Personal growth: definition and methods

Even schoolchildren are now beginning to think about the need for personal growth. The fact that self-development is necessary is repeated from all sides by teachers, parents, friends. Someone understands by this concept the study and expansion of their own inner world, others call for the knowledge of higher powers, and others insist that this is the only way to success. So what is personal growth and why is it needed anyway? Let's try to figure it out.

Initially, the concept of "personal growth" was used only in psychology. Or rather, in its separate direction - humanistic concept... Its founders are considered to be American specialists in the field of psychology. Abraham Maslow and Carl Ransom Rogers... It was they who first used the concept of personal growth in their theory. However, later other psychologists also started talking about it and began to widely use it in their practices.

The essence of the concept is that a person is initially capable of much, most importantly, to develop his positive qualities given by nature. Then the “core components” of personal growth were expanded. The criteria for his assessment included such components as the ability to know and improve oneself, comprehension of the world around, a constant striving for self-improvement not only of one's human qualities, but also of professional ones.

At the moment, not only psychologists are talking about personal growth. The concept is often used by religious and near-religious leaders.They often call it also the spiritual path - that is, the opportunity to improve oneself through cognition of higher powers, striving for perfection from the point of view of God. And, finally, the most common definition of personal growth now is given at various seminars and trainings where people who want to make a career gather. Therefore, before going for this or that guru of self-knowledge, it is worth figuring out why this teaching is necessary for you.

Personal growth is the process of an individual's development throughout life.... At birth, each of us receives almost equal human opportunities: the ability to be kind, sympathetic, fair, and so on. Another question is how we use these gifts. Someone seeks to improve their personal characteristics, others "bury" them deeply and over the years they simply kill at least some germs of virtue in themselves.

The same goes for professional qualities. All successful people are constantly looking for new knowledge. They never stop at the achieved level of education. Even if they do not go for the next diploma, then they must attend professional courses or at least engage in self-development, since it has enveloped us The World Wide Web gives this opportunity anytime, anywhere.

Only by moving forward can a person improve the quality of his own life, come to his dream, achieve his goal. It doesn't matter what exactly is your main idea. Whether you want to be successful in business, sports, or personal life, self-development is essential. It helps to cope with difficult situations, to establish relationships in the family and at work, and thus provides a person with a sense of self-satisfaction. However, it is never complete. After all, personal growth does not stop either with graduation from school, or after you receive a diploma of higher education, or when your business has become a real empire that brings multimillion-dollar income. This path begins from early childhood and lasts until the end of days.

Sometimes it seems to a person that he has already achieved everything: a house is a full cup, a prestigious job, excellent relations with family and friends. And here a real crisis can break out. The problem is the world does not stand still, which means that an individual striving for success must walk with him at the same speed or even exceed it. This applies to both work and home.

Yesterday's beauty with a high level of intelligence successfully marries, gives birth to children and "buries" herself. She has not changed her dressing gown for an evening dress for a long time, forgot the way to the beauty salon, her hands do not reach books. As a result, the husband is already on the other hand, the children are not interested in her, her friends have forgotten about her, they are also unlikely to take a good job, thus, it would seem, personal deformation becomes the cause of the complete decomposition of the individual, depression, alcoholism and other health problems, diagnose which only a specialist can. But the fact that you have stopped imperceptibly for yourself, you can understand without resorting to their help.

Try to answer the following questions for diagnosis:

• How long have you read the book?
• How long have you been buying yourself new things?
• How long have you visited a beauty salon, massage parlor, dentist, and so on?
• How long have you been raising the level of your own education (attended seminars, trainings, studied literature)?
• How long have you been in the gym, swimming pool, walking in the park, forest, and so on?

If you answered at least one of these questions “long ago,” you need to urgently correct the situation. The only excuse is the post-traumatic period, when it is simply physically impossible to do something.

First of all, you need to get rid of all unnecessary things, both physically and mentally. In other words, you need to put things in order in your head. Over the years, we accumulate in ourselves a lot of unnecessary and sometimes harmful: imposed thoughts and rules, wrong way of life, complexes. All this pulls back and does not allow to move forward. Perhaps what you are doing is not at all what you really need, and therefore it is not possible to achieve any significant results.

Talk to yourself in the most honest way. Answer the following questions.

• Who do I want to be in the end? Perhaps you dreamed of being a clown all your life, and your parents and public opinion sent you to study as a lawyer, as a result, the circus lost a great artist, and a large army of mediocre experts in the law was replenished with another unclaimed specialist.
• Where do I want to live? Maybe you just need to change your registration. Change an apartment in a metropolis for a house in a village or a villa by the sea, or go to conquer the capital or new countries.
• What do I want to get out of life? Perhaps you are stuck at work all day, and when you return home, fall off your feet, while you do not understand why you are so unlucky in your personal life. And where will it come from if you simply do not have the time and energy for it? Unload yourself as much as possible. Then make a list of your goals and desires. Write a clear plan to help you achieve them. Your task is to cross out at least one goal per day based on the results of its achievement. However, in order to strive towards the goal with leaps and bounds, this is not enough! Things will go uphill faster if you use several techniques at the same time.

To be successful, you need to work on yourself every day. Personal development is a whole system that consists of many stages. Create your own self-development program using the tasks described below.

• Towards the unknown. Think back to everything you ever dreamed of doing, but never got down to it. Perhaps you wanted to learn Japanese, or at least English, but you still didn't have enough time and energy. Or maybe there was a desire to master the recipes for gourmet cuisine, but you never went to a single culinary course. It is possible that for several years in a row you are going to do yoga or at least start jogging in the morning, but postpone everything until next Monday. It's time to get down to business right here and now. And don't postpone any of the sessions until a later date. Live every day like your last. This is the main strategy for the formation of a successful personality.
• Victory over reason. When our brain starts to work hard, it can start giving false signals. The mind is trying to lead us astray. He shouts: "Do not rush to do it today, you still have time, you are too tired!" Nonsense, he is just trying to deceive you and make you lazy with him. Don't give in. Drown out the voice of laziness in your head once and for all. And so that you have enough time and energy for everything, always leave minutes for a break in your schedule - this stage is no less important than the work itself. Do not overdo it in your desire to move forward, but do not stagnate.
• More positive... The key to successful personal growth is a positive attitude and thoughts. Don't let yourself think bad things. Put an obstacle to all gloomy thoughts. Together with them, all fears will go away from you, uncertainty will recede, an understanding will come that you are capable of anything. For the better, you will begin to change not only you, but also the world around you.
• Closing the circle. Change your social circle.Throw out from your life everyone who pulls you down: gossips, whiners, losers should remain in the past. Communicate only with those who, like you, are tuned in to a positive wave. Share positive energy with each other.

The main thing in the technology of increasing one's own development is daily practice... The technique for performing each step is simple - none of them can be postponed until later. To overcome the psychological barrier, try first to develop your own set of exercises and perform them according to your own technique.

The development of the spirit is impossible without the development of the body. Even if while your appearance is far from perfect and going to the gym is torture for you, start cleaning yourself up at home. Do 20 bends and 10 squats for the first week, then increase the number of sets. Don't worry if the movements are difficult at first, and the whole process will not look very presentable. Very soon, the body will become more toned, and a trained spirit will finally allow you to cope with all the complexes and buy a subscription to the fitness center.

Do not forget about proper nutrition and walking in the fresh air. Both help the brain to work more efficiently. As for other ways to conquer yourself, one of the most effective and simplest methods to quickly achieve what you want is to visualize what you want. More often, mentally imagine what you are striving for: a large office with mahogany furniture, a huge bank account, a red business-class car or a prince on a white horse. The clearer your ideas about the dream, the sooner it will come true.

First, let's figure out what it is and what affirmations are for. The word comes from the Latin affirmatio, which translates as "confirmation". An affirmation is a short phrase that must be repeated over and over to believe and feel every word.

For people brought up on Soviet films, perhaps the most famous affirmation is the phrase of the heroine Irina Muravyova, which she had to repeat regularly. It sounded like this: "I am the most charming and attractive." For you, appearance is not a subject of dreams, so start to inspire yourself, and at the same time the Universe, that you are the smartest and richest, most successful and resourceful. It's up to you to decide what to be.

One of the most popular and entertaining books for those who decided to take the path of personal development is work by American author Adam Kurtz... A successful New York-based artist and graphic designer offers readers a daily planner for creative people - 1 page per day. On each one there is a task that is not similar to the other, prompting for new actions, observations, developing certain skills. On Monday you will be asked to tell about one of your children's birthdays, on Tuesday - to draw an elephant, on Wednesday - to write an essay on a free theme. Such a self-development guide for beginners can be a great help.

Famous business coach and strategist Dan Waldschmidt wrote the book “Be the Best Version of Yourself: How Everyday People Become Outstanding”. After analyzing his life path, Dan identified 4 qualities that successful people always have. If you want to know which ones - go to the bookstore, there you will surely find many more interesting literature that will help your self-development. Remember that any book can help you become better, smarter, kinder.

The same goes for good films. To get started, watch the American tape "The Pursuit of Happiness." Despite the fact that the movie was released back in 2006, it never ceases to be one of the most popular among viewers, especially those who want to believe in themselves. The main idea is that anyone can make even the most daring dream come true.