Human self-development. The process of personal development - how to start self-development

Sooner or later, any person ceases to be satisfied with the skills and abilities he has and begins to think about self-development. In childhood, the process of self-development proceeds naturally: we grow, learn, learn about the world and look for our place in it. However, as adults, we lose this inner strength that pushed us forward towards the new and unknown, we acquire many habits, complexes and everyday worries. And now it begins to seem to us that life has ended for us, and instead of it, a long and monotonous journey to old age has begun. Then a person faces a choice: whether to continue to go with the flow to inevitable death, gradually losing the inexpressible feeling of the joy of life acquired in childhood, or to try to break out of the cycle of routine and gray days. Most prefer the former, and only a few are able to discover for themselves a new path full of joy and amazing discoveries, which we call human self-development.

There are a great many theories and ways of personal development, so an unprepared person, as a rule, has the usual and largely naive questions: “What to read for self-development?”, “What is the most correct way of self-development?”, “How not to make a mistake with the choice of path and not waste your time?" All these problems of a beginner who has decided to practice self-development of a personality stem from a typical delusion that many dishonest "gurus" of all stripes use. There is one significant difference between the education of an unintelligent child and the self-development of an adult, and it lies in the fact that the child is taught to conform to the standards of thinking accepted in society, and any practice of conscious self-development is based on freeing the human mind from social patterns and stereotypes. Therefore, there is no single right path for personal development that is suitable for absolutely everyone, but everyone must decide for himself what he wants and how far he is ready to go in his desire for growth and self-improvement. The center of self-development is the personality of a person, his self-consciousness, enslaved by countless conventions and dogmas, in dire need of purification and liberation. A simple conclusion follows from this: a good teacher helps the student to free his mind from everything superfluous, and a false teacher, on the contrary, fills the student's head with all sorts of fantastic concepts and fictions in order to confuse him even more.

Self-development: where to start?

The first question of a person who decided to engage in self-development: where to start? You can download books on self-development from the Internet or sign up for special courses, the organizers of which promise to turn anyone into a real titan of the spirit in a short time and a lot of money, capable of solving any problems as if by magic. Of course, I am not saying that all self-development books are rubbish, and courses were invented solely to take money from simpletons. Of course, this is not the case, but even if you are lucky to find good literature or a knowledgeable mentor, it is not certain that this will bring you tangible benefits. The thing is that universal methods are suitable for solving universal problems, and the more extraordinary a person or his problem, the less effective the standard “recipes” will be.

It's pretty easy to tell the difference between good self-development books and bad ones. The author of a bad book (or course) will first of all claim that he has developed a “unique and unparalleled” personality development methodology that is suitable for absolutely everyone. Such claims are false for two reasons. I named the first one a little higher: there are no universal recipes for helping all of humanity, because people have different abilities, life experience and the degree of clogging of the mind. The second reason why you should not trust the loud promises of charming charlatans is even simpler: absolutely all the practices of self-development that have come down to us from ancient times or have already been created in modern times are based on the same general principles and provisions, and there is nothing new to invent here already. it is forbidden.

For example, the theoretical differences between Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism are enormous and undeniable, but the practical methods developed by these great religions are remarkably similar and use the same methods of concentration of consciousness. In Buddhism, there is the practice of nembutsu (“thinking about the Buddha”), which consists in the repeated and continuous repetition of the name of the Buddha Amitabha (“Namu Amida-butsu”), while in Christianity, to purify the mind and heart, it is recommended to constantly say the Jesus Prayer (“Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" or quite briefly "Lord have mercy"). In Hinduism, there are numerous mantras for the same purpose, such as the sacred sound "Om". In all three religions, these words are not spoken to flatter a deity or an impersonal absolute, but to subdue the everyday mind and acquire steady concentration skills. The first task of any practice is to teach a person to cut off everyday fuss and look deep into himself, therefore, self-development of a person does not begin with books or concepts, but with self-knowledge.

Self-knowledge and self-development

There is no self-development without self-knowledge. Comprehending the world around, the child, first of all, learns to know himself, his desires, opportunities and shortcomings. With adults, the situation is more complicated, because they are convinced that the presence of a passport, certificate and work book automatically makes them reasonable independent individuals, but in practice the situation is different. An adult, unlike a child, obeys a myriad of overt and unspoken rules of behavior in society, and over time ceases to notice that he has lost control over his life, passing it on to bosses, neighbors, friends and all kinds of "idols". It is these “idols” and society as a whole that implicitly inspire the adult with goals, desires, thoughts and ways of acceptable self-expression. Most people cannot take a step without looking at others and what they think or say about it. A person knows practically nothing about himself and in every possible way avoids this knowledge, spending all his free time in idleness and entertainment.

Self-knowledge is often confused with silence. Some people think that after sitting alone for a few minutes without a single thought in their head, they already know everything about themselves and can move on. This is a very dangerous delusion, because it gives a person only the illusion of calm. In fact, learning to meditate or pray is not so difficult - the lower levels of these practices are accessible even to small children. However, their essence is not to spend time calmly and relaxed, visualizing the Buddha or repeating the Lord's Prayer, but to curb the everyday mind. Only he knows how to meditate who can concentrate on himself in the midst of a noisy crowd. And only he knows how to pray, who calmly and humbly turns to God in the most terrible life situation. A significant part of people who practice meditation or prayer are not capable of even the slightest concentration in a stressful situation, which in our troubled age is fraught with the most serious consequences. Such, in short, is the danger of the illusion of self-knowledge.

True self-knowledge does not begin with a sense of peace or peace, but with shame, or perhaps even disgust. People are afraid to look into themselves, not because of laziness, but because they are afraid of what they can see in the darkest and most hidden corners of their souls. We have all committed acts that we will never admit to relatives and friends. Over time, we have learned to justify ourselves or simply forget bad memories, but this burden of the past continues to weigh on us, quietly affecting our daily lives. It is necessary to get rid of this heavy burden, and for this it is necessary to look deep into yourself with wide open eyes. Nothing else is given.

There are a myriad of tools and techniques that allow you to cleanse your past of negative layers. Among the most effective I consider entry-level meditation (Buddhism), recapitulation of one's own life (Carlos Castaneda), and repentance through confession (Christianity). All three are presented in detail on the Internet, so I will limit myself to a brief description of them. Meditation brings harmony to life and helps to focus on the positive aspects of life. With its help, you can overcome the negative impact of past actions on the decisions of today. The recapitulation of one's own life, described in the books of Carlos Castaneda, means "re-experiencing and completely reviewing the events of life in their entirety." It helps to recognize the past precisely as a product of one's own will, and not a random coincidence, and to get rid of the habit of feeling sorry for oneself and demanding special treatment from others. Confession in Christianity is perhaps the most difficult practice for a modern person who is locked in a small world of private individualism, however, if other methods of self-knowledge turned out to be ineffective, honest confession followed by sincere repentance simply cannot but help. Through repentance, a person is freed from the invisible power of the past.

Theory of self-development

There are a great many theories of personal self-development, and often many do not know which one to choose for themselves. People ask: “Which of the ways of self-development is true?”, wanting to get guarantees of the result in advance, but in reality no one can guarantee that the practice will bear fruit, since everything depends on the person himself. It is obvious that a loafer and a slob will not succeed at all, at least until he develops the habit of self-discipline. And a smart and insightful person will be able to find something useful for himself even in an erroneous teaching. Since the center of self-development is not a concept or a guru, but a specific person, the true path of self-development for him will be the one that makes a person freer and wiser. And vice versa: any doctrine that enslaves man and reduces him to the level of a primitive animal should be recognized as a false path.

In my opinion, one should not trust any newfangled esoteric and occult movements that originated mainly in the West in the last 200 years. Many of them are based on incorrect or erroneous translations of the religious texts of the East and are built around the ambitious personality of some self-proclaimed guru who suppresses his followers. Of all the teachers born in the 20th century, I would especially single out Carlos Castaneda, George Gurdjieff and Rajneesh, whose books not only contain useful information, but also broaden the reader's horizons, demonstrating new approaches to solving numbing problems. And yet, I strongly recommend avoiding organizations operating under their names around the world, since nothing good has yet come from their bowels, but many good people have perished in them forever.

In general, upon closer examination, one can find that all modern and modern practices of self-development do not contain anything fundamentally new, different from what has already been created in the depths of world religions. Often, ancient practices are simply described in pseudo-scientific terminology and presented to the unsophisticated public as a "unique and advanced technique" for self-improvement of the individual. Unfortunately, modern man has little interest in history and is very skeptical about religion, but at the same time, all his skepticism disappears somewhere when it comes to effective shamanic practices (which real shamans have nothing to do with), magic or astrology . A person is still ready to believe in any nonsense, as long as it flatters his pride and gives the illusion of his own greatness. But the slave who thinks he is free can never be free. And only the one who recognizes his slave position has a real chance to gain freedom one day.

The process of self-development

The process of self-development is never easy. Modern man is psychologically unprepared for systematic and purposeful practices of self-concentration. From an early age we are taught to consume information from the outside, but the main source of information is inside us, and it contains everything we need to know about ourselves and the whole world. This wisdom is present in a person from birth, but parents and educators suppress it so that the child obeys only them and in no case listens to himself. She never stops, but a person does not hear her, because all the time she is busy with something else, which seems to him more important than the voice of her own soul. A real teacher and mentor does not at all transfer his knowledge to the student, as many people think, but helps him find his own source of wisdom, which will remain with him for life.

Self-development is a way deep into yourself, not outside. The endless pursuit of new knowledge and new teachers does not give a person anything but devastation and exhaustion. People seem to be constantly busy with something important, but if you ask any person to remember what urgent things he had last week, last month or last year, he is unlikely to list more than a couple of dozen. Just think, not a second of free time and only 10 important things in a month, and in fact the whole life will fly by. Many believe that one day everything will somehow miraculously change, and life will turn into a fabulous journey full of joy and adventure. But years pass in vanity and worries, and the magical moment of transformation does not come until a person is on the verge of death, exhausted by the solution of everyday problems that have relentlessly pursued him throughout his life, but have not found a final solution.

Vanity steals people's time without giving them anything in return. A person wipes dust from a shelf, and the next it becomes even more. He buys a mobile phone, and six months later a new model comes out, which he also wants to buy. He makes repairs in the apartment and immediately starts saving for the next one. He does not have a single second of free time to stop and ask himself: who am I? What am I doing here? why is this all? The modern system of mass consumption will do everything so that a person does not have such thoughts, and if he nevertheless begins to think about such problems, the consumer view of the world inspired by him will destroy all his good undertakings. It should be understood that self-development is not consumption, it cannot be bought like a computer or a car and used to solve utilitarian tasks or just for fun. Self-development is a creative process in which a person creates the purity of his true essence, and in the whole world there is nothing more important than this.

Personal self-development is a popular topic of today's practical psychology. Do you think that you have achieved only small things in life? Maybe even afraid to seem like a loser? Do you want to develop certain skills in order to open a business, increase income? Have you decided to live life to the fullest? Most now under the word self-development do not have a specific idea. Many people watch videos, read articles, books - they consume a sea of ​​information, where to start personal development, but nothing happens. After all, development includes not only a load of information, theoretical knowledge, but also the formulation, achievement of goals, growth through the right environment, development of skills, their practical consolidation, which allows you to gradually raise your level.

Genuine personal self-development is if you confirm everything that you have learned with deeds, in practice.

What is human self-development?

There is an opinion that it is self-development through self-destruction that is genuine and most effective, literally overturning. Is it true that the more a person suffers, the more he develops? Is it really necessary for self-development to slide down the social ladder, quit work, study, get into bad habits - in fact, do everything that is opposite to development?

This refers to self-destruction at a deeper level - the destruction of one's ego, false attitudes, movement towards one's own, leaving the comfort zone, rebuilding one's own. People who have received really high development, those whom we can call self-actualized - often had their own negative experience, dark sections of their personal history, when they literally sank to the bottom, plunged into their shadow, and thereby integrated their personality into a single whole. After all, the direction of self-actualization often differs from development according to the norms of society, which are instilled everywhere, in every social institution, and obscure the true meanings of a particular person.

Practically, for a modern young person, self-development through self-destruction can be expressed in quitting a university where, as he feels, he does not get the really necessary knowledge, and go to work, live separately, engage in exhausting sports - to push himself against the real world, to force use hidden resources to the limit. In the process of such an experience, unnecessary, alien scenarios are eliminated, there is a chance to know the real oneself and find, start acting in the direction necessary for self-development.

Self-development has its global goal of self-actualization - coming to a state where the personality has become everything that it could become. And since this goal is ideal, not fully achievable - that is, a certain abstraction, a higher need, a vector along which one moves throughout life.

Self-actualization is, first of all, the achievement of an internal harmonious state in being with oneself, the elimination or acceptance and independence from the assessments of others, greater freedom and personal responsibility without being tied to hard and guarantees of tomorrow from the outside world.

Self-development and self-improvement, where to start?

Almost all directions leading a person to self-development claim that personal development is impossible without the awakening of one's own will, proactivity. It is fundamentally wrong to blindly follow the leader or forcibly force yourself to follow some method. This can be traced even from the word itself, of which "self" is a part, which emphasizes the importance of choosing one's own direction.

How to start personal development? Before the start of self-development, a person usually needs time, a certain number of his own mistakes and conclusions. It is worth listening to the opinion of others, but it is categorically impossible to follow it completely. Your own mistakes allow a person to move to the next level of understanding through experience, and this is fundamentally different from listening to the advice of others.

To jump high, you need to sit down hard. We come out of mistakes as different people. It is necessary to pay attention here not to how many and what mistakes were made, but how a person got out of them, did he draw conclusions from them and which ones, did he realize the reasons for what was happening, and will he continue to live based on the conclusions made?

Unfortunately, often a person seems to be walking in a spiral, stepping on the rake that he carries with him, making the same mistakes, self-development cannot all begin. However, if a breakthrough nevertheless occurs, the realization of the need for changes comes and, most importantly, the desire - this becomes the first, fundamental brick in the process. Following sincere desire, everything else is applied along the way. A great journey, as it is rightly said, begins with a small step.

To start this path, you should decide what exactly you want, what is the goal of your self-development. To outline it as clearly as possible - write down on paper what you want to achieve, in what plane you want to develop. This goal should correspond to internal motives, and not to installations imposed from outside.

The correctness of goal setting can be tested through the power of desire. The stronger your motivation, if it is literally irresistible, does not pass, even when faced with strong obstacles, does not fade with time, but only intensifies - it means that the goal is correctly defined, according to your true values, and it is she who can bring you deep satisfaction. Weak or fading often speaks of an incorrectly chosen or formulated goal.

Next, you need to follow the goal, making at least a minimum of steps daily in its direction. So, if you have prescribed what you should develop, work every day with the method you have chosen. If you strive to be kinder, fuller, more harmonious - every day, through deeds, get closer to this ideal image.

It is very important to systematize efforts and not scatter, not run from side to side. When you choose to move in one direction, follow it. Many people rush about and disperse their efforts, as a result they do not achieve concrete results anywhere. If you, having chosen a direction, have been following it for a long time, there is no need to turn off, develop in a different direction. These are just negative programs that try to turn you off the path - for example, fear of getting a significant result or fear of not coping with increased responsibility and freedom. Keep moving towards the chosen goal until victory.

Further, when you, for example, develop confidence, having achieved your original goal - the bigger picture will unfold in front of you, what you need, you will understand yourself better and work more productively and accurately. Take at least a step a day - the more we do, the more energy comes in.

Work on oneself, on what is related to our inner content, extends to others as well. A harmonious, full-fledged, confident person who loves himself and others, who knows how to act to the end - will certainly build a successful and happy reality around himself.

Self-development, be it extremely practical or highly spiritual, is the natural state of a person, although most people stop studying in educational institutions, not getting used to and not loving the efforts that lead to growth. That is why they are so common - a person tries to choose a system that will allow him, without changing himself, to feel safe. However, any growth goes through great difficulties that either the outside world brings, if the personality is characterized by an external one, or, with an internal locus, a person sets himself in front of himself.

The development of one's personality is the most logical way and channel for investing time, money, physical, psychological and spiritual strength, since as a result of it a person acquires the asset that remains with him forever. Moreover, having set foot on this path and having gained a positive experience, it will be impossible to stop - knowledge and skills will multiply themselves, giving rise to an even greater desire to move on. You begin to see your hidden possibilities and new horizons, your views change, the old problems seem to be negligible, you more and more easily discard obsolete attitudes, regenerating your personality. All other goals, except for self-actualization, are gradually disappearing, the main, highest person in self-development comes to the fore - that, in fact, for which we live life. It is impossible to achieve complete self-actualization, striving for it is already a result.

Self-development plan

We all know that personal self-development does not exist without purposeful efforts, but still we often dwell on theory, literally eating information and overloading it, not going further, not getting the cherished results. For significant growth, you need a program of self-development, a plan that will help you stay on track with your goal.

A self-development program will allow you to break down a large, distant ideal goal into separate sub-goals, specific tasks, operations, the achievement of which is easy to track. It will save you from not understanding where to go next, and getting stuck at the stages.

First, you need to understand why you need self-development, to narrow the understanding of this word specifically for you. After all, self-development means different things for different people: doing push-ups, squatting and running in the morning, learning a foreign language, reading tongue twisters and improving your speech.

Why do you need self-development? Set a specific goal for what you want to improve. For example, if it is health, start by studying materials, books and videos on wellness. You can realize this through sports by choosing and planning a training methodology. Or maybe your path lies through yoga, ? Find relevant materials or join a club.

Want to improve your business skills to become a successful entrepreneur? Study this information.

First, there is always an understanding of why you need self-development. Many have not decided on its goal, which is why they are constantly looking for and trying to take everything, to be in time everywhere, in the end nothing happens.

So, you have determined the goal for which you will develop. The next point is to develop yourself so that as a result you get specific skills for life. This is self-development, as a result of which you become more harmonious, happy, joyful.

For example, if your focus on health is health promotion, the choice and application of a particular technique. Even a simple daily morning exercise, exercise, will eventually give a result, unlike just reading health books.

When you want to develop a business and have received a specific recommendation to choose a niche, try to take the first steps already, test the market, launch a pilot project.

The point of the second step is to turn all the information that you have absorbed into a certain skill when you begin to act. The best option is when you immediately find application for the acquired knowledge, then they do not flow away, but really nurture your personality.

Self-development becomes simple, interesting and understandable, you no longer have uncertainty, no dispersion of forces in different directions without a visible result.

You will develop as quickly as you often perform a series of actions leading to a goal. The best, outstanding results are promoted by daily classes, literally 7 days a week, constantly.

I would like to start talking about self-development with one interesting experiment. A group of young people were advised to spend 48 hours alone without any means of entertainment, including without technical gadgets. It was allowed to do any ordinary business, walk, read paper books. The experiment could be terminated at any time.

Only two girls and one guy reached the end of the term. What have they been doing all this time? The guy was engaged in physical exercises and training, one girl wrote a diary and reread her favorite books, and the second meditated.

For all other young people, such forced loneliness seemed simply unbearable, and at different times they were forced to stop the experiment. The most interesting thing is that after that they experienced a significant change in their state of health, up to panic attacks, headaches, exacerbation of chronic diseases.

What do the results of this experiment say? The fact that modern people are not ready to meet their "I", and do not know at all what to do with themselves if we remove the usual ways of structuring time, such as aimless communication, watching TV, surfing the Internet. Almost no one knows what self-development is and how it can be practiced.

What is self-development for?

Man is the only creature on Earth endowed with the ability to reflect. No animal is able to realize its actions and plan for the future. Man has been given a great gift - free will. It is freedom of expression that allows us to independently build our own lives, move forward, despite obstacles, and achieve the impossible.

But not everyone can become the master of his life. The path of self-development is long and difficult, it meets a huge number of obstacles - real and fictional.

Self-development of personality and success always go together:

1. If you understand yourself, you will understand others.
2. If you know your strengths and useful sides, you can become a professional in any business you choose.
3. If you realize your weaknesses, you will be able to draw conclusions and avoid stupid mistakes.

Only the person who is constantly engaged in self-knowledge and self-development can look back with gratitude at the end of his life path, realizing that he has done and achieved everything that he had planned in this life.

Everyone needs self-development - any person can change himself if he really wants to, and there will always be something that can be changed in himself.

What is self-development?

Just as there are no two identical personalities, there are no two identical paths of self-development. It is always difficult to give some advice on self-development. Each person has his own psychology and philosophy of life, so the first steps on the path of self-development can be very different.

Everyone can start to fulfill themselves in their own way. The only important thing is that subsequently, in any case, a person comes to the realization that everything in the world is interconnected, and only a combination of all types of self-development harmoniously affects the formation of a Personality.

Types of self-development:

1. Spiritual self-development - for one it is a religion, for another an esoteric, for a third - just meditation.
2. Physical self-development - physical exercises and sports.
3. Material self-development - the path to financial independence
4. Social self-development - improving communication skills, developing empathy and the ability to love.
5. Self-development of the personality - acceptance of oneself, awareness of strengths and weaknesses.
6. Intellectual self-development - reading books, seminars, trainings, lectures.
7. Creative self-development is the desire to create something new.
8. Self-development in the professional field - advanced training, start going to professional or just useful courses.

In fact, if you recall Maslow's pyramid, then by correctly satisfying any of his needs, a person is engaged in self-development.

Therefore, as many needs a person has, as many opportunities he has for self-development

It is important to understand what you lack and what you want, accept it in yourself, love yourself, and then begin to develop your abilities.

Where to begin?

Self-development and self-improvement always begin with self-knowledge, with the ability to boldly and without illusions look into yourself, recognize your shortcomings, realize your true virtues. After that, you can already take the next steps on the path of Personal Growth and the development of creative potential.

In addition, personal growth and self-development involve:

1. Planning, the ability to follow the planned plan and schedule.
2. The desire to live a conscious life, the development of awareness in oneself.
3. Managing your own thoughts and emotions.
4. The ability to take responsibility for your actions and your life.
5. Development of will, self-improvement of volitional qualities.
6. The ability to relax on your own.
7. Development of empathy and love for the world and other people.
8. Increasing professionalism in your business.
9. Healthy lifestyle.
10. Engaging in creativity.

The advice of psychologists, wise old people and acquaintances who have achieved success can also help you in self-knowledge and self-development, but it is important not to forget that these are only tips, and it is up to you to make decisions in your life.

In addition, there are numerous self-development films on the net that you can watch:

Here is an example of such a video about development through chakras and meditation:

Sometimes even suitable photos or motivators that accidentally caught your eye can be the very impetus for the beginning of your self-development.

For example:

Self-development options

So, you can start classes and exercises that promote self-improvement and self-development from anywhere. We list only some of the possible options for self-knowledge and personal development:

1. Reading books (in paper or electronic form);
2. lectures;
3. Seminars;
4. Courses;
5. Trainings;
6. Video and audio recordings;
7. Individual lessons with a specialist.

Motivation for self-development

Don't expect tangible results right away. The human body and its psyche are arranged in such a way that all the most significant changes occur gradually, as if accumulating and not showing up in any way.

You are strictly following the plan. You are engaged in your physical improvement, read books on relevant topics, attend lectures, seminars, communicate with like-minded people. A month passes, then another one, you continue your classes, no longer hoping for a result, but simply because it has become your lifestyle.

And then, at that very moment, the quantity suddenly turns into quality, and you wake up as a completely different person. Now you have powerful resources for further self-development, and how you manage them further is up to you.

How not to give up when things don't work out?

If your hands give up and faith in yourself has disappeared, think about the fact that the darkest time of the day happens just before dawn. You have enough reasons to keep moving forward:

1. There is only one good reason why it is permissible to surrender, and that is death. As long as a person is alive, he can always change the situation.
2. Man is much stronger than he thinks. We are given only those trials that we can afford.
3. Believe in yourself. The right path is never easy.
4. You have a huge support: your family and close friends who will always support you in the quest to move forward unstoppably.
5. Self-development changes not only you, thanks to it you can change the world or the lives of other people for the better.
6. Everything takes time, but it's better to do something and regret than to regret what you didn't do.
7. Self-development is a way to express yourself and prove to yourself what you are capable of.
8. If someone has already done it, then you can too.
9. There are so many people who don't have what you have. Want to give up daily exercise? Some people can't even walk...
10. Mistakes also help self-development. A negative result is also a result.
11. Often forces leave us literally in the balance of success.
12. Your self-development can serve as a source of inspiration for the people around you. Think about it.

Self-development and self-improvement is not an easy task. But the path will be mastered by the walking one. Anything that comes quickly usually also leaves quickly. Therefore, tune in to a measured and calm work on yourself, and just take the first step.

Self-development and self-improvement is an integral part of the life of any person who does not want to remain in place, but strive to be better, go forward, call for something new, set even greater goals and reach incredible heights. Development is the basis of life. Nothing more can be achieved if today is the same as yesterday.
I am sure that many of you understand this, and it was the desire to develop and know yourself that led you to this site and to this article.

Today I will tell you about 10 effective tips that will help you improve, develop, know yourself and your hidden abilities. I will say right away that these tips are not a dry theory that was taken from other sources and skillfully copied, this is experience, first of all, my experience, my knowledge, and what I have tested on myself. A couple of years ago, when the realization came to me that drinking beer and peeling seeds on a bench in the yard leads to a dead end branch, I thought about self-development, about how I could start a new life, become better, reach a qualitatively new level. That's when I found 10 self-improvement tips online. To be honest, only now I understand that I just opened the first link and rewrote everything that was there. After a few years, I can add to these tips, make my own edits, describe personal experience and how they helped me. I am sure that each of you who really wants to be better tomorrow than today should read the article to the end and take note of my personal experience laid out as 10 tips.

1. Sleep less
Scientists have long proven that for a good rest a person needs no more than 6 hours of healthy sleep. While most people sleep for 8-10 hours, they wake up with a feeling of fatigue and heaviness. Why so? What is the problem? The thing is that the main thing is not the amount of sleep, but its quality. You can sleep for 12 or 14 hours and still feel unsatisfactory.
Mode is the first thing you should develop in yourself. I used to sleep when I wanted to. I went to bed at 5 am, woke up at 2-15 pm. It happened that he didn’t sleep at all all night, and only fell asleep in the morning. I liked this mode, but over time I came to understand that my performance is falling, I become irritable, I don’t like everything. Then an article caught my eye that the most optimal hours for sleep are from 21-00 to 01-00. It is then that the brain enters some special phase and the whole body rests as much as possible. I have trained myself to go to bed at 21, maximum at 22-00, and wake up at 3-4 in the morning. It rarely happens that I sleep until 5-6 in the morning.
Six hours is optimal. This time is enough for me to sleep and actively spend the whole day. Now imagine that every day you will sleep not 8, but 6 hours. This saves 14 hours a week, and 60 hours a month. In a year, you will save 730 hours, which is equal to a whole month. Just imagine, you will have a whole extra month, which can be used much more usefully than just sleeping.

2. Make time for yourself every morning.
You should develop the habit of devoting about an hour to yourself each morning. I'm not talking about taking a shower, or other hygiene procedures. No, you have to wake up, think about yourself, about your plans for the day, for the month, for the year, for life in general. Dream up, visualize how you achieve your goals. Personally, I started practicing meditation, and it helped me a lot to structure my thoughts, to overcome the internal dialogue. Turn on calm music, gain strength, realize that you are an endless source of possibilities.
How was it before? The alarm clock rings, you jump up, you are late, you quickly wash your face, get dressed on the go and grab something to eat. The day begins with chaos, so it continues, and so does the whole life. In a hurry, not understanding where and why we are running, why all this is happening.
After you sleep less and devote some time to yourself, you will definitely learn to live calmly, enjoy the moment now. Learn to analyze your actions, thoughts, judgments, desires. This is already a very big step towards the beginning of serious self-improvement.

3. Prioritize
In life, there are always important things that need priority attention, and there is something secondary that you should not worry about in the first place. As a rule, we often interchange these concepts, and completely do not pay due attention to important things. We are always chasing after something big, without understanding what it is for us. And when we get it, we realize that this is absolutely not what we wanted. And again we set false goals for ourselves, we do what does not bring pleasure to achieve these goals. Now I'm talking about a job that you absolutely do not like.
Speaking to the graduates of Stanford University, Steve Jobs said: “Ask yourself every morning if this was the last day of my life, I would do what I plan to do today. And when the answer is negative for several days in a row, then think about the fact that it's time to change something.
Many may object, they say, if I do what I like, then where do I get money from, how do I earn money? And why do you reject the idea that your favorite business can bring good earnings? Look, the biggest money earners are not those who work, but those who simply enjoy a highly paid hobby. Sergey Brin, the founder of Google, once said: “Money has never been important to us. We did what we really liked. It is very pleasant that in the future it has brought us a good fortune.”
One piece of advice - do you want to develop and improve, do you want to be better? Set priorities, do what you love.

4. Stimulate yourself with positive thoughts
Positive thinking and vision of the world is another important aspect of human development. Remember that positive thought has tremendous power, it is creative, it creates us. Remember your state when you met a friend whom you had not seen for a long time, or when you learned about some joyful event, or when you hugged your girlfriend after several months of separation. These are wonderful emotions, bright, pure. Now remember the most negative ones: anger, envy, resentment, desire for revenge, hatred. Even when you read these words, it becomes uncomfortable inside. Therefore, you need to learn to think positively.
Personally, I used the rubber band method, which I learned about a couple of years ago. I put on an ordinary rubber band on my wrist, and every time a negative emotion came into my head, when I wanted to get angry and swear unreasonably, I pulled on the elastic band and clicked it on my wrist. Thus, he did not allow himself to concentrate on the negative, and go deep into the "dark side of me." Over time, you will get used to thinking only positively, and life will change dramatically.

5. Smile
Whoever you talk to, no matter how you talk (on the phone or in person), always smile. I'm not saying that it should be a fake Hollywood smile, but you should smile sweetly, making it clear to the interlocutor that you are in a good and positive mood. If you smile at a person, he will also smile back.
Sometimes it's so nice when you're on the bus and you see a sad girl standing at the bus stop. And in an instant she looks at you, you smile sweetly at her, she smiles back at you and that's it. You may never see each other again, but the feelings remain wonderful.

6. Always have a notepad handy
You ask why? Everything is very simple. When you are positive, open to the world, want to develop and improve, then incredible ideas will begin to come into your life, into your head. Perhaps you want to start your own business, or improve an existing one. You think about it for several days, and now, while riding the subway, at some crowded station, when everyone is pushing and humming, you indulge in yourself, in your thoughts and experiences. And it is at this moment that a brilliant idea comes. What do we have to do? That's right, write it down. And how to write if there is no notebook and pen in the bag?
You can never predict the course of your brilliant ideas. Therefore, one must always be prepared for the fact that they will come in an unusual place and at the strangest time. Write down everything you think about, everything that comes to mind.
I always have a notebook in the bedroom on the chest of drawers, so that when I wake up I write down my dreams. Very often in a dream there are interesting moments, rereading which I can start thinking, fantasizing, thinking out something. Very useful thing, take note.

7. Planning
Dedicate every Sunday evening not to entertainment shows, or watching a series with beer and chips, but to planning. Analyze everything that you have done during the week, praise yourself, thank God (no matter what you call this force) for help, consider plans and tasks for the next week. You do not need to paint a clear plan, set specific goals. Just decide for yourself what you need to do, when, and most importantly why. And most importantly, if something goes wrong, and your plans for the week are partially not fulfilled, then you should not be upset. If you made every effort, and did not lie on your side for 7 days, then everything is fine, everything happened the way it should happen.

8. Communicate more

Remember that the quality of your life depends on communication with other people. Try to communicate more, learn from their experience and knowledge. If you have the opportunity to attend a lecture by some famous person, then go there. Always learn new things, always try to discover horizons that have never been seen before.
Communication with other people is necessary, but also pay attention to communication with yourself. If you are confident in yourself and your abilities, set to a positive result, then you will definitely achieve what you have planned.

9. The main goal, not the end result.
The old and wise Rockefeller said: "If your ultimate goal is money, then you will never have it." In other words, you should not focus on money as a result of your work. Have bigger goals. Do what you do based on the benefit to society and specific people. Here I immediately recall an interview with Mark Zuckerberg, who said that their goal was not to earn money, they just wanted to help students communicate, make their communication more accessible and faster. What happened as a result? The largest social network in the world, and Mark at 23 became the youngest billionaire. And even now he says that he did not think and does not think about money. His goal is to improve Facebook, make communication between people even easier and more accessible.
What about money, you ask? If you do what you love, do it not based on the desire to just earn money, then the money will come, for sure, and there will be just enough of them to satisfy all your needs.

10. Laugh every morning
Someone advises to cause artificial laughter and laugh in front of a mirror. Honestly, I didn’t succeed at all, and I looked stupid. But there was another way. I have dozens of tracks that make you smile and are associated with something positive. Every morning I turn them on, dance, laugh and rejoice.
Why laugh, you ask? Quite simply, laughter triggers many beneficial chemical reactions in our body that bring us into a wonderful and joyful state. Laughter also brings the body into a state of balance.

You are tormented by depression, you hate life and are looking for the culprits of failures: you blame greenhouse education for your spinelessness, your picky boss for your poor work, your loneliness for selfish friends who are not interested in your problems? And in general, for every incident you always have a million culprits, besides yourself? But in fact, the source of all your failures is you, only you and no one else. And only you can fix it.

To first of all myself. It is for this purpose that self-development of the individual exists. To begin with, let's look at what, in fact, this concept means.

What is self-development?

Self-development is a conscious process that a person carries out without any external support, using only his moral and physical resources in order to improve his potential and realize himself as a person. Self-development is impossible without:

Setting specific goals for yourself;

The presence of convictions;

Creating settings for action.

The concept of personal growth is identical and inextricably linked with self-development. a person, during which he improves his positive qualities, his actions become more effective and, as a result, his personal potential increases significantly, which helps to achieve success in all areas of life.

What does it consist of?

The concepts of "self-education", "personal potential", "success" sound quite abstract. All this can be achieved only through concrete actions. And personal growth and self-development are processes that give positive results, both moral and material, only under the condition of constant painstaking work on oneself. Let us consider more specifically what actions are required of us in order to change for the better.

Self-development is undoubtedly a big and important step, but you also need to make an action plan for yourself to achieve your goals. Don't think that your life can change in one second or in a day. It takes a lot of time to accomplish great things. But if you try hard, the result will certainly meet all your expectations.

Personal self-development can be divided into five stages, which are inextricably linked:

1) awareness of its necessity;

2) study of needs;

3) self-knowledge;

4) drawing up a strategy;

5) actions.

The self-development program requires a careful approach to each of its points. Let's consider them in more detail.

Step 1. Recognize the need

Before you take action, you must clearly understand why you need it and whether you really want to change something. At this point, the subject of your irritation does not play a significant role. Either you are not satisfied with the level of income, or you want people to perceive you differently, or you need some changes in appearance ...

All these and any other desires have something in common: they must be based on a powerful irresistible desire for change and a complete readiness to use the maximum of one's strength to accomplish the tasks set.

The goal of self-development is to overcome the fear of exiting and stop. If you are ready for this, you can start resetting your life.

Step 2. We study the needs

To change your life for the better, you need to decide which aspects of it require refinement and improvement. To understand and articulate what you want, do the following exercise.

Take a sheet of paper and divide it into two parts. In the first half, list in a column everything that does not suit you. In the other - ways to solve these problems and the results you want to achieve.

Then number the items from the second column depending on the possibility of their implementation: from simple to complex. This will help you formulate your short-term and long-term goals and create an action plan to achieve them.

After compiling this list, you do not need to grasp everything at the same time. Such a strategy often leads to the fact that, performing a bunch of tasks at once, a person is very dispersed and cannot solve any of them qualitatively. Proceed gradually, focusing on the simpler problems first and gradually moving on to the more complex ones. Only by following such a system will you be able to achieve maximum results.

Step 3: Knowing Yourself

Once you've set your goals, figure out what's going on inside you. You must clearly understand which qualities of yours will help you achieve your goals, and which, on the contrary, will interfere. Everyone has the ability to self-development, but not everyone can use it because of their other character traits.

Try to assess your capabilities and abilities as objectively as possible so that on the path of self-development you will be ready for the steps that you yourself (often unconsciously) will substitute.

In self-digging, you will also need a written exercise. This time you need to put your positives on paper and Be as objective as possible: you should neither overpraise nor humiliate yourself. Just describe what is. And to get more accurate information, ask someone close to compare the traits you listed with the real state of affairs.

So you will not only find out what people who care about you think about you, but you will also be able to compare how you position yourself with how it looks from the outside.

Step 4. We draw up a strategy

Self-development is not only knowledge, but also planning. When you have decided what you want and understand what qualities will help you achieve your goals, it is time to draw up a plan of concrete actions.

The self-development program cannot give a universal answer to the question: “What should be done?” Everyone has their own priorities and desires. But we all have something in common: we want to be happy. But how - everyone decides for himself.

You choose what you need to do to get your way. In doing so, you must adhere to the following rules:

1. Assess your capabilities objectively and set goals that you can realistically achieve at this stage of your life. If you want more - take on its achievement a little later, when you reach a new level. The path of self-development cannot be called simple and short, but your efforts will certainly bring you pleasant results.

2. Remember: even the smallest victory is a step taken on the steps leading up. The more steps you take, the higher you get.

3. Set yourself specific deadlines for achieving each goal. When you have everything scheduled by dates (or at least by approximate periods of time), it is much easier to work on the result than on an abstract desire.

Don't get discouraged if something doesn't work the first time. your dreams and works wonders. If you have already decided to do something, then go to the end, and personal growth and self-development will help you in this.

Step 5. Let's act!

Everything that was said above is a dry theory, and practice should begin this very minute. No need to say that you will change something tomorrow or from next week, or from the first day. Do not put off until later what you can do now, because the sooner you start, the sooner you will achieve results.

The tasks of self-development seem simple in theory, but in reality, a lot of obstacles await you. Whatever happens, do not doubt your dreams, forget about the failures of the past, because the future is what is happening right now, and it depends only on you how it will be.

What's stopping us?

On your way to achieving your goals, you will encounter many obstacles. But all external barriers are nothing compared to internal ones. Only by defeating yourself, you will be able to subjugate the surrounding reality and reach your destination. You must know your main enemies by sight, because self-development is a constant struggle. So, meet...

Doubts

Inside each of us sits an evil censor who criticizes our every decision. Even if at first glance it looks the most correct and rational of all possible, we still ask ourselves the question: “Maybe we shouldn’t?”, “Are you sure?”, “Let's not risk it better?”

The voice of doubt... In some cases, it really saves us from erroneous reckless decisions, but sometimes it prevents us from making a breakthrough towards our dream. How to deal with it? Its main enemy is desire. Only in it lies the power sufficient to overcome any doubts. No wonder they once said: "If you really want to, you can fly into space."

Desire gives us an inexhaustible source of energy, it inspires and inspires us, makes us fight for what we really need, pushes everyone out of their comfort zone with a kick. Only armed with a real sincere desire, you can overcome any doubts.

Laziness

Laziness is another problem of self-development. But it does not exist, it is a kind of placebo, fiction. But wrong desires and dreams are quite real. It is they who poison our lives, forcing us to sit still and not strive anywhere.

If you do not have an incentive, then there will be no desire either. How can you change something if you don't want it with all your heart? No way. Dreams are the fuel of our self-development. The nourishment they give us is equal to their scale. And if the dream is useless, then it will not really work to refuel from it.

But when you have a really worthwhile goal, then you don’t even want to remember any laziness. After all, we are driven by a strong desire for change.

If you don't have a truly inspiring dream, find one. If it doesn’t work out, change your social circle, reach out to people with ambitious goals, and you yourself will have the same ones. Fight for your dreams. And you will certainly be able to defeat laziness!

habits

Habits are priceless fuel for laziness. They appear as a result of actions that are constantly repeated. Habits are both good and bad. But, regardless of the level of their usefulness, we bring them all to automatism.

Where do they come from? When a person performs the same actions for a long time, he gets used to them, and they become an integral part of his life. Many people fall into a catastrophic dependence on their habits, and it is they that prevent us from moving forward.

That is, if we need change, we need to start doing something new that you have not done before. If you do not act, then you will be stuck at the zero point of reference, not moving forward. Remember: changing habits entails global changes in destiny.

Ignorance

Another obstacle in your path is ignorance. Its essence lies in the fact that a person does not perceive new information and in advance, not knowing any facts, condemns it.

As a rule, people suffering from ignorance are very sensitive to change and do not want to notice anything new. They trust no one and nothing, and the saddest thing about their situation is that they have driven themselves into a dead corner.

But they can still fix everything if they change their perception of the world around them. If you belong to this type of people, then you must fully realize that everything around you is constantly changing and moving forward. You will either have to keep up with progress, or hang in the past for an indefinite period of time.

Change - and the world around you, and your life will certainly change for the better!