6 Personal Development Strategies That Won’t Break The Bank

To be happy and successful in life, you have to be willing to focus on yourself and you can improve yourself, your skills and even your mindset.

There is always something about ourselves we can it is limitless. However, it is important to remember that developing yourself takes time and dedication, so make sure that you are being kind to yourself. It is a courageous decision to step out of your comfort zone and feel that discomfort as you step into something new.

What is personal development?

In the simplest terms, personal development is a process of self-improvement. Throughout life, we develop skills just by interacting with people and things around us. These skills are learned and used don our everyday lives. However, by actively seeking ways to enhance these skills and developing new skills, you will see your potential in life. Some skills that come from personal development are: a) Organisation

b) Self-confidence

c) Communication

d) Problem Solving

e) Integrity

f) Work ethic

Whether you want to develop these skills to help your personal life or to develop your business, these are key life skills to master to aid you in becoming the best version of yourself.

What are the benefits of personal development?

By working on your personal development you become much more self-aware and you can utilise that to understand your actions to them maximise your potential. It makes you self-reflect what makes me unique, what are my strengths and weaknesses, which will help to identify what your goals are.

Invest in self-help books

There are so many self-help books on the market today, with many targeting specific areas of self-improvement that are so beneficial to a personal development and something to read for self-care. Self-help books are reasonably proceed and super affordable for everyone to access. You can also find self-help books in libraries, which can help to keep costs down if you are on a budget. A few of my favourite self-help books are:

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear
2. An Organised Life by Anna Newton

Keep Learning

You should explore some self-development activities that you can use to learn new skills. A quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson said: ‘Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.’ There are a variety of free courses online and other affordable courses that can help you grow your skills or develop an interest or hobby.

Other skills you could learn:

1. Learn a language
2. Learn to play a musical instrument
3. Start a business

Developing your existing skills and learning new skills can help you grow in your personal life and in business.

Recognise and celebrate your victories

If you are working towards bigger goals these are long-term goals and so staying motivated is so important.

When you do make steps towards our goals, you should recognise those victories because it shares a positive experience and inspires you to continue. These celebrations do not have to cost you a penny. Here are 4 examples:

1. Take time off from working on your goals
2. Practise self-care e.g. spend time with family
3. Meditate
4. Share your victories with loved ones

Taking the time to celebrate yourself will help you continue to work on your goals, skills and personal growth.

Invest in a life coach/mentor

If you want an accelerated growth or understanding in a particular area of your life using a life coach or a personal development mentor could be a strategy that could work for you.

A coach/mentor will have helped many others with similar journeys, so they will have a great understanding of what you are going through and what you’re trying to achieve. They will help you to guide you on your self-improvement journey.

We can all have blindspots when it comes to self-improvement and so mentoring can give you that outsider perspective to help you identify and work on those areas. They will help you build confidence and healthy habits, so you can overcome the obstacles to your personal growth.

Set goals

No good strategy is fully complete without goals. Goals provide you with ling-term direction and short-term motivation, giving us a target to work towards, rather than waiting for things to happen for you.

You need to identify our list of goals, so you can then understand the steps you are going to need to take to achieve them. If you haven’t set goals before, it is important that you make each goal: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timed (SMART).

Popular personal development goals are:

1. Improving public speaking skills
2. Read more books
3. Manage stress effectively
4. Become more proactive

Manage your time

Wasting time is all too easy and we can all do it for hours in a day without realising it. You probably often feel like you do not have time, but that is an illusion. You have the time; you just need to change how you spend it. Prioritising your personal growth will radically change how you spend your free time. Here are some common time-wasting activities that you could alter them to benefit your personal development:

• Reduce the amount of time that you spend scrolling on social media by setting a timer, so that you are aware how much time has gone by
• Watch less television and when you do watch shows and films that you love instead of putting something on for the sake of it
• When meeting with friends turn them into productive activities like: volunteering, spending time in nature, or play a sport

Using a diary or a bullet journal to plan your days and weeks more efficiently can be beneficial to help you manage your time. To develop yourself and grow you have to be willing to put in the time, scheduling time is the best way to do this.