There are a lot of ways for you to start to grow into the person that you know you are meant to be, but these 15 personal development tips are some of the top bits of advice that I’ve been given over the years.
These personal development tips are meant to help you to create your ideal self.
I have taken 15 of my favorite self improvement tips and put them all in this one article for easy reading. The purpose behind this article is to help you effectively plan out your life with personal development tips that you can carry with you daily.
1. Be a leader
Leadership is one of the most difficult things to master. It is important to build leadership qualities even if your personal development journey doesn’t include managing people.
Leadership isn’t just being a boss. It is learning to take ownership of problems, and fixing them even if you don’t know where to start.
Some people are naturally born with leadership qualities and others have to really work hard to develop them. It doesn’t matter which category you fall in to. Learning to lead is vital to your success.
Leadership isn’t only about telling people what to do; it is about being a good example. It is about doing the right things even when they are hard. A good leader will be encouraging, accountable, responsible, and detailed.
Even if you do not ever want to be in a “management” position, you will still need to develop leadership traits because you can lead from anywhere in the chain of command. You will also need to be a leader for your own family.
You are using tips to develop yourself and other people are bound to notice a change in you. They will be asking you about how they can better themselves. It’s important that you lead them in the right direction.
2.Make new friends
Everyone loves to say they are growing their network. I like to look at it a little differently. I think of it as making friends.
Friends are incredibly important to your well being. As a matter of fact, they are part of my personal development plan and they should be part of yours too. You can get a copy of my plan here.
Think back to grade school. How easy was it to just start a pick up game of soccer, 4 square, or basketball during recess? It’s still that easy. You are just worried about what other people will think of you. Or you have a fear of them rejecting you.
Put yourself out there and build some new friendships. Don’t worry for one second about rejection or the opinions of others.
Personal development and growth includes building a diverse group of friends who can help you to see things in a different way as well as people who you can help.
If we surround ourselves with the same people that we’ve always known, we will do what we’ve always done.
Go to a networking event. Something that you’re interested in. Try meetup.com or look for associations in your area that are involved in things that you like. It could be real estate investing, martial arts, football, or crafting. It shouldn’t be too hard to find something that is coming up in the near future.
Then go! And be the radiant person that you are. Introduce yourself to people with a smile. Ask them about themselves. Truly have joy in your heart when you are having these conversations. You will be making new friends in no time.
3. Cut out the distractions
Why is it so hard to focus? It’s funny because as I’m writing this I’m thinking about multiple emails that I need to respond to. It’s nearly impossible in our connected world to not always have something to do.
One of my biggest personal development tips for cutting out distractions is to close everything down except for what you are working on. It’s so easy to have 15 tabs open and before you know it you will be flipping between them aimlessly without getting anything done.
I’ve talked in the past about using pomodoro timers for productivity and if you haven’t tried it, then I would highly recommend giving it a shot.
When you’re working on something, remind yourself of its importance, and get lost in it. You know those times where you look down and 2 hours have passed without you knowing. Try to put your full attention into everything you do.
4. Speak in front of people
One of most people’s greatest fears is public speaking. But we learn so much about ourselves when we face our fears.
When you are the center of attention, you feel so vulnerable. Vulnerability is an admirable trait. You can learn to be who you truly are and it is the best feeling in the world.
It doesn’t matter if you are in front of a crowd of 5 or 500, you will learn something new about yourself.
Take every opportunity that you are given to speak in front of people.
5. Be decisive
Your life isn’t going to last forever. The decisions you make today will shape your tomorrow. Being wishy washy means that tomorrow will be exactly like today.
Make a decision. Be decisive. Quit going back and forth on everything that’s going on in your life. It doesn’t even matter if your decision ends up being a bad one. You will have learned from it and you will make a more decisive and accurate decision next time.
Don’t worry so much about the outcome of things. Develop your process for decision making and then follow it. You can always adjust it as needed.
6. Take ownership
It really doesn’t matter where the mistake was made or who made it, you will be better off by taking ownership and correcting the problem than you would be by casting blame.
All responsibility and success is owned by you. You should acknowledge and take ownership of mistakes, then develop a plan to overcome them.
You will start to feel relieved by adopting this attitude. Instead of wasting time looking for the culprit, you are going to be decisive and start making decisions to right the wrong.
This is going to help you in a lot of ways. People will start to view you differently. You will build confidence in yourself. Your attitude will change.
Try this next time you find out that a mistake has been made. Just immediately take ownership and start looking for a solution.
7. Check your budget
Finances are part of the 6 major categories in your life that you should have a why for.
I know what it’s like to stress about money. It is not fun. I remember having to choose between deodorant or shampoo because I was out of both and I was literally down to my last few dollars.
Thankfully, around that time I realized that there was a better way to go about things. I started reading about personal finance and building a budget. Now, I don’t have to worry about my next paycheck, but I still check my budget on an almost daily basis.
There is no excuse with the plethora of apps and tools out there to help you with your finances to not have a firm grasp on where you are at.
If you like spreadsheets, just google “personal budget spreadsheet” and download one.
If you like app, then try “Mint.” It is my personal favorite finance app.
My personal development started moving so much faster when I was no longer worried about covering my bills. I didn’t really need to make any more money than I was making, I just needed to understand where my money was going.
Try to make sure you are spending your money on the things that you know will help you grow as a person, rather than the frivolous stuff that you’ll forget about in a week.
8. Say no
You’ve heard it a thousand times, time is your most precious asset.
One of the best personal development tips I’ve ever received is from the book “Essentialism” which you can read about on my list of the 10 best personal development books. The author discusses the power of saying no, and why it’s OK to say no.
You’re probably the type of person who struggles with telling people no. It’s hard to “let people down” and not do what they ask of you. But it’s harder on yourself to be totally stretched thin and spending your time doing things that you don’t really want to do.
You must learn to say no and protect your time if you want to make it to the next level on your personal development journey. Heck, personal development doesn’t even matter at this point. Your mental health and state of mind depend on doing the things that you want to do instead of always doing what other people want you to do.
Say no a couple of times today and see how you feel.
9. Keep yourself accountable
If you’re the type of person who is reading personal development tips online then you are naturally a high achiever.
That means that you probably already keep yourself accountable in some ways. If you’re struggling with all the areas that you should be keeping yourself accountable then I have 8 ideas for you.
Keeping yourself accountable is hard sometimes but it is so necessary to your success.
Did you devour a sleeve of oreo’s last night even though you knew you shouldn’t?
Did you skip out on your daily reading for the last week?
When is the last time you got out of bed early and did your morning routine?
Well, you should hold yourself accountable for all of those things. Try a few things until you find something that works for you. Maybe it’s not treating yourself to your normal weekend morning coffee or staying home to read instead of going out to dinner on a Saturday night.
10. Have what is necessary
Look around. Does the stuff in your room give you joy? Or does it just stress you out because everything is so cluttered?
We have become a society that covets “things.” You can’t go to the store without seeing 5 things that you think you could use at home.
So, you buy something that you are sure is going to change your life, and then you get it home and never use it again. And before you know it, your house is full of crap that just brings stress to you every time you see it.
One of the best personal development tips I have received is to get rid of the stuff that you don’t use. This can go for clothes, toys, dishes, silverware, tools, furniture, kids (haha just kidding) but you get the picture.
It is extremely liberating to go through your house bagging stuff up and giving it away.
Seriously, just take 5 minutes to reorganize your sock drawer and you will see what I mean!
11. Be genuinely interested in other people
How often after you leave a conversation do you remember anything that the other person said?
I hope that question didn’t embarrass you. It embarrassed me the first time I thought about it.
The truth is, I used to leave every conversation only thinking about what it was that I said (or should have said). So, that’s not exactly a conversation.
It takes a long time to change habits, but a great personal development tip is to truly care about what someone else is saying. Listen intently and be genuinely interested in what that person has to say. You will notice your conversations getting better and your relationships growing stronger.
12. Don’t be afraid to be unique
A lot of us are full of insecurities. Even in our adult years, we haven’t shaken the worries that come with standing out from the crowd.
To be great, you will have to show off your unique qualities. We are all blessed with our own strengths and weaknesses. Show off your strengths. Talk about your weaknesses. People will trust you more and you will form stronger bonds with others when you discuss your weaknesses.
Stand out from the crowd and show off your unique abilities. We are all different and we have our reasons to be.
Most of us are so wrapped up in our own thoughts and we worry about what other people are thinking all of the time.
Stop worrying about the judgement of others and just do the things that you know you should be doing! It is very liberating and you will accomplish a lot more that way.
13. Challenge Yourself
Nobody ever got anywhere by sitting around and doing what they already know they can do. Challenging yourself is the best way to develop personally. Your goals and dreams depend on you pushing yourself past your boundaries.
Personal growth and improvement will not be achievable if you stay in your comfort zone.
Part of challenging yourself is holding yourself accountable which we talked about earlier. You must stay on the path, and if you fall off the path try to get back on it immediately.
One of the best personal development tips I was ever given was to compare yourself to who you were yesterday. You will maintain a small amount of growth every day. It’s like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.
14. Stay level headed
People don’t trust a hot head.
If you are someone who lets your emotions get the better of you, then you will need to really focus on this personal development tip.
Keep yourself calm even in the most dire of situations. It reminds me of the poem by Rudyard Kipling titled “If”
Read through this poem and then comment back to me if it has helped you to put your emotions into perspective.
A few of the best ways that I’ve found to stay level headed are to meditate daily, do yoga, and read stoic philosophy books by Marcus Aurelius and others. They have an amazing way of putting things into perspective.
15. Really care about something
We talked a little bit earlier about being unique. Part of being unique is to really care about something and have a passion for something. It really doesn’t matter what it is that you care about. You should give it your all.
You have these dreams and aspirations to be something great. You have to let yourself really care to achieve greatness. Don’t worry about being let down or failing. Failing is something that we all must do. It’s important to fail and fail often on your personal development journey.
The only way to get better is to really care about what you are doing.
Wrapping it up
We went through 15 personal development tips that I think are some of the most powerful and helpful for anyone’s journey.
If you have any other ways to improve yourself then I’d love to hear about them in the comments.
Stop daydreaming about personal growth and get out there and make yourself better every day!