It’s one thing to hit Rainmaker status; it’s another thing to stay there without comprising all the
other important aspects of your life. You would be surprised how many top performers would be
in a bad spot and unable to afford their lifestyle within three months of lost productivity.
Or, how many top performers neglected their family and didn’t create any boundaries because of
frustrating and chaotic processes.
Burnout is a real thing! Mental health is a real thing. Physical and I believe spiritual health is
a real thing.
Personal development is a lifelong process. It’s a way for people to assess their skills and
qualities, consider their aims in life, and set goals to realize and maximize their potential.
For most of us, the why is simple: We want to get better. We want to follow through on our goals.
We want to make more money. We want to feel more fulfilled, get promoted, and have better
relationships. The bottom line is we really want more.
So, how do we make sure we see progress? The answer is personal development. Most of us
have heard this term before, and, to some extent, the term varies.
Personal development covers activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and
potential, build human capital, facilitate employability, enhance the quality of life and contribute to
the realization of dreams and aspirations. Personal development takes place throughout a
person’s entire life.[1] Not limited to self-help, the concept involves formal and informal activities
for developing others in roles such as teacher, guide, counselor, manager, life coach, or mentor.
When personal development takes place in institutions, it refers to the methods, programs, tools,
techniques, and assessment systems that support human development at the individual level in
organizations.
[2] (Wikipedia: Personal Development, October 22, 2019)
Who cares if you made a million dollars if you lost everything else in the process. The good news
is that if you follow this system, it’s almost a sure-fire way to keep yourself in balance, have less
stress, and predict your income.
With that aside, I focus on keeping the other areas of my life in balance relentlessly.
I like to break it down like this:
● Health
● Relationships
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● Finances
● Business
● Fun/Toys
● New Skills
● Contributions
For the fun of it, what I want you to do is to measure your results in each area and rank how well
you think you’re doing?
● Health 1-10
● Relationship 1-10
● Finance 1-10
● Business 1-10
● Fun/Toys 1-10
● New Skills 1-10
● Contributions 1-10
Also, I think it’s important to really get to know yourself. Assess your own profile to understand
what your core values really are. Get to know what sort of natural biases you have that affect your
decision making.
● What’s your story?
● What stops us from moving forward?
● What controls and determines the quality of your life?
● What should you pay attention to?
● Why do we do what we do?
● What do you value the most?
● What are the consequences of valuing those needs in order?
● What two needs should be met to better your life?
● If you made these changes, how would that affect your life
Personal development may include the following activities:
● Improving self-awareness
● Improving self-knowledge
● Improving skills or learning new ones
● Building or renewing identity/self-esteem
● Developing strengths or talents
● Improving a career
● Identifying or improving potential
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● Building employability or (alternatively) human capital
● Enhancing lifestyle or the quality of life
● Improving health
● Improving wealth or social status
● Fulfilling aspirations
● Initiating a life enterprise
● Defining and executing personal development plans (PDPs)
● Improving social relations or emotional intelligence
Personal development can also include developing other people. This may occur through roles
such as a teacher or mentor, a personal competency (such as the skill of certain managers in
developing the potential of employees), or a professional service (such as providing training,
assessment, or coaching).
Beyond improving oneself and developing others, “personal development” labels a field of
practice and research. As a field of practice, it includes personal development methods, learning
programs, assessment systems, tools, and techniques.
As a research field, personal development topics appear in psychology journals, education
research, management journals and books, and human-development economics.
Whether economic, political, biological, organizational, or personal, any development requires a
framework if one wishes to know whether a change has actually occurred.[3] In personal
development, an individual often functions as the primary judge of improvement or of regression,
but a validation of objective improvement requires assessment using standard criteria. Personaldevelopment frameworks may include goals or benchmarks that define end-points, strategies or
plans for reaching goals, measurement, and assessment of progress, levels or stages that define
milestones along a development path, and a feedback system to provide information on changes.
Why is Personal Development Important?
“We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.”
-Jim Rohn
The problem with lacking constant, consistent personal development is that we do things more
out of “need” and let life control us. With personal development at our core, we take control of our
life.
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You see, what you become is far more important than what you get. The critical question to ask is
not, “What am I getting?” Instead, you should ask,” What am I becoming?” Getting and becoming
are so closely intertwined- I would submit to you that what you become influences directly what
you get.
Think of it this way: Most of what you have today, you have attracted by becoming the person you
are right now.
Now, in some cases, that might be a hard pill to swallow. But, is it ok if I am straight forward?
● No one made you rack up those credit card bills!
● No one made you eat more food than you need!
● No one makes you treat people inconsiderately!
● No one makes you make poor decisions!
I have also found that income rarely exceeds personal development. Sometimes income takes a
lucky jump, or maybe people will cheat and steal their way, which usually results in misery. Unless
you learn to handle the responsibilities that come with it, it will usually shrink back to the amount
you can manage.
I remember a quote a wealthy man once said, “If you took all the money in the world and divided
it equally among everybody, it would soon be back in the same pockets it was before.”
So, what is the point? It’s hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal
development. If you want a better partner, you become better. If you want better pay, you become
better. Otherwise, even if you obtain those things for a moment, they will not last. So here is the
reality of life: To have more than you’ve got now, no matter what area you want more, you have to
become more than you are. That’s why personal development is important, and this is where you
should focus most of your attention. Otherwise, you just might have to contend with the reality of
not changing. That’s why personal development is important (bears repeating).
7 Key Areas of Growth
So let’s talk about the 7 Key Areas of Growth. They are:
- Time
- Emotions and Mindset
- Relationships
- Physical Body
190 - Career/Business
- Finances
- Spirituality and Contribution