7 Tips to Improve Your Personal Development

Personal development is not a destination, but rather a journey. It’s about becoming the best version of yourself, acquiring new skills, and achieving your fullest potential. Your goals can be anything from improving your health & fitness to time management to developing your emotional intelligence. Personal development can take many different forms and it’s important to figure out the areas that are most important to you.

Here are 7 tips to improve your personal development today

1. Clear Vision For Your Dreams
2. Stay Consistent In Your Journey
3. Plan Your Day
4. Create A Morning Routine
5. Keep learning and growing
6. Practice Gratitude
7. Improve Your Health & Fitness

Clear Vision For Your Dreams

It’s a lot easier to get somewhere when you know where you are going. This is especially true as it relates to creating a vision for your dreams. Many people have an idea of what they’d like someday, but the people who actually make that happen are the ones who are crystal clear on what that vision is.To add clarity of vision for your dreams I recommend you set a timer for 30 minutes, remove all distractions, and spend time writing down all of the things you dream of creating, doing, and having in your life. Give yourself the gift of imagination. If your mind can conceive it then you can create it.

Now that you know what it is you dream of creating, you can spend time visualizing what it will be like to have it. Don’t concern yourself with how it is going to happen. Instead focus on putting it out there. The world and your mind will find a way to make it happen.

Stay Consistent In Your Journey

Unlocking the next level of your personal development is about the power of consistency. It is not the things you do occasionally that make a difference. It is the things you do every day that have the greatest impact. As Bruce Lee famously said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

When you start designing your personal development goals with habits and routines that serve you, and you do them consistently, that’s when your growth becomes a rocket ship. It’s like compounding interest where every day it keeps growing until one day you look up and you are in a completely different place.

To practice consistency in your self development journey I encourage you to shrink your focus. Think about one thing you want to be consistent on and focus on just that. That way you aren’t trying to do too many things at once (which can take you away from your consistency). From there write down what it is you are focusing on and put it in a place where you will see it often. Maybe that’s a sticky note on your monitor or a reminder on your phone. The more aware of the thing you want to focus on the greater the chances you’ll be consistent with it.

A great book I recommend about this is The Power of Consistency by Weldon Long.

Plan Your Day

One of the biggest areas that people overlook when it comes to personal development is planning your day. The reason is because business or work is seen as the number one priority above all else. This causes the excuse of “I don’t have enough time” to be thrown out there. “I don’t have enough time to workout, I don’t have enough time to meditate, I don’t have enough time to read.” This imbalance in life is a lie that people create for themselves. It doesn’t have to be that way.

One of my favorite quotes is, “If something is important enough you’ll find time to make it happen.” With this in mind, I encourage you to write down the most important areas of your life. What are the things you would love to do in your perfect day?

Now that you have that list, go ahead and schedule them on your calendar (or in your morning routine). Doing so will allow you to actually do the things you identify as important. This is something that isn’t hard. All it takes is a little bit of intention, and spending 5 minutes designing what your day will look like. This will ensure that you live a life filled with things you love doing.

Create a Morning Routine

A morning routine sets you up for success and can be a powerful tool in your personal development. Many successful people have a morning routine because it helps them start the day off right. By designing growth and momentum in to the beginning of your day, it sets the tone for how the rest of it will go.

Tips for creating your morning routine

• Design the first 90 seconds of your day
• Control your inputs (resist the urge to check your phone for the first hour)
• Ask yourself: What would I love to do? (then do it)
• What is something you can write down? (ex. your goals, or plan out your day)
• What is a mantra or something you read that primes your mind for performance?

Creating a morning routine will change your life forever. You’ll take control of your day and start living by design. If you’d like a roadmap for creating a morning routine that serves you can download this guide I created. It’s incredible.

Keep Learning and Growing

How do you guarantee that today is better than yesterday? You learn something. Do this every day for the next 10, 20, 30, or 40 years and watch the personal growth that happens. Not only do you win your days, but this knowledge starts to compound and you become exponentially more powerful.

One simple way you can design learning into your life is by committing to reading every day (including on the weekends). You may have heard the quote, “The average CEO reads 60 books a year”. The best way to get on that level is to prioritize learning. That’s why for the last decade, as part of my morning routine, the first thing I’ve done upon waking up is read for 30 minutes. This guarantees my growth, primes my mind with a positive input, and sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Best of all, it’s easy and fun, since you get to choose the books you are interested in reading.

Improve Your Health & Fitness

One of the best ways to improve your personal development is by improving your health and fitness. Without your health you have nothing. You can have $50 million dollars in the bank but that won’t save you from a sickness that never goes away. Many people never think it’ll be them until it’s too late. That’s why making your health and fitness a number one priority is vitally important.

The best way you can do this is by making fitness part of your lifestyle. It becomes who you are, not something “you need to do” (which carries a different energy). Every day workout and have some sort of activity (no matter how big or small). What I recommend is you design a menu of things you enjoy doing that contribute to having an active lifestyle. Some examples are: going for a run, lifting, basketball, yoga, doing 17 pushups, riding the Peloton. By having options for what to do, it makes taking action easier since you don’t have to think about it.

When you have an active lifestyle you’ll look good, and when you look good you feel good. When you feel good you are more confident. When you are more confident you attract good things into your life.

Practice gratitude

When you are thankful for the things you have your outlook on life improves. This is paramount to showing up every day as the best version of yourself. It anchors you in kindness, and liberates you from the prison’s of comparison, lack, and “not-enoughness”. This personal development skill is important because of the way the world is designed to put your attention on something else and thrives on negativity.

One simple thing I do every day (and you can too) is turn brushing your teeth into a trigger for gratitude. Say to yourself three people or things you are grateful for. For example: I am grateful for my wife, I am grateful for the beautiful weather, I am grateful for my favorite coffee mug. This habit is super easy to execute. The key is being intentional about it. Once you make the connection that brushing your teeth is the time to practice gratitude, it becomes second nature. Rinse and repeat 2x daily.

Personal Development Action

You owe it to yourself to work on becoming the best version of yourself. Because when you do you’ll be happier, unlock new levels of growth, and do things you’ve dream of.

The key to making this happen is to look at your personal development as something you get to do. This isn’t a chore or something to check off your list. Design your personal growth plan in a way that serves you and you enjoy. Getting better is fun and exciting. Embrace the journey and know that every day is an opportunity to grow. And when you adopt this lens in life, not only will you be making yourself better, but everyone around you will benefit as well.

If you are ready to take your personal development to the next level then the IAMGREAT Personal Growth Program is for you.