Personal development, or ‘personal growth’ as it is sometimes called, is kind of a catch-all phrase for anything related to improving oneself.  We all want to improve ourselves in one way or another – I mean, why not?  Maybe that’s in regard to physical appearance and health – a lot of personal development blogs put a heavy focus diet and fitness, and while I personally don’t go this route I know a few fellow bloggers who believe that it is an important part of what they share with their community.

What Works for You?

This is the question we all have to ask ourselves before we jump into our own personal development endeavors.  What are you actually looking for and what will help you get where you want to go?

So ask yourself that.  What works for you?

I found that I enjoyed studying a lot of philosophy, and that often times ancient texts and abridged versions of books from some of the so called ‘masters’ gave me a lot more insight than modern, fluffy, self help guides.  At my blog Murderous Living I put a very big focus on ancient methodologies and how we can apply them to our lives.

This works for some people, other people may have no interest in it whatsoever.

In order to establish a personal development system that works for you and not against you, you need to be really clear with yourself about what you are looking for.  If you don’t even know what you want to get out of a particular product, philosophy, or book on personal growth how can you expect to get anything at all?  To be honest, you probably won’t.

Set Goals, Understand Them

Setting goals helps us to really visualize what we are looking for.  If none of your goals have to do with looking better physically or improving your diet then why would you focus on a personal development plan that put a big focus on that?  Well, if you had set your goals ahead of time you would know that it wasn’t a program for you.

Setting goals will keep you away from programs and concepts that aren’t in your best interest.

Always Stay Fluid

What interests you right now in terms of self improvement may become a moot point in six months or two years, you never know.  Sometimes you need to reevaluate your strategy to make sure that you are still on the right path.

I do this all the time – my goals today are very different than what they were a year ago, and in another year they’ll be much different than they are now, but without goal setting and understanding what you want you will have a great struggle finding what you are looking for.