Personal growth is called personal growth for a reason… it’s personal!
I remember when I first got into this personal development/growth journey… it was overwhelming!
When I first started watching YouTube videos on personal development, I LOVED the content. I loved the idea of becoming a better version of myself. But at the same time, I was also overwhelmed on the amount of work I should be doing on myself. I always felt that there was something missing.
This blog post contains the eight main personal development goals to start setting. These are the personal development goals that are important, and that I felt would’ve been a great start for me if I could start my self growth journey all over again.
These eight personal development goals will be discussed in this blog post. It will go through why it’s beneficial and how you can implement it in your life! You learn of how you can simplify your personal growth journey a bit by making these goals the foundation.
This blog post is definitely for anyone who either wants to start their personal growth journey, or even anyone who just wants to better it!
After reading this blog post, I definitely suggest reading the blog post on the ultimate beginner guide for personal development, the habits of personal growth, and 7 fun steps to level up your life!
If there is another personal development goal that I haven’t mentioned, please feel free to let me know! The comments are only seen by me, so feel free to be as open as you like!
We’ll get into this now.
1 – Make Every Single Day Count
Here’s a plot twist for some people – any sort of “success” doesn’t happen in just ONE day.
It happens over a series of small choices you make overtime.
That’s why every single day counts.
Just remember that we’re not just talking about success in work, business, or finances… we’re also talking about success in your health, relationships, personal growth, and self-care.
You can’t just take a massive action one day on any of these areas and expect instant success. You develop habits and systems that you do overtime that you’ll eventually see results.
Every good habit that you do, it contributes to those areas. It’s the same with every bad habit that you do. Yes, there may be days where we slip up and end up doing some of the bad habits, and that’s okay! Just remember, that as much as you can, you want to make sure you’re making the most of your days.
I talk a bit more on this concept in this past blog post, so I definitely recommend you check it out!
2 – Always Evaluate How You Can Improve
It’s always worth assessing whether the actions you’re taking now is bringing you closer to your goals.
The last thing you want to happen is to keep doing something, only to realise that it wasn’t working all along.
By evaluating at least once a month or week, you have a good idea on what is bringing you closer to your goals, what’s not making any difference, and what’s not working at all. It’s better to find out sooner rather than later right?
3 – Apply what is right for you, not what is popular
There is no “one size fit all” advice. Just because an Instagram Reel or TikTok says that you should do these habits for success, it doesn’t mean it will work for everyone.
For example, most people may be familiar with the 5am wakeup tip. Someone from YouTube or Instagram have said that waking up at 5am makes you more productive. However, this is just a generalized tip. This is because, it doesn’t consider the circumstances of everyone’s life.
For instance, someone who gets home from a night shift at 11:30pm isn’t going to benefit from waking up at 5am since they’ll be lacking energy & sleep.
But for someone who works a 9 to 5, and can realistically go to bed at a reasonable time to wake up energetic at 5am, the advice works for them.
So that’s why, everything you learn from everywhere, make sure to apply only what is right for you based on your own life circumstances and situation. (I talk about this more in this blog post about this exact point!)
4 – Challenge Your Excuses
Yes, I know that there are some excuses out there that are indeed excusable.
But as much as we possibly can, we want to challenge them instead and find solutions to those excuses.
That’s why, you want to familiarise yourself with an excuse that is indeed excusable, and an excuse that is simply a way to procrastinate or not do something.
An excusable excuse is when you can’t do anything about it. You have no choice but to accept it, because there are no possible solutions.
An excuse that is not excusable is when there are other solutions. Yes, those excuses may be valid, but there are still other options you can do.
Let’s take the example of needing to exercise more. What are some examples of excusable excuses for not doing them?
If you are injured and the doctor told you to not do physical activity until it’s healed, that’s an excusable excuse. You can’t do anything about it. If you do exercise, you’ll make your injury worse and it’ll be even a longer time to get back into exercising.
But, if you can’t exercise because you can’t afford a gym membership, and therefore never exercise because of that, it’s not an excusable excuse. This is because, there are still other solutions. You can still exercise without having to get a gym membership. You can take a walk or do a workout video at home.
Even though not being able to afford the gym membership is a valid excuse, there are still other options and solutions.
We actually talk in depth about this concept in this blog post! Check it out!
5 – Make Time for Your Goals & Passions
I’m sure everyone has at least one goal they want to work towards. Maybe there are a few things that they are passionate about.
BUT how many people actually take the time to work on those goals and passions?
Here’s the truth that not everyone likes to hear (I didn’t like to hear this either before!)… if your goals & passions are really important to you, you’re not going to FIND time for it, you’re going to MAKE time for it.
Before you say that you legit don’t have any time to find, just remember that you don’t need to spend hours of your day working on your goals. It can even be as short as 15 minutes.
15 minutes may not seem like a lot of time. It may seem like it won’t even make a difference to accomplishing your goals. But, it’s still progress. 15 minutes a day is still progress.
Let’s say 5 days a week, you work on one of your goals for 15 minutes. At the end of the week, you already made 75 minutes worth of progress on your goals. In four weeks (about a month), you made 300 minutes worth of progress. That’s the power of the compound effect, it accumulates overtime.
Plus, since 15 minutes doesn’t seem like a lot of time, it seems more doable to do, and it doesn’t feel dreadful. Of course, you can do more than that if you’d like! But if you feel like you need to really get started, 15 minutes is your magic number!
6 – Start Following Productivity Tips that Actually Work for YOU
There is no doubt that there are so many productivity tips out there.
From the 5am rule to using a bunch of productivity apps, it’s tempted to follow them because a majority of YouTubers, Instagrammers, and TikTokers say that it works.
However, not everyone can wake up at 5am.
Not everyone benefits from the different productivity apps.
I’m not saying that these productivity tips don’t work, they do… but not for every single individual.
Remember what I said earlier about only applying what is right for YOU and not what is popular? It’s the same exact thing here.
You know your circumstances, situation, and lifestyle more than anybody else! You know what productivity tip will benefit you and what won’t.
Yes there may be times where you have to do some trial and error to find out, but it’s better than applying a productivity tip for a long time, only to realise that it’s not actually benefitting you.
If you’re ready to start learning some productivity tips and see if it works for your own life, read this blog post on productivity tips for every area of your life!
7 – Remind Yourself of your WHY regularly
What exactly is your WHY?
Your WHY is the reason behind why you do what you do. Whether that’d be starting or breaking a habit, working towards a certain goal or passion, or anything you do in general.
For example, your WHY for starting healthier eating and exercise habits is to improve your health so you can make sure that you’re always able to do what you love and spend time with your loved ones.
The reason why you have a WHY is that it’s a way to keep you going during times when it’s challenging, you don’t feel like doing it, or you lose motivation for doing it.
Going back to that example, if you’re finding it challenging to keep up with those healthier eating & exercise habits, your WHY will help you remember that you’re doing it to improve your health… to improve you! Then, that WHY will keep you going.
But what if the WHY isn’t strong enough? What if you remind yourself of your WHY for having those habits, and you still don’t do them anyway? Well maybe it’s because the WHY isn’t strong enough.
And that’s what’s important. You want to make sure that your WHY is a strong reason that will motivate you to keep on going. If you feel like you’re slacking regularly and the WHY isn’t helping, it may be time to start thinking of a new WHY.
And we talk about developing a strong WHY in this past blog post! I definitely recommend reading it so you can keep that WHYpower going.
8 – Say Nice Things About Yourself
Because why wouldn’t you?
I’m serious… why wouldn’t you?
It’s crazy how we can be a bit mean to ourselves sometimes.
It’s crazy that a lot of the things we say to ourselves, we will never say to anyone else’s face.
It sounds like the most cliche thing every, but it’s genuinely true. Talk to yourself like you would to a best friend.
Think about this -> would you be friends with yourself based on what you say to yourself? If the answer is not a YES without hesitation, it’s time to change that self-talk!
I remember when I used to find self-talk and affirmations so cheesy… but they are such powerful tools to overcoming the negative things I say about myself. My negative self-talk made me realise that I don’t have a lot of self-kindness.
So be kind to yourself! Start saying nicer things to yourself… because seriously, why not?
I talk about changing up your self-talk is this blog post, I definitely recommend reading this if you could use some more self-kindness!
TAKE a SMALL STEP
Now, let’s take some small steps and apply what we had just learned in this blog post!
Here is one small step to already progress in each area.
- Make Every Single day count – reflect on your current habits, and note if they give you progress or they hold you back.
- Always evaluate how you can improve – reflect on how you can currently improve in all areas of your life, even if it’s just a small thing. For example, to improve your physical health, you may decide to break a certain habit.
- Apply what is right for you, not what is popular – write down one thing you learned from social media, and why you will or will not apply it.
- Challenge your excuses – think of one excuse you find yourself always making, and challenge that excuse. Try to find solutions instead.
- Make time for your goals and passions – schedule in 15 minutes today to work on one of your goals or passion.
- Find what makes you productive – list down productivity tips that you’ve heard of but know that they’re not going to work for you.
- Remind yourself of your WHY regularly – write down your WHY and put it somewhere where you can always see it.
- Say nice things about yourself – write down 5 things you love about yourself.
THEN, do this step:
- Pick ONE Personal Development Goal you’ll start working towards in your life. Once you have made it a part of your life, go ahead and work on the next one!
You Have Nothing to Lose When Working On Yourself
Like seriously.
Whenever you make time to work on yourself, whether it’s making the most of every single day, reflecting on how you can improve, or working on your self-talk, it’s not a waste of time!
And you also have to remember that personal growth is a personal journey. That means it’s just you! You’re going to only apply the advice that is applicable to your life circumstances. You’re going to apply productivity tips that work for your lifestyle. You’re WHY is going to be very personal to YOU.
Your goals & passions are very personal. Even the excuses you make are very personal! Hence why it’s called a personal development journey.
So when you think about it, if you don’t attempt to work on ourselves, no one else is going to be affected by that. The only one that will be affected is you.
But maybe at first, personal development can be an overwhelming journey. That’s why it’s important to just start with small steps. Small steps every single day will accumulate to a big difference!
And did you know that I have a book about taking small steps? You can check out my book, Small Steps to Progression and download it here! It’s also available in the Free Resource Library where it contains a bunch of free resources to help with your personal development! Check it out here!
But anyways, hope you got value out of this blog post, and thank you for reading!
-Lauren ☺
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Ultimate Basic Guide to Starting Personal Development
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi, this is Lauren! I’m a law grad from Melbourne, Australia. On laurenbarri.com, I create content on all things personal development, productivity, self-care, and habits! I am super passionate about these topics because of how they helped me in all areas of my life, and I want to share it with others!
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