This post is all about personal and professional growth.
Personal growth is everywhere. It’s on social media, shows, movies, podcasts. But, it kind of feels like anything and everything can fit under personal growth. It’s almost like we get to define it however we want to (like self-care).
Let’s talk through some practical, clear ways to figure out what personal and professional growth looks like for you. There are a bunch of ways to become a better, happier version of yourself and we’re here for it!
This post is all about personal and professional growth.
PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL GROWTH:
1. Self-awareness
Before you can start your personal growth journey, you have to know where you’re coming from and where you’re going. In other words, you need to reflect on your weaknesses and strengths.
Everyone has different experiences that has shaped their values and beliefs, so you will have a different perspective on your strengths and weakness than other people. It can get overwhelming to even consider how other people see you.
Personal growth is a personal process. While you don’t want to ignore other people, especially when multiple people share the same opinion, you want to stay on target with your own goals. So, focus on what you see as your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Goal setting
Once you get some strengths and weaknesses on paper, think about where you want to take them. Maybe you want to lean into your strength of creative writing and set the goal for yourself to write a novel.
While, on the other hand, you can think about the ways you want to improve upon your weakness.
Maybe you don’t reach to the people you care about as often as you want to and you worry that’s giving them the impression you don’t value them. So, you set the goal to make plans with the people in your life at least once a month.
Set specific goals that are measurable, possible to achieve, relevant to your personal growth, and limited to a specific amount of time.
3. Continuous learning
Always continue learning. Whether you listen to a podcast on your weekly hike or watch an informative video while you make dinner, keep taking in new information.
You don’t need to take classes at your local college or read five books a week to qualify as learning. This is all part of personal growth and it’s all personal. If the idea of learning stresses you out, think about where that comes from.
You probably learned to associate learning with tons of work or grades. But, you don’t have to do that anymore on your personal growth journey. Instead, you get to learn the stuff you find interesting and you don’t get tested on it. It’s just for you to enjoy the process of learning.
4. Time management
When you have a full-time job, go to school, take care of the home and still, somehow, manage to feed yourself, personal growth seems kind of irrelevant. If you don’t have time to clean the house, there’s no way you’ll have time for personal growth.
And that’s totally fair. It shouldn’t be a privilege to work on personal growth, but it is. Luckily, something that might help is re-thinking the way you manage your time.
Time management is all about figuring out which tasks are most important and when they need to be done. Then, schedule them into your day by devoting blocks of time to them. Continue this process with all of your tasks until they have time in your day to get done.
This takes practice and planning, so be kind to yourself as you try to implement it.
5. Emotional intelligence
The first step in handling emotional intelligence is deciding how good you are figuring out your own feelings and recognizing how others feel. Be kind to yourself during this process, especially if this is something you haven’t thought about before.
Be honest with yourself because that’s the only way to achieve real personal growth. Once you understand your emotional intelligence, you can work on improving it. This can include talking to people about how they feel and taking an interest in their emotions.
You can also look at your own emotions through the process of journaling, talking it out with someone, and even attending therapy.
6. Resilience
Resilience is one of the single most important skills to develop. When you are resilient, you can handle setbacks like getting fired, going through a breakup, or losing a loved one. But, the actual process of developing resilience feels impossible to do or even figure out.
The best way to build resilience is to be in touch with yourself. As silly and vague as that sounds when we’re talking about personal and professional growth, it’s true.
You need to develop practices of understanding your emotions through exercises like journaling and meditation and ways of coping with pain that also help you work through it.
But, the catch is that you have to get into the habit of doing this kind of stuff so that when disaster strikes, you’re ready. So, resilience is basically you teaching yourself how to handle the challenges you deal with so that you can focus on getting through it in the moment.
7. Mindfulness
It’s really easy to go through life without being present. When your routine is work, eat, sleep, repeat, you can easily forget that you should enjoy your life.
Working upwards of forty hours a week, attending school and doing assignments, making food for yourself—it’s a lot. All of those things make it seem impossible for you to be present and maybe they even make it seem like there’s no point.
But, this is where you get to remind yourself that your life is just as much about being happy and fulfilled as it is about becoming successful or keeping a roof over your head.
Not everyone gets the chance to take a break or consider how fulfilled their life makes them feel because they have to work to pay rent and get groceries. This is where mindfulness comes in because, if nothing else, you can check in with your senses and ground yourself in the present.
8. Networking
Find people you like who have similar interests as you. These types of relationships will inspire you to be better.
While it’s true that finding people who are like the person you no longer want to be can hold you back, it’s also important to realize that the people who make you feel good and healthy are the ones you need to keep around.
So, join local social media groups, visit neighbors, or take local classes. Go up to people and ask if they want to grab lunch.
9. Positive mindset
We’re not talking toxic positivity here. Instead, we’re talking about shifting our mindset from only seeing the negative, painful stuff to seeing the good right along with it.
This starts by journaling about three things that make you feel thankful everyday. Get specific and make sure those things are specific events or occurrences that made you feel grateful.
While this won’t immediately change your mindset or perspective, it’ll train your brain (through the process of neuroplasticity) to choose pathways that lead to positivity more often than the negative ones until you see the world differently.
10. Communication skills
Effective communication is the key to healthy love, healthy work-place relationships, and healthy interactions in general.
This can include everything from asking your partner why they didn’t start the laundry like you asked to asking your boss for an extension on your next project. In both cases, you want to be kind and clear.
And, in both cases, you need to treat the person like a human who both makes mistakes and lets other people make mistakes. Effective communication all comes back to the golden rule of treating others the way you’d want to be treated without being afraid of getting feedback.
11. Leadership skills
Leadership means different things to different people, as is clear by how many horrible examples of leadership we see all around us. However, we can use the examples of leadership in our lives and select the qualities that both have benefitted and harmed us the most.
The best leaders inspire the people they lead to challenge themselves without shaming them. But, that still isn’t a lot to go on. So, use this as an opportunity to reflect on the qualities you most admire in a leader and brainstorms ways to incorporate them at work.
You can work on communicating with a coworker about a mistake or practice vulnerability with a client when you make a mistake.
12. Problem-solving
Problem-solving is a daily part of life, in the workplace and out of it. You have to figure out how to make dinner when you got one pound of potatoes instead of two for your potato soup. Or you have to research how to buy a new domain when you print a thousand flyers with a typo.
You think critically on a daily basis without realizing it. Use this as an opportunity to recognize when you are problem-solving and thinking analytically so you can strengthen that skill.
This is also a good time to think about how you react to challenges and switch on your problem-solving mindset instead of panicking. While it’s easier said then done, acknowledging one area for personal and professional growth is the perfect place to start.
13. Decision-making
You get stressed out when you have to make a decision. It’s entirely possible you’ll make the wrong one that will cost you… everything?
When you have to make an important decision, you make that decision within the first few seconds of coming across it. For instance, you have to decide if you want to take your low-paying dream job or high-paying job you’re not passionate about.
The moment you realize you have this decision to make, you’ve already decided. The rest of the time you spend on it, you’re trying to convince yourself that your decision is okay (even if you think you’re still in the process of deciding).
Take comfort in knowing that any decision you make, like picking a job, is most likely not permanent. You can get a different job, or switch careers. You can even save to do some soul-searching while you travel for a month.
The goal, here, is to get comfortable with decision-making and learn to trust yourself, the information you’re presented, and the proven expertise of others.
14. Strategic thinking
Know where you want to go. If you’re not sure yet, this is a great opportunity to think about where you see yourself in five or ten years. Think about your personal and professional growth.
Strategic thinking is crucial in the workplace and it’s crucial in your personal life to make sure your current life is heading in the direction of your choice.
This includes the type of job you’re working now and what you need it to do for you. It can be a job that pays the bills or a job that gets you experience. Whatever your plan is, stay in charge of your life and figure out what you want to accomplish in the long-term.
To be clear, you shouldn’t live every second of life according to goals. But, when you’re doing a job that takes up the majority of your time, it’s important to know what the job is doing for you.
15. Creativity
Indulge your creativity. Try new things, think of new ideas, and flex that creative muscle so you don’t lose it. You don’t have to become an entrepreneur or create a side hustle to be considered creative.
All you need is to do the things your minds wants to do. Try out that new poem idea or go to a yoga class. Bring up that new feature to your boss and see what they say.
Creativity means you let your mind express itself in fun, new ways.
16. Financial literacy
Learn about your money and how it’s preparing you for the future you want. Think about retirement, and start investing. Start with whatever money you can save, whether that’s five dollars or five hundred.
Stay up to date about how much money you’re making and watch where the money goes. Spend your money in ways that benefit you, but make sure you’re also helping future you with their goals.
17. Mentorship
Ask for help. Get advice from people who worked the career you want to work or experienced similar challenges. Rely on the experience of people around you and ask if they’ll mentor you.
If you’re ever nervous to ask someone, just think about how you’d feel if someone younger and less experienced asked you for your help. Then, go give that gift to someone you trust.
And, remember, you can have as many mentors as you want, so you can always ask someone for help and change your mind later.
