Continuous Personal Growth
Continuous Personal Growth
Becoming a better
person is a simple concept on paper. You need to reflect, consider your
past mistakes, and focus on your goals for who you want to be as you move
forward. Sounds doable.
But anyone who’s tried
to truly work on themselves will know just how difficult it can be! You need to
be fully committed to the process, even when it gets painful or tough, and
that’s a struggle for anyone. But don’t be discouraged! There are ways that you
can make this effort easier. Here are five ways to commit yourself to
continuous personal growth.
1. VISUALISE YOUR GOALS
Your goals for
personal growth can feel very far away, especially if you have big ones.
Setting smaller short-term goals to make the climb more manageable is
a great way to handle that, but there’s also an additional tool you can
use: visualisation!
Visualisation is an incredibly powerful way to take control of your goals and manifest them. While visualisation alone doesn’t get the job done, it can provide inspiration, motivation, and clarity by helping you to anticipate success. It also allows you to become more confident and determined in your personal growth.
Research has found that the act of visualising success is
just as convincing to the human brain as achieving that success. In other
words, when you visualise well, your brain becomes certain that it will achieve
that goal and becomes more committed to it. Visualising the act of growth and
the actions you have to do to achieve that growth is also as helpful as
imagining success, and it commits your brain to the imagined actions.
There are, of course,
some caveats to this. Overindulgent visualising will likely not provide the
same positive benefits. That’s why using visualisation hand-in-hand with
short-term and long-term goals is important. A vision that seems very grandiose
requires further breaking down into smaller goals.
2. START
YOUR DAYS OFF WELL
The way that you begin
your day can determine the tone for the rest of it. You don’t need to have a
picture-perfect start, but knowing how to set the day’s mood with a positive
morning routine can be beneficial when you work on personal growth. You want to
be able to put your best foot forward every day so you can make productive
steps towards your goals.
Many different kinds of routines are great for the morning, but they have
common themes. Most involve a mixture of physical and mental activity, as these
factors provide benefits for your overall well-being. As an example, let’s take
the 20-20-20 routine, created by humanitarian, leadership expert, and
well-respected author
Robin Sharma. The 20-20-20 routine
involves the following components, each broken up into 20 minutes for a total
of one hour.
· EXERCISE
Exercise has been
very well-researched, and its benefits for mental health, physical
wellbeing, and positive thinking can’t be denied. With the release of feel-good
hormones, the health benefits of the workout, and the energy boost from the
pulse-racing activity, your body can get charged for the day. You’ll be more
productive and energised with just 20 minutes of daily exercise!
· REFLECTION
Twenty minutes of
reflection can do a lot for your personal growth. It ensures that you have time
to contemplate your daily plan, incorporate steps towards your goals into your
to-do list, and set the tone for more focused action. After you’ve looked over
your itinerary, you can devote some time to reflecting on the previous day and
learning from it. You’re now equipped with all this knowledge to take with you
during your daily activities.
· PERSONAL GROWTH
The final twenty
minutes of the 20-20-20 routine are dedicated to personal growth. You’ll spend
this time catching up on things like podcasts or books, reading up about
skills, or anything else that furthers your learning. The goal is to use this
daily time to actively work towards being better and improving yourself. When
you set the tone for the day with this growth in mind, you’ll continue to grow
throughout your waking hours!
Remember. You don’t have to use the 20-20-20 routine specifically. Any positive morning routine that gets your brain ready for growth throughout the day will do the trick. Don’t be afraid to experiment until you find the routine that works for you.
3. PRIORITISE EXPERIENCES OVER RESULTS
A lot of people are
very results-focused. It’s perfectly fine to like to see efforts pay off and to
desire validation through evidence of success, but leaning too far into that
can harm your commitment. You see, the whole point of personal growth is
improving through challenges and mistakes. This means that you’re going to make
more mistakes as you go!
When you only focus on
results, it’s easy to lose positive thinking as you become disheartened by
“failure”. Seeing repeated results that aren’t to your liking may make you
believe that you’re not capable of the personal growth that you seek, causing
you to abandon the journey.
This is why it’s
important to prioritise experiences instead of results. As you go through
personal growth and overcome challenges, you’ll learn a lot more from the
actions and steps in the journey than you will from reaching the finish line.
By paying attention to the experiences you gain, you’ll be able to focus on
learning lessons, reflecting on behaviour, and discovering new knowledge.
In addition, focusing
too much on results can cause you to avoid risks and challenges. When you’re
afraid that you won’t get the result you want, you’ll just bow out and run
away. But if you want the experience, you’ll care more about how much you can
grow from the difficult hurdle and will be willing to face it head-on!
4. FIND AND BECOME A MENTOR
When encouragement is in short supply, the aid of a mentor can
be a lifesaver. Mentors are people who can teach, guide, and hold you
accountable, preventing
you from making excuses and steering you
on a continually committed path.
On top of that,
there’s a lot to be learned from people with more experience than you, and you
can hear all sorts of outside perspectives that can help your growth. You’ll be
inspired and spurred on, and you’ll want to do better and stay motivated for both
you and your mentor.
But you can do more
than just find a mentor if you so choose. You can also become one! If you have
a reasonable amount of knowledge in a subject, you can take someone under your
wing to guide them on their journey. You can feel inspired by the trust that
your mentee places in you, and your desire to remain a good role model will
help your commitment to your own battles.
5. LEARN
TO MANAGE STRESS BETTER
Seeking personal
growth isn’t an easy task, and it can become stressful sometimes. If you don’t
know how to manage the stress that you experience, you’ll be more likely to
lose motivation and quit on your journey. And that’s not something you want to
have to do!
Research shows that stress, pressure, anxiety, and
depression can all have profoundly negative effects on someone’s motivation and
subsequent performance in life. While a little bit of stress can drive forward
momentum, too much of it can quickly leave you feeling overwhelmed.
If you want to stay
committed to continuous personal growth, you’ll need to be able to balance
stress well enough. Here are some tips for doing so:
· EXERCISE
You’ve probably heard
time and time again that exercise is good for stress, and that’s because
numerous studies say that it is. Getting your heart pumping can help
relieve excess tension while releasing positive hormones. You’ll also feel more
confident. Any kind of exercise works, as long as it gets your heart rate up.
You can do anything from walking to dancing and from going to the gym to gardening!
· TAKE REGULAR BREAKS
Working nonstop on
one task, even when it comes to a goal of personal growth, can be draining. You
do need to give yourself breaks so you can recuperate and come back fresher and
stronger! While you should always keep your goals in mind, you should also
learn to rest. Taking short, quick, and infrequent breaks improves your focus
and decreases stress, according to research.
· SLEEP WELL
Getting a minimum of
seven hours of sleep per night is crucial to keeping your stress levels down. A
lack of sleep and the ensuing tiredness can spike stress and negatively affect
your day-to-day performance, thus hampering your personal growth, say studies. You should also maintain good sleep hygiene, so
go to sleep at the same time every night in a comfortable, dark environment and
set alarms for the same times every morning!
· USE A JOURNAL
Journals are great
tools that allow you to express
your thoughts and fears
without being worried about judgment. The written accounts of your emotions are
also easy to look over and reflect on later when you have a clearer head.
You’ll get to relieve stress through self-expression and gain insight into your
triggers and stressors, all at the same time! It’s no wonder that studies recommend journaling for managing stress that’s as
severe as anxiety!
· EAT HEALTHILY
You don’t need to eat
an absolutely perfect diet to manage stress, but you do need to be
mindful of what you put in your body. Decrease your intake of sugars, processed
food, junk and, fast food, and unhealthy fats. To fill the gaps, increase your
intake of whole foods. Also, make sure to drink enough water and to eat enough
so you always have the energy you need! Fuelling your body well will keep the
levels of the stress hormone cortisol well-balanced.
If you truly struggle
with getting stress under control, you can talk to a doctor or mental health
professional about possible ways to relieve that tension. Chronic stress is no
joke and can be very hard to manage on your own!
FINAL THOUGHTS ON SOME WAYS TO COMMIT YOURSELF TO CONTINUOUS PERSONAL
GROWTH
Everyone wants to grow
and improve, but few have the drive necessary to follow through. This isn’t to
say that it’s an impossible task, but it’s certainly a hard one. Without
commitment and motivation, it’s simply not possible to ensure continual personal
improvement. Being sure to incorporate these five methods for improving that
commitment can be a great help on your personal growth journey!
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