Tips on enhancing personal development

M.N.M.Nazeer

Personal development is about desiring and pursuing knowledge. To assist you in your pursuit of knowledge and in expanding your horizons, I encourage you to read and explore the pages on the arts, philosophy and sports. We often tend to overlook how much they contribute to personal development and to the balancing of the personality.

Enjoy also the inspirational quotes and personal development articles that include helpful tips and strategies as well as other interesting pointers. The good news is, that acquiring essential life skills will not only contribute to your personal growth and development, it will make you a more interesting and dynamic individual.

Why are these skills essential?

Because without having developed them, you will always feel that something is missing in your life. What good is all the financial success in the world if you don't have self-confidence, know who you really are, what you want, or what you are doing here? We have all witnessed many outwardly successful and famous people who have not been able to find personal happiness. No amount of fame or fortune could fill the void they felt inside.

Therefore, in order to enjoy the fruits of any achievement we must first be happy with ourselves and possess the following nine Tips:

A healthy self- concept which includes the three skills of knowing yourself,loving yourself,being true to yourself.

The critical thinking that is needed to work on developing and honouring the rest of the skills including:

Having a personal value system

Perspective

Having an open mind

Having a sense of humor

Resilience and

Acceptance

Personal development is an ongoing process and journey as Robert Louis Stevenson said: “To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming,is only the end of life”

To know yourself you should be aware of your strength, weakness, like and dislike,observe and be aware of your moods, reactions and responses what is happening around you,become aware of how these moods and emotions effect your state of mind,examine how you interact with others,observe how your environment affects you.

Knowing and understanding yourself better, in turn, leads to decision-making, setting and reaching appropriate goals and altogether living more productively.

To love yourself

To love yourself means to accept yourself as you are and to come to terms with those aspects of yourself that you cannot change.

It means to have self-respect, a positive self-image, and unconditional self-acceptance. Needless to say, it does not mean being arrogant, conceited or thinking that you are better than anyone else. You have to feel that ‘you're the ‘VIP’ to yourself. (not to degrade others) It means having a healthy regard for yourself knowing that you are a worthy human being. You might be a worst fellow to the view of others but, you are the ‘VIP’ to yourself, like I mentioned above. It is important to remind ourselves that no one is perfect.

We all have strengths and weaknesses and we certainly possess the resources to work on improving ourselves. Each of us is unique and has specific talents and abilities to offer. We are all here, in the words of Walt Whitman, to contribute a verse “In order to appreciate yourself it is up to you to discover what makes you unique and to further develop those talents”.

We have a responsibility to ourselves to do so. You cannot sit around and wait for approval from others. Work on accepting yourself. You are the only 'you' that you have. It is in your best interests to be the best you can be.

Until you love yourself, you will not be able to love anyone else. You can only love another to the degree that you do yourself.

How do you love yourself?

You do so by investing in and working on your personal growth and development. You work on being the best you. You understand that you are human, but you acknowledge that you have the potential and spiritual capability to rise above whatever conditions and obstacles are put in your path. When you love yourself you endeavor to take care of yourself physically, mentally and emotionally. You take care to look and feel your best by nurturing your body, mind and spirit. Conversely, if you do not love yourself enough, start taking care of your body, mind, and spirit. You will not only become more self-aware, you will generate feelings of worth and accomplishment.

Your body

You take care of your body by eating well, exercising and getting plenty of rest. There are many wonderful books available that can help you learn what types of food and exercise are good for you and your particular body type.

Your mind

Your mind needs nourishment and exercise too. Don't take it for granted. Stimulate it by learning about new and interesting things. Keeping your mind active helps prevent certain old age diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Keeping the neural connections of your mind active helps maintain memory and function sat optimum levels.

Your spirit

If you take care of your mind and body but neglect your spirit, you will lack balance and feel that something is missing in your life. Taking care of your spirit rejuvenates you and helps you deal with the daily stresses and challenges of everyday life. When you love yourself, you invest in your personal growth and development. You endeavor to be the best that you can be, and you strive to achieve your potential.

To be true to yourself means to act in accordance with who you are and what you believe. If you know and love yourself you will find it effortless to be true to yourself. Just as you cannot love anyone else until you love yourself, you cannot be true to anyone else until you are true to yourself. Be who you are. Have the courage to accept yourself as you really are, not as someone else thinks you should be. Do not take action or pretend to be someone else for the sake of gaining acceptance.

Many young people believe that when they do things to please their peers, such as drink when they should not or behave and party in inappropriate ways, they will be popular and liked. They go against the advice of their parents or their own common sense only to find themselves in trouble and not accomplishing what they set out to do. When you do things that are not genuine or a reflection of the real you, you will not be happy with yourself and will end up confused. You will be confused because you will not know whom to please, or how. Self-respect comes from being true to who you really are and from acting in accordance with your fundamental nature.

When you respect yourself, others will respect you. They will sense that you are strong and capable of standing up for yourself and your beliefs. When you are true to yourself, you allow your individuality and uniqueness to shine through. You respect the opinions of others but do not conform to stereotypes or their expectations of you and you have to treat others as how you feel to be treated or you have to learn to respect other religions as how you feel your religion is to be treated or respected. To be true to yourself takes courage.

It requires you to be introspective, sincere, open and fair. It does not mean that you are inconsiderate or disrespectful of others. It means that you will not let others define you or make decisions for you that you should make for yourself. Be true to the very best that is in you and live your life consistent with your highest values and aspirations. Those who are most successful in life have dared to creatively express themselves and in turn, broaden the experiences and perspectives of everyone else.

To be countinued next week