The Importance Of Devoting Yourself To Personal Improvement
People who do not focus on growth lead stagnant lives. People who are unwilling to grow never reach their potential.
If you want to get the most out of your life and reach your full potential, you need to become someone dedicated to personal improvement.
Focusing on personal improvement means living a life that is different than the way most people live. Studies show that most people don’t even read one book once they finish school.
The only way to improve the quality of your life is to live a life focused on growth.
Eight Principles Of Personal Growth
These are eight rules you want to live by if you want to pursue success in your life.
CHOOSE A Life Of Growth - The only way to improve your life is to improve yourself. You must become better at your main purpose in life. This must be a CHOICE that you make. Growth must be INTENTIONAL. Nobody improves by accident.
Start Growing Today - Don’t put this off saying “Someday I’ll…”. One of these days is ambiguous. One of these days means NONE of these days. The best way to ensure success is START TODAY. The best time is NOW. Growth is not automatic. Growth today will provide a better tomorrow. Growth is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.
Focus On Self-Development, Not Self-Fulfillment - Too many people focus on being self-fulfilled. They focus on what will make them happy. Self-Development is different. Self-development asks - what will help me fulfill my potential? Self-development is about a higher calling. Its about reaching your potential and serving others with it. It gets your focus out of yourself and how you can be your best to help others. The good news is that when you focus on self-development, self-fulfillment and happiness happen too as a by-product.
Never Stay Satisfied With Current Accomplishments - “The greatest enemy of tomorrow's success is today’s success” (Rick Warren). Successful people don’t sit around and rest on their laurels. They know that wins, like losses, are temporary. Don’t settle into a comfort zone. No matter how successful you are today, don’t get complacent.
Be A Continual Learner - This point is huge. Make learning new things a regular part of your life. This kind of commitment is very rare. Make a sacrifice to carve out the time to always be learning, every day. Knowledge is power. Get more of it.
Develop A Plan For Growth - Plan out your path to growth. Spend 1-2 hours every day on whatever it is that is your ONE thing in life. One hour a day, five days a week is a minimum. This is your personal sacred time to GROW. Find useful materials, books, courses, podcasts, etc., and incorporate these things into your plan.
Pay The Price - Growth demands sacrifice. Growth is sometimes uncomfortable too. For this reason, GROWTH REQUIRES DISCIPLINE. You have to make yourself do the things you need to do in order to grow, when you have to do it, whether you “feel like it” or not. President Teddy Roosevelt said, “There has not been a person in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.”
Find A Way To Apply What You Learned - Don’t just acquire knowledge, do something with it. Apply what you have learned. Think about where can I use it? When can I use it? Who else needs to know it? These questions take the focus off of acquiring knowledge just for knowledge’s sake and put it to use by applying it to your life.
Black Belt Exercise
Describe what your purpose in life might be and a brief plan that would help you reach that goal.
[The above material is taken from John Maxwell's excellent book Self Improvement 101]