No matter what stage of life you’re at—be it you’ve just graduated and entered the working force, or you’re well past your studious years and nearing the golden age—you should always be in the pursuit of self-growth and development. With so much to learn, there’ll never really come a time in your life when you can confidently say that you know it all.
Self-development is key to succeeding in life, because unless you’re on the constant grind towards improving your knowledge, skills, and self as a whole, you could very well be stuck in a rut, just going through the motions everyday. It is in learning something new, picking up a new skill, or even refining an existing one, that you’re making an effort towards moving forward in your life. When you make the conscious decision to improve yourself, it’s all the empowerment and motivation you’ll ever need.
So, the question then is, how can you ensure that you’re in the constant pursuit of self-development? There are many ways in which you can do it, however, let us walk you through five of what we reckon is the best and most effective way to improve yourself, both personally and professionally.
-
Set goals and craft a plan.
The best you can always do for yourself is to map out your goals and your plan before getting started. With that, you’ll be able to visualise your entire journey—you’ll be able to see the direction in which you’re headed, the milestones that you’ve set out for yourself, what are the action steps that you’ll need to take in order to achieve them, and the deadlines that you’ve established. It’ll ensure that you’ll be able to work towards self-development in a proper and structured manner. Rather than just waking up everyday and going with the flow, unsure of what you’ll need to do, with this, you’ll know exactly what you’re working towards. -
Building and refining your skillset.
Regardless of whatever industry you’re working in, or even whichever skills you may have under your belt currently, you can always stand to learn more, or to refine your current skillset. Pick up books, spend time attending courses or seminars, or just browse through the internet and learn a new thing or two about what you think you may already know. Chances are, you’ll be picking up something new that’s just come to light and you’ll be adding it to your arsenal of knowledge. -
Breaking past your comfort zone to enter the growth zone.
Always seek new experiences, push yourself past your boundaries, and know that you’ll only be able to improve if you leave your comfort zone. Enter your growth zone! It won’t be comfortable, we’ll tell you that much, but it’s definitely worth it. The entire point to life is to keep pushing yourself to learn new things, gain new and novel experiences, live through events that are unfamiliar to you, because it is in those moments that you’ll learn the most. You’ll learn about yourself, most of all—what you like, what you don’t, and who knows, it may even spur a life or career change!
Do not get too cosy in your comfort zone because that may lead to you being stuck in a rut. When you’re no longer looking towards improving yourself or exploring new things, you’ll be living the same routine day in day out. There’s more to life than that, so go out and live it to the fullest! -
Listen to feedback and criticism.
Improving yourself means taking a step back from time to time and seeking and listening to feedback and criticism from others. When you’re viewing yourself from one perspective all the time, you may not be able to see where you’re going wrong or what you need to improve out. When you look outwards towards others to provide you with constructive criticism on how you can get better, and when you listen to them intently so that you can turn the words into advice that’ll boost your self-growth, that’s when you’ll be able to develop yourself. It can be a biased point of view when it’s coming from ourselves, but others can let you in on perspectives that you may have never even considered in the first place. -
Actively take action.
At the end of it all, the most important step is to actively take action. You can plan all you want, but if none of it is being put to actual action, there’s no point to it. You may have that coding course favourited, or you may have written down the feedback that your team shared with you, but if they’re simply there and you’re not pursuing it, your self-development won’t take place. Be active and chase after it! Self-development won’t happen on its own, you need to be the catalyst that ignites it.
Ultimately, self-development will bring you to a more well-rounded, fulfilled, and fruitful life. If you’re constantly jumping on the chance to be better and do better, you’ll be opening yourself up to more opportunities, life experiences, and friendships along the way.
Here at JLO, we’re ready to offer you the chance to improve yourself and to pursue self-growth. We’re not just about professional development, but personal too, and our own team members are living testimonials of it. We believe that a great career with the right opportunities will lead to a very fulfilling life, and so, if that’s right up your alley, reach out to us and we’d love to welcome you with open arms.