If you are like me, one of your goals in life is to become a better person each day. This could be a hard road sometimes. It can be slow at times, but the movement never stops. Now that you know that you want to be better tomorrow than you are today, how do you do that?
There are a million tools, cabillion methods, and two zillion prospectives on personal growth and how to make real progress. In my years of my own personal development, along with my experience as a Coach, all those billions of tools are really aiming at just a few broad areas. Understand these areas, and you are on your way.
1. Self-Awareness
Before you can make any changes, you must first know what changes to make, and that only comes through being self-aware. Who are you now? Where are you in your life? How do you feel about life day to day? Do you speed through life, or do you try and take in each moment? Do you even like yourself?
There are also ways you can sharpen your self-awareness. Through meditation, you can quiet your mind, center your energy, and focus on each moment. Being aware of your every thought, but not holding on to them. Self-awareness can also be helped by recognizing and aligning the spirit energy inside of you, and keeping a journal of your thoughts and events. The important thing to remember is that you have to know it, before you can change it.
It wasn’t until I truly understood what was driving my years long chronic depression before I could change it. Up till then, I wanted to change it, but I was not fully aware of the triggers.
2. Values and Principles
Now that you are more self-aware, you know your thoughts, feelings and so on, the next thing to ask yourself, what do you want out of life? Where do you want to go? What kind of life do you want to live? This means that you have to become aware, and maybe adjust your values and goals.
This maybe the toughest out of the three steps in this article. It requires you to look at what you value now, ask where you got those values from, and do those values reflect what you truly want? All of our decisions, both conscious and unconscious are made based on our values. Both the values we know we have and the values that we may not be aware of.
Write down the values that you have learned in your life. What did your Mother teach you? Where did you get that belief about women? How do you see the world, and what do you want out of it? See…deep stuff….don’t be scared! Now you know what your goals are and what fires up your passion, now let’s take it on the road.
Before I ended up getting more of what I want, I needed to stop using value systems from others, and get clear on what I truly valued, and the kind of person I wanted to be.
3. Social Integration
What good is knowing who you are and what you want if you are not going to even bother to go and get it. Remember, if your goals are still in your head, you are just daydreaming. Social integration is about taking your new higher level self and becoming a co-creator in your own success. What kind of relationships do you want? How do you deal with negative people or circumstances? How do you make your talents and skills work for you?
The ability to live in the outer world in such a way that it attracts what you want to attract is real power. Effective communication skills, becoming a trusted and respected person pays off continuously.
These steps do not happen in a robotic fashion, and they often overlap and bounce off each other, but the result is the same. You do not become a better person just by wanting it. You have to be willing to work for it. The same way you work for the money, work for the riches of your own personal development. Be aware, know your values and value yourself, and move through the world with confidence and purpose. Soon, you will be that better version of yourself.
Going Deeper
If you want to uncover your secret principles and values, and subconscious things that are motivating you, Take the Finding Your Values” mini course. You get to pull back the sheets and see what’s naked underneath.