work understand the importance of health more than anyone else. You can work, study, develop, love and explore the world only if you have the strength to do so.

Young people often neglect their health. It seems to them that they will always be strong, no matter how they eat, drink alcohol or smoke. In adulthood, feeling the consequences of their frivolity, they grab their heads and bite their elbows. Some people come to their senses in time and manage to restore their health, but it is often too late.

We have enough information and understand wellhow to be healthy. We know very well that we should not indulge in bad habits, overeat, work until exhaustion, or be nervous a lot. But how often do we use this knowledge in practice?

The problem of modern busy people is especially common - they do not know how to relax properly. But rest is the key to productive work. Breathing exercises, meditation, relaxation in nature, voluntary solitude, quality sleep- points that need to be given enough attention.

You definitely need to implement it in your life physical activity, at least a walk in the park. We’re not talking about professional sports – it’s more of a traumatic activity than a useful one. But light physical activity puts the body in a state of vigor and gives energy. Let it be dancing, badminton, cycling - whatever brings you pleasure. The main thing is that they should be regular.

Relationship

Each has its own type of relationship. They are different, but equally require constant work: building frameworks, expressing love, caring, spending time together. Unhappy is the one who earns a lot of money but does not see his children grow up.

The relationship with one more person is very important - yourself. In fact, it is from them that the building of all other connections begins. Anyone who respects and loves himself knows how to respect and love others. Anyone who cannot find a common language with himself will never make friends with others.

All people need to realize their potential at work, make a difference to others, and do something they are proud of. This is such a deep-seated need that ignoring it makes a person unhappy, even if outwardly everything is going well for him.

Therefore, it is important to choose a business for career development that is fun and enjoyable to do. When you wake up thinking: “Hurray, today there are so many interesting work!”, the issue of money and promotion will be resolved by itself.

Of course, not everything in this world can be bought with money, and in general, their role is too exaggerated. But it’s impossible without them. Having financial freedom, we feel calm and confident, we can afford to travel, spend money on cultural and mental development, eat right, provide for our family, and help our parents.

Most of us are employed. You can earn a good income from such a job, especially if you are a good worker and are constantly moving up the ladder. career ladder. But this is not always the case, and many specialists, having reached the career ceiling in some organization, come to the conclusion that it is time to go free. You just need to understand how to start correctly.

To do this you can gofree training to help you start your own business. By working for ourselves, we can achieve much more financially.

How do you spend New Year? I’ll try to guess: put up the Christmas tree, set the table, buy champagne and ring your glasses as the chimes strike, making wishes. There are brave souls who break the system to smithereens - they do not cook Olivier salad and herring under a fur coat.

Why not order a quest for the whole family? Or go to the forest, light a fire and decorate a real Christmas tree? Or do something else crazy?

And we would like to, but we don’t know how, right? So it turns out that our imagination is enough to refuse Olivier at the New Year's table.

Many interesting adventures and unprecedented undertakings do not require serious expenses, physical training And large quantity time. We just don't have enough ideas. In order to turn into a person rich in inventions, you need to know How develop creative thinking.

Making your life bright is not as difficult as it seems. This is not a whim or a luxury - our soul and brain need emotions, impressions, joy, delight. All this makes our personality richer, nourishes us like a sweet elixir.

In the process of self-development, not only the mood is important, but also the quality of information. We mainly get it from books and films, which we will discuss below.

10 best films for self-development

Films useful for development can be divided into three categories: feature films, where deep philosophy and motivation lie; documentaries, where you can learn more about the world around you, human psychology and the path of civilization; and biographical - about people from whom you can take an example.

You can bring a wholelist of biographical filmsO outstanding people, but I will remember only one thing: this documentary BBC about the greatest scientist who discovered many physical laws. He unraveled the nature of light and gave us the law universal gravity. But what kind of personality was Newton, what allowed him to become the most enlightened mind of the era and what secrets did he hide?

A film starring the unsurpassed Jim Carrey. This story is about a loser named Carl Allen, whose life passes him by. Karl always answers “no” to all proposals and is content with the existence of a hermit, because he is afraid to even leave the apartment. But an event happens that forces Karl to say “yes” to any, even the most insane proposal. And this is where his new life begins.

A comedy film about life priorities and how important it is to be attentive to your words. Brings a special charm main character in the role of Eddie Murphy - this is the one who can chat endlessly and with great speed. Successful literary agent Jack McCall, who knows how to persuade even the dead, pushes family and love into the background, devoting all his time to his career and money. But after learning that there are only a thousand words left in his life, and that after saying the last he will die, Jack begins to think about what is more important to him.

- a French comedy about two completely different people who meet each other at the most difficult moment in their lives. He tells viewers that in dark days we can be helped by those from whom we did not expect it, and that there are no chance meetings.

is both a feature and a documentary film about planet Earth, our Home. Its author is photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, who once became interested in videography from a hot air balloon and was able to capture many beautiful and unexpected views. Director: Luc Besson.

We can see the beauty of wild nature in all its scale, and the traces of human exploration of the planet - so small from a bird's eye view, but so globally changing the appearance of our Home forever. Who are we, and what is the role of each of us in the destruction or creation of the Earth? Are we ready to take responsibility for preserving our monastery?

"Secret"

"Secret" - a documentary interview about how a person attracts events with the help of thought, about the power of desire and the materiality of information. The film consists of a series of interviews with different people who outline the philosophical basis of the “law of attraction” using examples from their own lives.

- a feature film-parable with handsome James Marsden in the title role. The hero of the film, Neil Oliver, makes a wish for his birthday “to get the answer to your life,” and it is miraculously fulfilled by a nearby wizard. From this moment on, a series of amazing events unfold that go beyond the usual understanding and perception. Everything that the hero goes through forces him to rethink his attitudes, learn to trust himself and make the main decision: who he should be.

- a film about goals. In the face of death, when there is nothing to be afraid of, when all conventions and attitudes turn out to be just dust, a person can achieve any goal he sets. We live as if we are immortal, constantly postponing life until later. But in reality, we have very little time, and we need to realize our dreams right now.

"Pay someone else"

"Pay someone else" - a touching film about a boy Trevor, who came up with an interesting system of mutual assistance. He did good deeds absolutely unselfishly, but at the same time asked to “pay someone else,” that is, to do good to a stranger. So the chain of good deeds grew and went not only beyond the city, but also beyond the state. One child changed the lives of many, and this makes us think: after all, we too can change the world, we just need to want to.

This mystical and deeply psychological film is based on the book of the same name by Stephen King. It talks about last place prisoners, where they are prepared for execution. Death is in the air, everyone becomes real in front of its face: someone demonstrates nobility, someone demonstrates baseness of spirit. Staying true to yourself and helping even your executioners - only strong man. It is he who changes the worldview of everyone who meets him.

10 best books for self-development

It is known that the most successful people read a lot, and mostly special literature– in psychology, self-development, your profession. Fiction books also need to be read - they enrich our vocabulary and develop our imagination.

You need to read a lot and regularly - it is advisable to create a schedule for yourself and set reading standards for each day so that the work moves in the same rhythm. Your schedule should includelist of books on meditation, psychology, business and finance, history of the country and the world, biographies, philosophical literature and motivational books.

And so that you can cover large amounts of information without much stress, we recommend taking a free course"Reactive Brain" . Its developers took speed reading techniques as a basis and enriched them with exercises to speed up thinking and structure information.

The author of the book independently walked the path to success from scratch. Even without finishing school and starting his work as a laborer, he became the vice president of the company. By exploring his own experiences and the stories of others, Brian Tracy became a famous psychologist and wrote many books about success and how to achieve it.

Have you ever wondered how much resource we spend on being nervous, worrying, suffering from failures and worrying about the future. Our nerves and emotions also require energy, and by ceasing to worry about the inevitable, we free up a lot of time and energy for work. Mark Manson teaches us how to achieve goals without being held back by unnecessary emotions, and to move on even after the most epic failures.

A long time ago, in the 1960s, in the vastness of Mexico, anthropologist Carlos met the Yaqui Indian Don Juan, who turned out to be a magician. He passed on all the knowledge to his new student, and Castaneda wrote it down in the form of field notes, later published in ten volumes. We don’t encourage you to read all ten, but we recommend volume three, “Journey to Ixtlan.” It contains a summary of don Juan's philosophy - the path of the warrior, relationships with the world and with oneself. An important concept is the sense of self-importance that slows a person down in achieving goals. Advice: think of the book itself as a fairy tale with a moral, since the main thing in it is philosophy, not plot.

An autobiographical book by an American journalist who managed to change her life and make her dreams come true in a situation from which there seemed to be no way out. A girl from a family of 11 children, Regina went through difficult trials in life and managed to cope with them. These tips are about learning to live with your past and let go of grudges while moving forward.

Robert Kiyosaki: "Rich Dad Poor Dad"

It's always interesting to read books by people who lived bright life. Robert Kiyosaki was a marine, a pilot, a sales agent, a businessman, and a teacher. Today he is a successful investor and writer whose books have become bestsellers. He teaches not how to make money, but how to change your thinking, because it is the main key to wealth.

Bruce Lee "The Way of the Leading Fist"

Who hasn't heard of the legendary Bruce Lee? We know that he was a martial artist and a famous actor, but we forget that he was also a philosopher and reformer in the field of martial arts. His notes were published in 1975, after the author's death. They seem to be dedicated to martial arts, but in reality they are full of deep reflections on the development of the warrior’s personality.

We have already talked about willpower and its importance for development, and now let’s pick up a book about the method of cultivating this property in ourselves. Psychologist and teacher Kelly McGonigal has carefully studied this issue and came to the conclusion that in attempts to develop willpower, we are often guided by false ideas and are captive of stereotypes. The book talks about research, experiments, people who put Kelly's advice into practice and the results they were able to achieve.

Lao Tzu "Tao Te Ching"

It’s not for nothing that this book is placed at the very end - it’s better not for weak minds to mess with it. Lao Tzu is an ancient Chinese philosopher who is credited with authoring a treatise on the two principles of life: Tao and Te. It is better to read it little by little, several sentences a day. You can study Lao Tzu all your life, but never fully understand it. Therefore, do not be alarmed if at first his sayings seem like sheer rubbish. Even one meaningful idea from the treatise will bring a lot of practical benefit to the reader - for example, about non-action as an important component of activity.

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Now the topic of self-improvement and personal growth is especially relevant. On the Internet, on television, in magazines - everywhere they talk about the need to work on yourself, develop, grow, and achieve success in life. At the same time, a logical question arises: where to start this self-development, how to find time and incentive? Especially if you want it quickly, everything at once.

First, let's define what self-development is. Development and change are a natural process for everything that exists in the world. Herself human life is a series of constant changes associated with birth, growing up and aging, the formation of personality, the acquisition of certain skills and life experiences.

Therefore, self-development can be characterized as a set of conscious and purposeful actions aimed at improving certain qualities, skills, and abilities of a person. The explanatory dictionary gives us the following definition: self-development is the intellectual or physical development of a person on the basis of independent studies and exercises, on one’s own initiative, without the assistance of any external forces. Now that we have understood the theory, we can begin concrete actions. So, self-development: where to start? positive changes in yourself?

1. Revision. To do this, you need to find time and analyze your life, or rather, every area of ​​your life, and honestly answer the questions: what exactly does not suit me, what qualities or skills do I lack to be satisfied with life? Try to be objective and don't deceive yourself. Consider each area of ​​life separately:
   • Physical sphere, health. Perhaps you should adjust your daily routine, start eating right, get rid of bad habits, lose weight, boost your immunity, start playing sports;
   • Spiritual sphere. Getting rid of anger, envy, malice, irritability, developing a positive attitude towards yourself and others, various spiritual practices and meditation can help many:
   • Material sphere, finance. There is a wide field for activity here, since very few people are satisfied with their financial situation. Perhaps it is worth changing your job to a higher paying one, or even changing your profession, taking courses, trainings, or getting a new specialty. Some people want to open their own business, but don’t know how and are afraid of failure.
   • Social sphere, relationships. Development of communication skills, overcoming conflicts, harmonious relationships in the family, at work, personal life, control over emotions.
   • Intellectual sphere, personal growth. We are talking about development here. intellectual abilities, memory, attention, abstract and creative thinking, the ability to set goals and achieve them, increasing personal effectiveness, the ability to plan your time
2. Let's choose one the most important direction for self-development. Since completely harmonious, comprehensively developed people– only a few, to begin with, you should focus on the most important thing for you. Think about what qualities and skills you lack most, and start your self-development from there. If you take on everything at once, there will probably be no result at all.
3. We draw up a specific action plan. Let's consider an example: You decided to change your job to a more interesting and highly paid one. At the same time, you understand that you lack knowledge, you are absent-minded and do not know how to manage your time. Solutions options:
   • take advanced training courses in the area of ​​interest to you;
   • learn to concentrate, develop perseverance (there are special exercises);
   • undergo training on personal efficiency and personal time planning;
   • compose a competent resume and send it to all companies that interest you, and you don’t have to quit your current job to do this.

Positive attitude and goal-oriented actions

Whether you believe it or not, having a mindset for success is very important.. If thoughts are constantly spinning in your head like: “Why do I need this?”, “I won’t succeed...”, “It’s difficult for me...” - then you won’t see any progress. It is important to immediately set yourself up in a positive mood, believe in your success, see positive changes in yourself every day in your thoughts and enjoy even small successes. It will be useful to use affirmations and meditation.

Just thinking about self-development is not enough - you need to constantly take concrete actions in order to become better every day. Many will ask: “How to find time to engage in self-development?” To begin with, it is enough to allocate 20-30 minutes a day - do not watch TV, do not surf the Internet and social networks. In a month, these 20-30 minutes will give you tangible results, the main thing is to start.

Without smart books - nowhere

Self-improvement is written in many ancient books, starting with the Bible and other sacred books; much can be gleaned from the eastern teachings of Yoga, Tao and others. But these are primary sources that will not be clear to everyone. They have already been processed by scientists into a language that is understandable to us and presented in books in the form of recommendations for self-development. These publications just need to be found. Among the bestsellers on this topic today are the following books:

• Stephen Covey "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". This work changes people's worldview, they get rid of many complexes and begin to quickly move up the career ladder or make success in business. The book provides recommendations that really help to awaken dormant forces within yourself and become one of the leaders. Read it with a pen and notepad and note the main postulates on which you will base your path to perfection and everything will work out for you.
• Sharma Robin "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari". This is a guide to the spiritual development of personality; the author believes that without strengthening the strength of spirit, nothing can be achieved in life, and self-development must begin with spiritual improvement. This is fair, a weak spirit does not become a leader and a successful person. Therefore, it is necessary to listen to what is written in this book. It also contains tips on effective use strengths of human character.
• Godin Seth “The Pit” is a publication about how to take care of yourself in order to become the best in the field in which a person is building a career. This is a real guide to a breakthrough to success in your professional activities.

All these books are united by one valuable idea - self-development never ends. The desire to be the best in a person’s character and one must be able to use this quality.

Beautiful video for inspiration: