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Personal growth empowers you to break free of mediocrity!

Personal growth is the evolutionary process of developing our attitudes and skills in such a manner as to have a positive impact on our personality, beliefs, and outlook on life. Personal growth empowers you to break free of mediocrity and experience all the opportunities that life has to offer.

In the last article we outlined the benefits and enemies of personal growth. Now let's look at how to fast track your personal growth. Many people go to great lengths to accomplish personal growth. You can spend a lot of time and money on books, seminars, and personal coaches in your quest for personal growth. Personal growth, after all, is the result of your efforts to improve yourself and all these things can, in part, help. Without question you should spend time on self-development through outside sources.

However, to completely accomplish personal growth, only those who are truly committed to personal growth will achieve some degree of it and generally this will lead to better relationships and happiness. However, without commitment you'll find there is no fast track to transformational growth. You can begin your path to personal growth today. Here are some strategies to fast track your growth...

Honesty with self - if you are to be committed to personal growth, you must first be completely honest with yourself. That starts with evaluating where you are in your life now, then identify opportunities for improvement. If you approach this strategy with honesty, it will help you determine your next steps and enable you to experience greater success with growth.
Prioritizing your life - balancing all facets of your life is important toward personal growth. Your health, personal relationships, career goals, and spirituality are all important in personal growth. All facets require commitment and self-discipline to experience growth. If you doubt the connection between these four quadrants, consider for example how stress can impact your life. If you are having health problems, can it affect your relationships, your work and weaken your spirituality? What if the source of stress is your relationships? Does it affect your health by neglecting diet, exercise, etcetera? Do you bring your problems to work? So, you can begin to see how each of the four quadrants can affect the others and why it is important to focus on all facets of your life when developing personal growth.
All in commitment to time management - excuses are the enemy of time management and personal growth. Without question, we all have events in life that require our time. An important meeting or training class. A family event such as a wedding or graduation ceremony. An appointment with your doctor. These are all things that we must devote time to. Where it becomes challenging or problematic is how to manage the balance of your time. Are you quick to provide excuses as to why you don't have enough time to accomplish your to-do list? This is when you refer to strategy number two. You must prioritize the requests and demands on your time. Begin prioritizing by asking yourself the question, "Is this important to productivity and growth?" If it is, you will find the time. If it is not, you must learn how to say "no".
Be a student of the game - education is simply not a destination. It is a constant journey that contributes to personal growth. This doesn't necessarily mean formal education. Being a student of the game means that you find numerous sources to develop your skill and ability, and that will directly influence your personal growth. Set aside time each week for self-development.

To really experience personal growth, you should consider having a personal development plan, a PDP as we mentioned in the last article. Having a PDP is your roadmap to the journey of realizing your dreams and aspirations in life. It will help you center your focus on the steps needed to transformational growth.

Your ability for growth is quite limitless. While you may not believe so at first, a PDP is a way to control and channel your talents. Use the following steps to create your personal development plan. Start putting pen to paper, remembering that nothing is too large in scope initially. Once you have outlined your plan, then fine tune your specific notes into a written plan that you have confidence in fulfilling. Here are the steps:

Goals - what do you want to achieve in your growth journey, both short term and long term? If you are honest with yourself, this should be the hardest step in this process.
Prioritize - this is the process of breaking down your goals into manageable steps. Remember the acronym S.M.A.R.T.? Your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
Deadlines - when do you want to achieve your goal? This should apply at the prioritizing step in that each smaller step of your goal should have a deadline. This will help your focus and determination to accomplish your goal.
Recognize your environment - let's use another acronym, S.W.O.T. It stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. What are your strengths in pursuing your goal (what are your skillsets)? What are your possible weaknesses in reaching your goal? What are the opportunities to be gained by achieving your goal? And, most importantly, what are the threats (challenges and obstacles) that might detract you from reaching your goal? A keen awareness of your environment will help ensure your commitment to reaching your goals.
Actions - you've heard the phrase, "goals without action are just dreams." You must be fueled by desire to put your PDP into action. If you follow these steps, acting should be the easy part.
Resources - there are many tools available to you such as books, podcasts, coaches, mentors, and so forth. Take advantage of all resources available to you so that you maximize your opportunity to create a solid and successful personal development plan.

Personal growth leads to unlimited opportunities in life. Theologian John Henry Newman said that growth is the only evidence of life. This quote wasn't just meant to reflect our physical growth, but our emotional, spiritual, and mental growth as well. To realize the opportunity for growth you must do whatever makes you uncomfortable. And that means if you continue to do things the way you've always done things, personal growth will be impossible to attain. So, I encourage you to take the principles outlined in this two article topic and start applying them today so that you can experience the reward of personal growth in your life.

Imagine the possibilities ahead of you if you will just apply the principles we've covered here. You are capable! You now must believe that you are capable and committed to making this difference in your growth journey! The best way to start is to...

Be inspired! Inspire others!