The Pursuit of Personal Development

When training new people at our company I often take the time to discuss the personal develoment industry. I start with Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant and talk about what I've learned over the years from different speakers, books and other products.

It's amazing to think of the wide spectrum of products that fall into the personal development industry. You can buy a book at Walgreen's by Norman Vincent Peale (The Power of Positive Thinking) for $9.95 or you can go to Fiji and spend a week with Tony Robbins for the bargain price of $15,000 - give or take a few thousand bucks...

It really doesn't matter what you spend. What matters is what you find... and that pursue it constantly. Jim Rohn (my favorite speaker and personal development icon) reminds us that humans don't naturally reach their full potential without pursuit because we have been endowed with "choice." The freedom to choose whether we'll do the things we know will make us successfull.

Once you "find" personal development (or it finds you) in the form of a book or a seminar you get hooked pretty quick if you are striving to grow in some area of your life. Once exposed to personal development a person is never the same in one key component - there are no excuses as to why you don't do well in the future. You see, like a religion that lays out a plan that takes you to live with God again (or any other divine being or place), if you don't make it there, it's your own doing.

Personally I find this empowering some days and terrifying other days... depending on how I'm doing in the making of my life. It's one thing to know what to do - it's another thing to do it. Nike figured this out didn't they - Just do it!

Easier said than done. I suggest the following exercise. Write out your personal development plan and review it every day along with your goals and affirmations. (No goals and affirmations? Get some!) Detail what you want to work on and what you want to become. What you want to accomplish and how you can achieve those things. Here are some keys areas:

Leadership, selling, negotiating, networking and communication...

What if you were more skilled in each of these areas? Would you close more sales? Be more of a positive influence around the people where you work? Would you make more money? Would you feel more confident by the way people responded to your ideas and input? You bet.

TK