Category: Well being

personal growth

What is Personal Growth?

Steve Howard

Personal growth leads to going beyond oneself.

When it comes to surpassing ourselves, going beyond our possibilities, touching all of our potential, we must invest in ourselves. Personal growth allows us to increase our chances of fulfilling ourselves with satisfaction in order to become the wonderful being that we are. Personal growth is achieved step by step, with courage, boldness, determination and self-love.

In this article, we will discuss several facets of personal growth. First, we will look at why personal growth is so important. Secondly, we will look at some strategies for personal development. Finally, we will look at some steps you can take to promote your personal growth.

What is Personal Growth?

Personal growth is the process by which a person improves certain aspects of their life. How each person develops varies according to their personality and personal goals, whether mental, physical, financial or spiritual. In other words, personal development is an ongoing journey.

For personal growth to occur we must

  • learn to commit to trusting ourselves
  • to develop faith in our abilities
  • to stay the course towards our personal success
  • Pursuing our creative impulses day after day allows us to live our personal growth leading us invariably to put in place concrete, practical and efficient means of financial, professional, family, emotional, relational and other success.

Personal growth is a way of going little by little, step by step, from change to change, towards the transformation we seek and desire.

Monitoring the progress we make every day through our commitment to pursue a personal growth momentum allows us to respect ourselves in our limitations and needs. Personal growth leads to our true needs and the many passions that lie dormant within us. Following the progress we make day after day, being proud and aware of it, is the fruit of a personal growth that respects our expectations.

The importance of Personal Growth

The importance of personal growth varies according to individual needs and goals. Successful personal development involves working on both behaviour and attitude to improve yourself as a person.

By improving certain habits and aspects of your personality, you also contribute to your professional success. By taking the path of personal growth, you will learn to recognise your limits, cultivate patience or discover your areas of interest. As a result, you will be better able to find suitable jobs, maintain harmonious relationships with your colleagues and deal with difficult situations.

How to Grow Personally

There are no hard and fast rules to follow, nor are there a series of steps to ensure your growth. The goal of personal growth is to improve where you need to improve. However, there are some general principles you can keep in mind.

Establish the areas in which you want to improve

Think about what aspects of yourself you want to improve. Here is a list to help you establish the areas in which you want to improve:

  • Self-confidence
  • Patience
  • Open-mindedness
  • Stress management
  • Autonomy at work
  • Communication skills
  • Tolerance

Set realistic goals

Once you have identified areas for improvement, set several goals to achieve. To help you set goals, you can use the “SMART” method. This is a method of clearly defining your goals and measuring them. For example, your goals should meet the following five indicators:

  • Specific: your goal should be tailored to your situation. It should not be a general objective.
  • Measurable: you should set yourself a goal whose success you can measure.
  • Achievable: your goal should be ambitious enough to require effort, but you should formulate it in such a way that you can achieve it.
  • Realistic: your goal should be reasonable enough so that you don’t lose motivation along the way.
  • Time-bound: clearly define a date by which you want to achieve your goal. You can also define a schedule of intermediate steps.
  • An example of a SMART goal might be: “I want to improve my interpersonal skills by going to dinner with a colleague at least twice a week for the next two months.

Perseverance is the key to personal growth

As with any medium to long-term endeavour, perseverance is the key to success in personal growth. Since it involves changing habits or attitudes, personal growth takes time and perseverance.

You should not let small deviations or temporary failures get you down. Being aware of your failures is already a step in the right direction. Moreover, it is these failures that allow you to improve.

Evaluate your day

At the end of each day, look back at what you liked and what you would like to change. Remember that a little progress is always better than no progress at all.

Do self-evaluations

Periodically, take the time to look back at your journey and take stock of where you are. This will give you a better idea of what you have achieved so far and help you redefine your goals. To do this, consider your situation and your progress in the following areas

  • Individual
  • Physical fitness
  • Academic or professional
  • Marital
  • Family
  • Cultural
  • Social
  • Material
  • Relational

By analysing these aspects, you will be able to evaluate the elements to be improved and the corrections you could make.

Simple but important steps

Once you have made your personal assessment, it is time to put it into practice. Here are some steps you can take to help yourself personally.

Adopt a positive attitude

Strive to be optimistic and always find the positive side of things rather than just the negative. A positive person is more likely to be happy with their situation.

The ways to do this vary from person to person. It could be to take a pleasant moment for yourself to relax before tackling a difficult situation. To give some examples, you can listen to music you like, go for a walk, have your favourite drink, light an incense stick, etc.

Enjoying moments that put you in a good mood will not only help you become more productive, but your good mood will definitely rub off on the people around you!

Surround yourself with positive people

You need to surround yourself with positive people who value you. Avoid relationships with people who denigrate you or take advantage of your honesty and generosity.

Get organised

In order to achieve fulfilment, it is important to be organised. This organisation must be understood in all senses of the word: you must take care of the organisation of your thoughts and your life as well as the organisation of your living environment. It is like cleaning up and making sure that all aspects of your life are in order.

Organise your time: this can be done by establishing a routine and incorporating moments that are enjoyable for you.
Organise your social life: take time to look at the people around you and consider which relationships are good for you and which ones you don’t want to have.
Organise your space: this is cleaning up in the strictest sense of the word. Make sure your working and living environments are tidy.
With your mental, social and physical environments in order, you will find it easier to stay positive and focus on the things that matter most to you.

Helping others

There is a saying that “charity begins at home”. However, it is important for your personal growth to help those in need. You can help in many ways.

Learn to listen to others and support them in their time of need. When appropriate, give advice based on your experience. You can also offer help voluntarily and altruistically, whether it is in the form of moral support or practical help.

Not only will helping others bring you gratification, but it is also an opportunity to learn more about yourself and how you react to certain situations.

Do not hesitate to offer your help even if you do not have all the necessary knowledge or skills. In the worst case scenario, your help will be declined. Otherwise, it is an opportunity for you to gain new knowledge or skills.

Knowing when to take a step back

It is perfectly normal to react with intensity in the heat of the moment. However, this is rarely the best attitude to adopt. As a general rule, it is better to take a step back in order to see the bigger picture of a situation.

Let’s take the example of an argument with a colleague. During the argument, you felt hurt and insulted. It would be perfectly normal to try to retaliate in the heat of the moment. However, the wise thing to do in this example would be to tell the other person that the discussion will not lead to anything by continuing in this tone and to get out of the situation. The next day you could go back to the colleague and calmly explain why you felt insulted.

meditation

Need tips for daily Meditation?

Steve Howard

One thing is certain, meditating takes time and patience! Alas, for most of us, our eternal speech is “I don’t have time”.

But let us be sincere, time is not the problem because we all have the same 24 hours in the day and some people manage well to meditate every day in spite of all their obligations. So it depends, mainly, on the priorities of each one…

When meditation becomes important in our lives, we can easily free up 3, 5, 10 or 30 minutes of our time to meditate. And this time is well worth it, because the practice of daily meditation is a form of mindfulness development that has a very positive impact on our mind, body, emotions, relationships and even our performance! It is also a time to reconnect our body and mind!

And why do I say that meditation requires patience? Integrating a new habit into our daily lives is not an easy task, so we need to hang in there and be patient.

We also need patience to achieve the results of our practice because, a bit like sports, the work on our muscles is not visible overnight.

With each session of meditation, no matter how much time is spent, our brain will become more muscular and will release hormones of well-being. Our intuition will be more and more awake and we will learn, little by little, to better manage stress.

Let’s imagine, now, that you have decided to start meditating, here are some tips that will help your practice become a habit …

 

Choose a clear intention for your practice

This intention will become, in a way, your “little carrot”. It is something that you will feel or receive from your practice.

For example:

Through meditation I will be more patient with my children.

Thanks to meditation, I will be more organised in my daily life

Thanks to meditation, I will feel better in my body.

A clearly chosen intention in a precise way will allow you to stick to your practice.

Tip: Don’t hesitate to write this intention down and put it in a visible place to boost your motivation every day.

 

Start slowly

If you are new to meditation, the idea of standing still for 20 or 30 minutes may seem difficult and very tiring.

At first, it will be much easier for you to keep your meditation practice short, for example 3, 5 or 7 minutes a day.

This time will have the same benefits as 20 or 30 minutes of meditation but the transition to your new habit will be much easier.

 

Be clear about the time of day you are going to meditate.

For meditation to become a daily practice, it is necessary to give it a specific place in your day.

I also find it interesting to integrate meditation time between two other activities that you also enjoy.

For example:

In the morning: I make myself an herbal tea, I meditate and then I prepare my breakfast.

In the evening: I shower, I meditate, I read a book

In this way, in the sequence of activities, the first one will become a “mental detonator” that will push you to meditate.

Keep a meditation journal

I strongly believe that writing can help us to manifest more easily what we want to achieve in life.

Also, as with any new habit, it is important to keep track of our progress in order to stay motivated.

It is important to remember that meditation is first and foremost an experience, and recording and documenting your experiences can also be a powerful way to see the effects of your practice.

If you want to start practicing, here is a little gift to help you.

Be accompanied

Being alone with your thoughts, feelings or emotions can be a bit of a scary exercise, so if you want to start meditating don’t hesitate to be accompanied by a guided meditation.

Nowadays, there are thousands of meditations on the Internet, find the voice of the guide that will help you find the reconnection with yourself while spending a pleasant moment of meditation.

You can find my free guided meditations on the Insight timer application.

You will find very easy meditations to start your practice (5, 12 or 18 minutes) and I will be happy to accompany you.

self care

Taking Care of Yourself: Some Ideas to Start Today

Steve Howard

Self-care is an important topic but the deeper meaning of “self-care” is often overshadowed by the fact that people don’t focus on its true meaning.

Self-care is about putting your own mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health first: it’s essential to your overall well-being. But it’s not just about listening to soothing music, taking a break or having a bubble bath. These may be enough for some, but you may need different activities or a support person to help you along the way, and that’s okay. Taking care of yourself involves doing things that help you feel good, getting in touch (or reconnecting!) with your inner self, getting involved with people or causes that are important to you, asking for support, etc.

By taking care of yourself, you can face challenges with more confidence, build resilience, improve your self-esteem and work on your self-acceptance. It is also a way to slow down, listen to yourself and create a space to rest and recuperate when you are going through more difficult times.

Sometimes it feels like we spend the whole day running from emergency to emergency with no time to breathe. No wonder our own needs take a back seat. Even though our obligations are obviously important, we rarely put our well-being at the centre of our priorities. And yet, taking care of ourselves is a necessity.

As a result, our condition deteriorates over time: we find it harder to concentrate, sleep, or have as much energy as before. We slow down, because we try to keep going without pausing to recharge, like a car running out of gas.

The very mention of recharging can lead to exasperated looks, and for many, focusing on ourselves is synonymous with selfishness or laziness. This view couldn’t be more wrong and unfair: the best way to keep up is to make sure you also take care of yourself.

What can you do?

For your body

We constantly push our bodies to the limit: we eat a little too much, work until we collapse, and don’t rest enough to really recharge. One of the best things you can do is to put your health first, which you can do with these tips.

  • Say goodbye to junk food. Even with just one small change a month, working towards a healthier diet can help you feel healthier. Think about the improvements you can make, and make a plan to make gradual but meaningful changes.
  • Move more. You don’t have to plan a marathon to be active: take a morning walk around your neighbourhood, or cook your dinner while dancing to a retro song. Just get your heart rate up a few minutes a day!
  • Sleep better. It’s a vicious circle: you go to bed late so you can do a few last-minute things, and in the morning you turn off your alarm clock 17 times. It’s better to go to bed at a decent hour and not touch the electronics for half an hour before bedtime. If you stick with it, you will probably feel a real difference after a few days.
  • Have a check-up. Everyone has their own reasons for not going to the doctor regularly: lack of time, distance, problems with medical coverage… but it’s important to be followed up, especially if something is bothering you: your health should be your number one priority.
  • Stretch. Whether you’re stiff from stress or bent over your desk all day, your muscles can accumulate a lot of tension. Nothing beats stretching every night before bed. If possible, attend regular yoga classes.

For your mind

We face challenges every day that require us to have a mind of steel: whether it’s important decisions to make, worries about the future, or having to be patient with a child asking the same question for the thousandth time, our brains are usually working overtime, so we need to find a way to lighten the load.

  • Meditate. You don’t have to be a Zen master to do a little meditation. Several times a day, slow down your breathing and put your problems aside for a while.
  • Enrich your education. If you’re thinking of going back to school, do so without delay: make a plan and put it into action. If not planned, you can still enrich your mind by reading good books, articles, or watching thought-provoking films.
  • Don’t leave tasks unfinished. Are there things that you have to do for months? Then write everything down and dedicate a whole day to it. Also choose a future date by which to finish anything you couldn’t do this time.
  • Log off before going to sleep. Whether you’re surfing the net, watching Netflix, or arguing on the networks, using screens before bed keeps your brain awake. An hour before you go to bed, turn down the lights in the room and get ready for a good night’s sleep.
  • Tidy up. Living in a perpetual mess can be stressful. If you find yourself looking for things that aren’t tidy or getting caught up in things you haven’t touched in months, it’s time to clean up. Get rid of what you don’t need and put the rest away.

For your self-confidence

Some things can scratch your self-esteem, and chances are that personal examples will come to mind just from reading this. Finding ways to maintain your self-confidence will help you cope without losing your footing.

  • Dealing with negative people. Does someone in your life just put you down? If so, it may be time to cut them off. These people are like vampires who steal the joy from your day, and need to be kept at bay. If you can’t avoid them, set clear boundaries about their behaviour and enforce them.
  • Quit that job you hate. Most people will never find their perfect job, but that doesn’t mean you have to take a job you hate. If the thought of going to work gives you a headache, it’s time to change: we all deserve to do something we love.
  • Learn to say no. Everyone likes to feel useful, or provide a shoulder to cry on, but it’s all very tiring. It is important to learn to say no so that you respect your own limits and avoid overworking yourself. You may disappoint some people, but that’s not a good enough reason to burden yourself with more than you can handle.
  • Treat yourself to a night out. Do you ever plan an evening filled with things that make you happy? Book a table at that restaurant that only you like, or watch that great movie that everyone hates. For a few hours, the only person who matters is you!
  • Practice being grateful. Complaining is part of our culture: reverse the trend by learning to be grateful. Instead of rehashing the bad parts of the day, go to bed thinking about the good parts, even if the only good news is that you’re still breathing. Change your perspective!

Taking care of yourself means finding ways to soothe and strengthen your spirit: there’s nothing selfish or lazy about that. Life can be hard on us, and can tire us out mentally as well as physically, but if we think about recharging our batteries, we’ll be all the more invigorated and ready to face whatever the future holds.