Being the best version of yourself: isn’t that what everyone wants? You do this based on personal development and personal growth. By having some challenges in your life and taking them fully, you keep developing yourself. Know how to develop yourself in just 4 steps. Let’s go for it together!
What is personal development?
Personal development is the way you work on your own skills. By becoming aware of everything you have to offer and working to improve it, you continue to learn and develop.
This way you achieve your goals and work on your self-confidence. These can be skills or traits for at home or for the workplace.
What parts does personal development consist of?
Personal development is a broad word. That is only good because it gives you a wide choice of areas in which you can develop. Here are a few parts of personal development with examples:
- Self-awareness:
What do you do and what not: for example, do you often say no to outings or do you say yes too often to friends and colleagues? By becoming aware of every time you say yes or no, you can give the opposite answer more often - Developing talents:
In your group of friends, are you always the one who makes plans and organizes everything? On a roll! Then try this at work. Pick up that task and see what happens - Transferable skills:
Expressing your emotions and opinion is sometimes difficult. But by doing this step by step, you will see that people around you will also communicate better with you. Fine, huh? - Physical health:
Exercising or eating healthy (and especially maintaining it) is tough. With a plan that suits you and is not too ambitious, you will achieve your goals in no time - Mental health:
Your brain and mind also need love. Negative thoughts not only express themselves in your own life, but certainly also in the workplace. With small steps you can turn something negative into something positive! - Financial situation:
Is your salary gone after a few days? List all your expenses and delete them: what are necessary expenses and what are not? - Increase discipline:
Postpone tasks and only be able to work when something is urgent? A little extra discipline does wonders!
Strong in your work with personal development
By developing yourself personally you are stronger in your work. Curious about how to approach this?
How do you work on personal development?
As you can see, there are quite a few areas in which you can work on your personal development. Where do you start? Well, that’s why we’ve broken it down into 4 steps:
- self-awareness
- How can I grow?
- set goals
- create a plan
step 1: self-awareness
To know what you want to change, you first need to know what you can do now. So start with a little research on yourself. What are your character traits , skills and competences ? What do you like to do and what not? How would others describe you? Which parts make up your so-called core quadrants ? What have you already achieved at work or in your private life? And so on.
If you want to focus more on your career, try the personal SWOT analysis .
Can’t quite figure it out? That’s not bad at all. Ask your friends, family or colleagues what ideas they have for you or take a free personality test online .
Are you out? Great, then choose one area you want to focus on and then we will continue setting goals.
step 2: how can I continue to grow?
Do you want to move up, take more responsibility, take a side step, a completely new job or follow extra training? Everything is possible! By growing at work you create new opportunities for yourself. But the question is first: where do you find these career opportunities ?
We help you find these opportunities. Are you out? Great, then choose a direction of growth that you want to focus on and then we will continue setting goals.
step 3. set goals
Setting a goal ensures that you get to work much more motivated. And the more concrete this goal, the better. This way you know exactly where you are working towards and when you have achieved it.
A good way to set goals is with the SMART method . This means making your goal specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. These 5 requirements ensure that your goal does not remain a vague wish, but becomes real. This way you can get started right away and quickly cross your goal off your list!
A few examples of concrete goals are:
- I want to complete the time management course before the end of the year
- I will be applying for at least 3 vacancies in the coming week
- I want to raise my salary by at least 5% tomorrow with my salary negotiation
step 4: a personal development plan
You know where you want to develop yourself and you have set goals, then it’s time for the last step: the personal development plan (PDP) . It contains everything you need to achieve your goal.
This gives you guidance and clear plan. This can be a small plan, for example a week. But this can also be nice and extensive for 3 years. And then the marking of your achieved steps can begin! And don’t forget to reward yourself once you’ve reached your goal, eh. You’ve earned it!
Have you read through all the steps and do you think: I want to get started, but I don’t know how? Then we are here for you! You are not alone in this. A whole team full of specialists is ready to help you with your personal development.