We are born to grow and be happy. Personal Growth Tools help us to lead a happier life. Learning and incorporating the ideas that are relevant to us can help transform our lives. Read and take action. Right Actions are important for self-improvement.
If you already live a life of purpose, are happy, and living to the fullest potential, then you just continue doing what you are doing. If you are seeking to be happier, rise to your full potential, or seek more meaning in life, then some of these personal growth tools are likely to help.
List of Personal Growth Tools
Use Time and Money for Personal Development
Unless we can invest time in self-care, it may be difficult to understand our own needs. Money is a very powerful tool in life as it allows you to buy the comforts of life.
However, the biggest advantage of money is that it can give you the flexibility to change course in life.
Money and Time
- Without money for sustenance, one may have to wait longer for self-fulfilling opportunities to come by. When money is available you can invest in education resources for personal growth.
- Some reserves and multiple sources of income are useful in case the primary source of income ends abruptly.
- At the same time, money is two edge sword as well. If you are addicted to the accumulation of money, you may neglect your holistic personal growth. Being a workaholic may not necessarily lead to happiness.
- Time is the most precious commodity known to Man as each one of us has limited time in our lives. Money and other resources are available to last for generations.
- Use your money to give yourself the time for Holistic Self Care activities to get in touch with your purpose in life.
There is no success without happiness and it is important to be available to your own self.
Develop a Holistic Self Care Routine
We all live by our routines. We may in be awe of people we meet because of their extraordinary abilities or accomplishments. The fact though is that their routines or rituals make it happen for them. First, it is something we choose to do. Done again and again, over a period of time it becomes a part of our routine.
Many times due to our likes and dislikes we may over-indulgence in caring about one aspect of our personality. This could lead to ignoring or not taking the required care of another aspect of our personality.
When we realize this anomaly, we should make some effort to incorporate activities to take care of the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of our personality.
We should slowly and gradually keep improving our routines so that we can be more peaceful within. Over-stretching for money, name, fame, or something else without inner peace, is not going to be good in the long run.
Develop a Learning Attitude for Personal Development
We are born with a set of genes. The genes are nearly the best we can understand about our default physical and mental abilities.
However, we also have our thinking or thoughts which are the unseen phenomena that are always going on in our system. We have thousands of thoughts each day.
When we have an attitude of learning, we learn to focus our thoughts on the subject of our interest. We thereby keep sharpening our intellect or improving our mental abilities. Mental abilities do help in improving our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
A Learning Attitude is very important for our self-improvement.
Read Personal Development Books
Our environment shapes our thoughts and habits. We may not be able to fully control our existing environment or be surrounded by inspirational people all the time.
“A man is known by the company he keeps”
Aesop
By reading personal development books, we can surround ourselves with the right thoughts that can shape our habits and the destiny we desire.
Listen to Personal Development Podcasts, Audio Books
In the Vedic era, spiritual knowledge was passed down by listening to spiritual masters. It was a time of oral tradition. While reading has its advantages, attentive listening can be a very useful method to acquire knowledge for personal transformation.
Some of us have higher auditory sense acuity, or it may be a preferred style of learning.
Listening is also convenient while taking a walk or driving.
Take Personal Development Courses
Some of the personal development courses may be best to take in person. However, one can always get started with online courses as they are convenient.
There are many organizations that provide online learning. Especially after the Coivd pandemic the availability of online learning has increased.
There are many online platforms where you can take courses on personal development. Here you can get a wide variety of courses. Some free courses are also available. Some of the more known online learning platforms are:
You will find many courses for personal development. NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a very good toolbox for personal development and helps you transform your life.
Develop a Habit of Reflection for Personal Development
Vedanta tells us to practice listening, reflection, and meditation for personal transformation.
When we eat food, it has to be digested before we can get the nutrients that our body needs.
Similarly, by reading/listening we become acquainted with the subject matter. However, to understand with clarity we need to reflect deeply on the subject so that we can absorb the knowledge.
While information is useful, knowledge is needed to develop skills for personal development. It is important to reflect on what we have read or listened to on personal development, to absorb the information.
Develop Holistic Skills for Personal Development
We need to develop the abilities needed to take care of all the dimensions of our personalities. We are born with unique qualities that make it easier to do some things but maybe not all of what we need. We can improve our ability to take care of what we might have neglected so far by improving our skills.
If we do know where to start, we can always start learning the skills that are used across the different things we have to do. Check out skills for personal growth that we may need to improve our ability to take care of our holistic health.
Manage Stress
Firstly one should be aware of the stress in their life. Stress can be caused by certain events, repetition of certain types of events, physical stress, psychological stress, or may have become chronic stress.
Learning to deal with stress is very important as it helps us improve:
- Mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, and any other stress-related mental health issues
- Physical health by reducing physical issues such as high blood pressure and heart disease
- Productivity through better focus and concentration
- Relationships by reducing conflict and better communication with people
- Quality of life improves as a result of better physical, mental, and social health and better productivity leading to better performance.
Improve Self-Awareness
We, humans, have the ability to focus our attention on the external world as well as the internal world. When paying more attention to the external world, we may lose sight of what truly makes us happy.
When we pay attention to our inner world, we may lose connection with people who matter to us in our life, at work, or at home.
A balance needs to be maintained to be happy. Being aware of the situational context as well as our own emotions, feelings, and thoughts gives us the information we need to happily engage in life.
Self-awareness is important for self-improvement.
Meditate
Meditation has become very popular. It has several benefits starting with the relaxation of the mind. Good Sleep is known to be very important for our well-being because it resets our minds and body. Meditation is like a reset of the mind.
There are several different types of meditation. Learn more about the health benefits of meditation.
Maintain a Positive Mental Attitude
When we look at risk, pessimistic or negative thinking helps us identify some of the risks. When we are looking for growth ideas, optimistic or positive thinking helps generates the idea.
When society as a whole is optimistic about the economy, people spend more and the economy grows. When the sentiment is negative, economic growth can slow down or there can be periods of negative growth.
It’s a mindset where we focus on what is good in any situation. We look for what is good in life, people, and things. Maintaining a positive mental attitude helps us to:
- Reduce our stress
- Improve our motivation to do things
- Improve our self-esteem
- Improve self-confidence
Overall we can have better physical health and better satisfaction at work and in relationships.
Maintain a Gratitude Journal
We have a strong ability to discriminate. Many of us unknowingly learn to look more at the faults, mistakes, problems, errors, etc in life. Noticing is a sign of sharpening, but focusing on it is where we start entertaining the thoughts of separation from ourselves. This habit can affect our attitude in turn our relationships and performance.
By devoting some time to recalling what is happening in our lives, and identifying some goodness in what is happening we change our focus. Writing makes us accept the good that is happening in our lives.
When we continue to write and feel a sense of gratitude on a regular basis, we learn to become more positive in our attitude, improving our happiness.
Writing a gratitude journal is a simple yet effective method of self-improvement.
Volunteer for a Cause
Some of the personal growth benefits of volunteering are:
- It can provide us with a sense of purpose and meaning in our lives.
- It can help improve our mental and physical health by reducing our stress and boosting our mood.
- It helps one connect with their community and make a positive difference.
- It aids networking as we meet new friends and that expands our social network.
- It helps improve our social skills and self-esteem by interacting with others.
- It can help us learn new skills and gain valuable experience for our careers.
You may look at the list of awareness days/week/month to identify a cause to volunteer or work for.
Get Clarity of Values
What we Value in life affects various aspects of our life.
- Attracts us to things and people that we value.
- Influences our priorities.
- Impacts our decisions.
- Shapes our attitudes and behaviors.
- Affects our relationships.
You can review the 12 keys to happiness for some of the values you may like to cultivate. You can also look at the 10 Value Learnings from the visit to the Statue of Unity. By reflecting on the life of successful people or visiting such tourist attractions, one can gain inspiration to live by the values one believes in.
Clarity on Values at personal, organizational, and community levels can help improve the alignment with our own life goals. Value clarity and living by personal values are important for personal growth.
Set Goals to Achieve Success
Setting goals is important if we want to achieve success. Goal Setting helps us channel our energy toward the outcome we desire.
Setting SMART goals make it easier for us to achieve the success we are looking for. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound Goals.
Setting a Goal, Committing to the Goal, and finally Achieving the Goal, make us a sense of achievement, pride, and satisfaction, boost our self-esteem, and increases our self-confidence
When we learn the process of setting personal growth goals and achieving them, we accelerate our personal growth.
Develop Useful Mini-Habits
In our journey of personal growth, we could have transformational changes as well as small improvements.
It is always easier to start with mini-habit changes as they are easier to implement. Besides every change we make will show as an improvement only over a period of time. A stack of small changes over a period of time will show as a huge change.
Seemingly small mini-habits can be as impactful as big transformational changes. When life is already good enough and happy enough, it is easier to implement mini-habit changes and continue the process of self-improvement rather than the big bang changes.
Use Affirmations
Affirmations are statements that strengthen our personality.
- I am _______ (a positive quality). For example, I am strong, I am beautiful, I am loved, etc
- I can ______(goal). For example, I can learn easily, I can lose weight, I can win
By using Affirmations we can become more conscious of the desirable thought patterns that support the behaviors we want. We can improve our self-esteem and the resilience we need.
With repetitive reminders through these positive statements, we can improve our faith in our own abilities. Influencing our thoughts in a positive way can help us stay focused, and motivated and keep moving toward our goals.
Affirmations are also helpful in maintaining a positive attitude in life and important tools for personal growth.
Use Incantations
Incantations are like magic words that can change our state of mind. They are like very powerful and potent affirmations that almost cast a spell.
When we attach emotions and physiological changes to the words we speak we connect our speech to the body and mind. When aligned with a purpose, goals, and alignment with beliefs, the words become even more powerful and connect us to the spiritual aspect of our personality.
In Indian culture, Buddhism, and possibly other traditions chanting of mantras is done to alter the state can connect to the divine self.
In using NLP for personal growth, we use magic words in writing, anchoring exercises like a circle of confidence, and more.
Avoid Self Sabotage
We may have goals, yet we may act inappropriately in relation to our goals. The intent, action, and response we seek may not be necessarily in alignment with our goals.
The response/effect is not entirely in our hands. However, the cause, which is the action or behavior can be improved upon to get a more favorable outcome.
When goals are clear, we can review our actions and identify behavioral patterns of behavior that are not serving us to achieve our goals.
We can use a checklist to identify our self-sabotage habits.
Use Introspection
If we spend a few minutes at the end of the day reviewing the activities of the day, it can help us learn more about ourselves.
One should start a review of the activities right from the start, the time one opens the eyes in bed to the end of the day. When going through the activities, one should notice the emotions that arise when recalling these activities. We may experience positive, negative, or neutral emotions.
We may make a note of some of the insights we get. If there are repeated negative patterns, we may want to address them by ourselves or with assistance from a personal coach.
Take the Help of a Therapist, Counselor, or Coach
Therapists, counselors, and Coaches help in personal development. Whom should you approach?
If you struggle mentally very often, it is best to see a therapist who specializes in the field and can prescribe you medication as well.
If you occasionally struggle mentally, a counselor may be able to help you.
If you are mentally healthy but want to improve in certain areas, in business, relationships, health, fitness, and overall well-being, a coach should be able to help you. The idea is to enhance the quality of life, improve overall wellness or lead a life of excellence.
We may be able to help you if you are seeking wellness or excellence.