7 Tips to Help You on Your Personal Growth Journey

By Paisley Hansen

April 29 2021 - Whether your aim is to discover your purpose, better your talents or even simply learn more about who you are and what you want out of life, embarking on an individual journey dedicated to personal growth will help you to explore your dreams and develop your potential.

When it comes to personal development, it can be challenging to know where to start. Only you will be able to identify areas of improvement and define what success will look like for you along the way. For guidance with that process, here are seven tips to help you progress to an even better version of you.

1. Identify Your Goals

The question of how to work on yourself begins with answering a few questions such as:

• What are my personal values?
• What do I like about myself? What do I dislike?
• Where do I want to be in a year from now? Five years?
• What are some of my passions? My strengths?
• What am I afraid of?

After you’ve taken time to more closely analyze who you really are, what you want out of life and where you’d like to go next, determine and write down a few goals that will better help you to embody your values and live true to your passions.

2. Adopt a Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is focused on optimism and progress. It accepts failure or perceived inadequacies as part of the process of growth, never resigning any qualities, talents or traits to a fixed or stagnant reality.

A person who has adopted a growth mindset views any would-be limits as potential for even more growth. Talents, traits and virtues aren’t simply innate, but can be cultivated and strengthened.

3. Start Small

A list of personal growth goals provide more than a few directives for your journey, but focusing on all at once isn’t a sustainable way to approach personal growth, as it could become overwhelming or too much to take on at one time. Break a larger goal into smaller components, and use the SMART goal setting method to keep it realistic.

4. Practice Compassion

You’re on a personal growth path to become a better version of you, so in the process, it’s important to be kind to yourself above all else. The road to self improvement began with self-love, rather than a lack of self regard. You are making positive steps because you believe in your potential and want to fully reach your purpose, not because you believe yourself to be a wholly unacceptable, bad person.

There will be missteps and roadblocks on the course, so all along the way, have compassion with yourself as you learn and grow.

5. Learn From Others

There have been many before you who have learned valuable self-improvement tools and have shared their secrets and knowledge with those who want to achieve the same things, too. Read as many books, listen to as many podcasts and reach out to as many people as possible while on your journey to personal growth to not only maximize your learning opportunities, but to immerse yourself in a community that is dedicated to the same, or similar, goals.

6. Maintain Accountability

It will not always be easy to make the changes you need to make in order to grow, and setbacks are inevitable. If you feel your dedication faltering at any point, take a moment to revisit your goals and envision the outcomes to recommit yourself and hold yourself accountable to success. Maintain each positive pledge to yourself knowing that you may slip up, but that you will be the only one to get yourself back on the right track.

7. Stay Empowered

At the end of the day, only you can improve yourself. Growth requires a willingness to confront some difficult truths and a great deal of diligence when making better choices to develop your abilities and strengths. This responsibility may seem heavy, but in the end, personal development provides you with the confidence to steadfastly believe in yourself and your ability to take meaningful steps to realize your potential. The chance to work on yourself is a gift, and by approaching it that way, you will have a better chance of success.

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