Where to begin on your personal development journey

Personal development is a journey, not a one-stop road. Just as the term implies, personal development is about you improving yourself in all ramifications and thus, improving the quality of your life.

In all honesty, it’s a life-long, never-ending journey you must be committed to if indeed you want to attain feats and of course, success. Basically, it’s about your ability and zeal to learn new stuff daily and be hungry enough for productivity that you take the time to improve yourself.

Ways to keep yourself relevant in workplace

Popular opportunities this week!

When you seek to improve the quality of your life, there are five major areas you need to pay attention to; your spiritual life (where your beliefs and core values are summed), your mental life (this is where your thoughts and mindsets lie), your physical life (made up of your body and all that concerns it, including your health), your social life (relationships/network, your character ethics/ personality) and your emotional life (this focuses on how well you are able to put your emotions in check and apply control/discipline as appropriate).

I also dare add your career path. If being a youth of impact is what you seek, then not one of these areas should go unattended. You may have tons of money or a valuable network list, but what about your character?

You may be sound in values, but what about your thought and mindsets or your motions? The goal is never to be perfect, no, the goal is to strive for balance in every area of life. It can be a little daunting at first, but if you know where to begin, it’d be a walkover.

It’s one thing to embark on a journey of personal development, it’s another to embark on a self-discovery journey. And really, that is the first thing you should seek, but not many people realise this.

However, quite paradoxical actually, if you never have the zeal to develop yourself personally and add to your knowledge bank, you may never even realise the need for self-discovery.

I once saw a meme a long time ago that read “people keep telling me to discover/find myself; I didn’t even know I was hiding.” I tried to remember it and rephrase it in the closest possible way and although I may not have put it as accurately, this is a paraphrased version.

While the person who wrote and created that meme probably just did it for laughs, it still portrays a deep need for self-discovery.

Let’s analyse it a bit; when coaches or motivational speakers tell you to discover yourself, it’s because you were born with potentials buried within you.

As late Myles Munroe puts it, “The grave is the richest place on earth.” Why? Because there lie the bodies of people who never ‘knew they were hiding’ and thus, never saw the need to improve themselves. Until you realise and believe that you were born with potentials, you will never take the time to try to improve.

There is potential greatness in everyone born, but if you never see the need to embark on the lone journey of self-discovery, you will never know. I call it lone because no one will actually journey that path with you. The best thing coaches can do is light the torch for you and show you the way.

If you never discover yourself, how would you identify those things you’re good at and improve on those raw potentials? How would you discover your strengths and know-how to build on them? How would you even realise there’s a need to work on your character?

Without a clear direction of the path you want to tread upon, you won’t have focus and without focus, it’d be near impossible to stay consistent; and without consistency, you can’t grow.

Trying to do life on your own without any guidance is like grappling through a thick dark forest. You know there’s a way out but you don’t know it nor are you even sure on where to begin. So you keep trying different paths that look like the way out. You will eventually come out, but not after you’ve gotten yourself exhausted and wasted so much time.

Now, when you keep listening to people who tell you that all you need to do is equip yourself with knowledge and you’d be fine, you’re setting yourself up for greater frustration. I mean, they’re right, but they’re also half right. And half right is wrong, please.

Picture yourself back in that forest and this time the only tool you have is a really faint flashlight, so faint that you can barely even see your own toes. Tell me, wouldn’t that be more frustrating? You have a tool but it’s not effective.

When you don’t know your personal development needs, you’d jump into everything and anything. And you only discover your needs at a time when you’ve taken the time to understand yourself through self-discovery.

Article by Amami Yusuf aka Zoey, a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, a writer, life coach and blogger about personal development and mental health

Amami Yusuf

+ posts

This author does not have any more posts.