Personal Development, at its basis, is anything that allows us to grow into an ordered life that is of our choosing. This is one of the most cherished goals among self-improvement practitioners. There are some excellent methods available for achieving it. However, it is easier said than done. Here are a few hints and tips to get you started.
Clean the clutter from your life
There is an excellent saying in the personal development field, “a tidy desk is a tidy mind”. Oftentimes, your outer environment is a reflection of the way you think and feel. Is your living or working space always cluttered? It’s important that you start to order your environment to reflect the ordered life you are building. Clear away unnecessary clutter from your surroundings. This may sound like a meaningless task but you are sending a very clear message to your subconscious mind that you intend to get organised. When you begin to organise your living and working environment it allows you to develop the basic skills needed for organising your life. This can be achieved through goals. You should structure your goals in such a way that each one builds on the other and ensure that they are not in opposition to one another.
2. Goals can be flexible
Don’t be too set on achieving your goals in exactly the manner you intend to – things can change. A major factor in the non-attainment of goals is the inability to restructure plans and change direction when circumstances dictate these should be done. Remain flexible.
3. Don’t focus on the mistakes
Simply analyse them and learn the lesson they are trying to teach you. By staying focused on your failures, problems, or toils you are actually creating more of them or at least keeping them in your experience. Focus on the solutions or at least focus on the fact “you’re still in the game”. Consider any mistakes you’ve made as life lessons. Apply what you have learned from them and use them as references (of what not to do) in the future.
4. Make sure you follow through on your plans
Persistence can accomplish things that nothing else can. How many times were you close to the end of the rainbow, and without even knowing how close you were, you quit? You may be someone who has drive at the start of a venture but finds your enthusiasm waning as you progress, lacking the motivation that is needed to “keep you keeping on” during times of hardship. Those who persist, especially in times like these, are those who ALWAYS win!
5. Visualisation
Visualise yourself taking the steps necessary to achieve your goal and achieving that success. Practice visualising every day your dreams and desires. Doing this keeps you on track and reinforces you are on the right path.
Today more than ever, looking after our mindset is very important. Inner Peace and living your values is the key to a happy life.
Inner Peace, isn’t that what we’d all love to experience consistently as we weave our paths through everything life gives us? The good news is it is far simpler to attain than many of our outer (material or physical) goals. The bad news is that simple isn’t always easy! Attaining inner peace is not easy because it means replacing old habits with new ones, and that requires dedicated commitment. But the benefits are absolutely worth the effort.
Inner peace gives you the ability to live your life with a sense of happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment which is not disturbed or influenced by outside events. How do you acquire it? By living your life your own way, not how others think you should. By not worrying about what others think of you – we all judge others (both positively and negatively) according to our own values, but if we try to live our lives in a way which honours somebody else’s values rather than our own, we’ll always have a little gnawing discomfort going on deep inside.
To experience inner peace, we also need to be able to forgive and let go of guilt. Forgive yourself and forgive others. Feeling guilty about past actions won’t change them and won’t make anybody feel any better (either you or the person whom you’ve hurt). Do what you can to put things right, resolve to do better in the future, and move on.
Likewise, letting go of anger or grudges will bring about a surprising sense of peace. Think about it – how does holding onto these negative emotions help you? And do you think they hurt those against whom you hold them more than they hurt you? Not at all. They are your emotions and you are the only person whom they can harm.
Of course, it can be very difficult to forgive someone who’s hurt you, but what I’ve come to realize is that most people don’t maliciously set out to hurt others, and those who do are deeply unhappy themselves. The motivation behind their action was most probably some kind of fear rather than deliberately wanting to cause hurt or pain. And thought of in that context, it’s easier to let it go.
And with a little bit of practice at forgiveness, you may even find yourself getting less annoyed or angry with people in future. When you can shrug things off and not take things personally (it’s really about them, and not you at all), you’ll have a greater sense of inner peace. Our happiness is determined by how we think about the events in our lives, rather than by the events themselves. Take charge of your thoughts and you take charge of your emotions.
To achieve inner peace, you also need to let go of worry. Hmm, another tricky one! Worry is similar to guilt. Worrying about what might or might not happen is completely unproductive, and totally destroys your ability to enjoy the present moment. A great shame that, as the present moment is all we really have
Practicing Yoga & Meditation is a great way to achieve inner peace and something I am very mindful of doing as often as possible
So, how do we learn to let go of worries, guilt, and anger? Well, the first thing is to become consciously aware of what we’re thinking whenever we feel worried, guilty, or angry. Notice what’s going on in your inner dialogue, and acknowledge that it’s your thoughts about the external event that’s causing you to feel the way you do, and not the event itself. Then reframe your thoughts to reflect on what’s going on around you in a more positive light. Whenever you catch yourself thinking about an old thought, banish it immediately and replace it with the new one.
“No one can create negativity or stress within you. Only you can do that by virtue of how you process your world.”
Dr. Wayne Dyer
This will take a lot of practice but with patience and persistence you will develop a lighter inner dialogue that promotes a feeling of well-being and inner peace, and the world will feel like a far better place to live in!
I hope you found some value in this post. I would love for you to comment and share
Gratitude is something new to me, for a long time, my entire focus was on all that was going wrong, and guess what I got more of the same. Life was a struggle, either no time or not enough money coming in each week. I also took so many things for granted.
It wasn’t until I had a very close call one day, where I almost fell over a rocky ledge, I started thinking about how grateful I was to be alive and not in a mess at the bottom of a rocky gorge,
I started the practice of gratitude. Every night before I go to sleep I say 3 things I am grateful for. Don’t be like me and wait for something to happen – get in the habit now. It will change the way you live your life.
Without gratitude, life is more challenging than it needs to be. We can get so consumed with all that is going on that we have to make a conscious effort to practice gratitude.
During the day, if I am feeling flat, pessimistic, or overwhelmed, a little gratitude can help me bounce back and lift my mood.
I am now starting my day with what I am grateful for. Wayne Dwyer in his movie “The Shift” wakes up every morning saying Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
It is so easy to get out of bed and just start doing things, take some time and say what you are grateful for or write it in a journal.
It is a simple practice to get into the habit of practicing gratitude every day and this is a beautiful gift you can give yourself.
Gratitude is free, enjoyable, effective, and a beautiful way to live your life.
Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.
Here are 12 practical ways to practice gratitude to help youget into the gratitude mindset.
12 Practical Ways to Practice Gratitude
Practice gratitude each day with these actions:
Write it down. Make a daily habit of writing down a few things that you can be grateful about. Ideally, you’ll do this early and late in the day. It gets your day off on the right foot and sets you up for a good night of sleep.
Be grateful for the little things. There are plenty of small things you can be grateful for each day. A great cup of coffee, the sound of birds in the morning, or the fact that you have a comfortable bed to sleep in or clean sheets are very easy to be grateful for.
Go for a gratitude walk. This is a great way to get out of your head. Go for a walk and look for things that you can be grateful for. A beautiful tree, flowers blooming in a garden, a child playing, a friendly dog, or a nice, cool breeze are all things you could choose to feel gratitude about.
Avoid Comparing. When you compare one thing to another, you demean it. Be grateful for something exactly as it is. This applies to people and things.
Tell people you’re thankful. Show people that you’re grateful for thanking them. Whether it’s your neighbor for keeping his garden so tidy and neat or the shop assistant when you are shopping. Be thankful and let them know about it.
Enjoy your animals . Pets give us plenty of reasons to feel gratitude. Give your pet some extra attention. You’ll both feel great.
Donate your time or money. Give your resources to something that you think is valuable to the world. It could be a charity or other organization. Time and money can have a great impact.
Make a list of things that you like about yourself. Have a little gratitude for yourself, too. What do you like when you take a long, hard look at yourself? You’ll not only be expressing gratitude, but you’ll also be doing wonders for your self-esteem.
Write a positive review for a business you appreciate. Business owners love positive reviews. It makes them feel good and can boost their business. Be supportive and express your gratitude.
Meditate on the things that you’re grateful for. Put your focus and attention on those things you’re most grateful for. You might develop an even greater appreciation for them.
Minimize judging and complaining. Judging and complaining are the opposite of gratitude. People that do this aren’t enjoyable to be around, either. Keep your negative thoughts and opinions to yourself. Avoid judging others and you’ll find that you’re happier and less stressed.
12. Be thankful at mealtimes. Since you eat at least one meal each day, this is a great way to develop a habit of expressing gratitude.
Be grateful for everything you have. This is so important as sometimes it can be hard to see this. I know I struggled with this when money was tight and debt was piling up. I know now life would have been easier if I had practiced gratitude on a daily basis.
That doesn’t mean you have to be satisfied with your current situation or settle for less, but you can still be grateful for what you do have.
Practice gratitude. Your mood and perspective will be lifted. You will lift other people around you up and your opportunities for success will increase.
By doing all this you will receive even more good things to be grateful for!
Start today with your gratitude practice and I would love to hear from you if this post has helped you or please share different things you do to practice gratitude.
Until next time
Julie
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” Oprah Winfrey
This is a great little story on why having pointless discussions makes no sense – it is so important to protect your mindset. Trying to convince other people of your opinion – is futile and it leaves you feeling worse than ever. This is very prevalent at the moment with the divided views in the media and with friends & family.
Enjoy the story and I hope it helps. Julie
The donkey told the tiger, “The grass is blue.”
The tiger replied, “No, the grass is green.”
The discussion became heated, and the two decided to submit the issue to arbitration, so they approached the lion.
As they approached the lion on his throne, the donkey started screaming: ′′Your Highness, isn’t it true that the grass is blue?”
The lion replied: “If you believe it is true, the grass is blue.”
The donkey rushed forward and continued: ′′The tiger disagrees with me, contradicts me and annoys me. Please punish him.”
The king then declared: ′′The tiger will be punished with 3 days of silence.”
The donkey jumped with joy and went on his way, content and repeating ′′The grass is blue, the grass is blue…”
The tiger asked the lion, “Your Majesty, why have you punished me, after all, the grass is green?”
The lion replied, ′′You’ve known and seen the grass is green.”
The tiger asked, ′′So why do you punish me?”
The lion replied, “That has nothing to do with the question of whether the grass is blue or green. The punishment is because it is degrading for a brave, intelligent creature like you to waste time arguing with an ass, and on top of that, you came and bothered me with that question just to validate something you already knew was true!”
The biggest waste of time is arguing with the fool and fanatic who doesn’t care about truth or reality, but only the victory of his beliefs and illusions.
Never waste time on discussions that make no sense. There are people
who, for all the evidence presented to them, do not have the ability to understand, others who are blinded by ego, hatred, and resentment and the only thing that they want is to be right even if they aren’t.
When ignorance screams – intelligence shuts up. Your peace and tranquility are worth more
Sometimes I feel less than great. Low, grouchy, fed-up, and bored are all words you could use to describe what I’m like on those days and I’m probably not the best company. The thing is, days like those are part of the deal with being human – it’s not an elective. There will always be off days, and that’s okay.
But what happens when you get a whole string of those off-days, maybe lasting weeks, months, or even years? Too many of us say that we’re in a rut, feel stuck, fed-up, or bored, and admit that we don’t want things to be that way, but we don’t know what to do to change. That’s the problem, when you’re in a rut, you don’t have the energy or motivation to change things for the better, and it’s tough to find the insight or resources you need to make that jump.
Here are five fun and easy ways you can use right now to climb, or better yet, leap, out of the rut and start to get something better for yourself.
1. Do Something Differently
Life tends to run smoothly when we establish systems and routines for things, but the problem comes when things run too smoothly and we become blinded to any ideas or choices that sit outside of our routine. All the stuff we do every day becomes the norm, running on auto-pilot, and it becomes our whole world.
Start with making one or two simple changes to your day – be it at breakfast time, your radio station, gym routine, route to work, lunch routine, etc. Don’t worry about what the changes are or whether they’re right or wrong, just make a couple of simple choices that will serve you well.
Doing something differently or changing parts of your routine, instantly takes you out of the norm and allows you to shake off the things that make you feel confined. Step out of your routine and you’ll be in a position where you’re able to make different choices, see things differently and get a different result.
2. Use your Intuition
Your intuition is a powerful ally, and we all have it even though you might not recognize it. The dictionary says that intuition is:
1.a. The act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; immediate cognition.
1.b. Knowledge gained by the use of this faculty; a perceptive insight.
2. A sense of something not evident or deducible; an impression.
One of the best friends you’ll ever have in life is your intuition, and tuning into it and learning to trust it is something that can have some truly remarkable effects. Accessing your intuition is a bit like working and developing a muscle, but unfortunately, it can be harder to locate than a bicep or quadricep, which tend to stay in the same place. Here are some quick tips for accessing and trusting it –
• Practice maintaining an open-minded, playful, experimental, non-judgmental attitude. This is the most fertile ground to tap into your intuition.
• Practice making wild guesses in your everyday life. Guess what a salesperson’s name is, what a new person or place will look like or who’s calling on the phone. Don’t worry about getting it wrong, you’re just working that muscle.
• Try a few simple observation exercises in your daily life. Whether you’re in a restaurant, on a train, in a bar, or out shopping, practice noticing non-verbal behavior in others. Look for shifts in posture, eye movements, vocal tone or tempo, etc. Guess how they’re feeling or what they’re talking about.
I hope these tips help you in your personal growth Journey
