Personal development: getting better day by day
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
Ernest Hemingway
The unique property of personality is that it can be constantly improved. We don’t have to always stay the same as we are today. Every day we can get better and be one step ahead of our yesterday’s self. In other words, we have been given the miraculous ability to DEVELOP ourselves.
THE ARISTIPPUS’ CODE
Guideline XIII — PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Be capable of achieving personal growth, learning and development.
Task: outdo yourself
Personal development is the acquisition of a variety of experiences, the realization of the potentialities inherent in man by nature.
A person with a high level of development has more interests, hobbies and incentives to move towards the goals set. Such a person is capable of managing his/her life and cope with difficulties more easily. He/she shows initiative, is not afraid of responsibility, takes care of other people and is ready to make compromises for the common good.
Personal development creates and maintains a person’s interest in various areas of his/her life and professional activity. The basis of personal growth is learning, the desire to acquire new knowledge and skills.
His name made a splash all over the world
A case in point is Bill Gates, the owner and founder of Microsoft, the world’s largest software corporation.
As a child, Gates did not like to play with his peers, he was shy and taciturn. Behind the external passivity, the psychologist discerned the strong character of a self-assured person. The psychologist suggested the parents to accept their son unconditionally, supporting him in all his endeavors and giving him the opportunity to unleash the potential.
Bill trained his memory, actively engaged in mathematics and logic. He studied with pleasure and thirsted for new knowledge. Parents sent him to a private school, where the child’s abilities were realized in the best possible way.
Gates became a student at Harvard University, where his personal growth continued and helped him achieve the goals set. At the university, he told a professor that at the age of thirty he would become a millionaire.
It is amazing how quickly young Bill began to reveal his talents. At the age of 13, he wrote his first software program. At the age of 17, he developed a software package for the Bonneville Dam. At the age of 20, he wrote the Altair BASIC programming language and founded Microsoft. At 24, he developed the operating system for the world’s first personal computer. In 1986, when Bill Gates was 31, he became a billionaire.
Active personal growth, initiated by Gates himself, led him to the highest achievements in his career. He independently chose his life path, acquired the necessary knowledge and experience, learned how to act effectively to achieve the goals set. Thanks to personal development, Bill Gates has become one of the greatest people of our time.
3 tips for everyone who wants to unleash personal potential
In the daily hustle and bustle, it can be difficult to find time and motivation for self-improvement. We offer three recommendations that will help you overcome fatigue, apathy, and enthusiastically engage in personal development.
1. Come up with special rituals
A situation familiar to millions: the alarm clock rings, you want to turn it off and sleep a little longer. And then, being in a drowsy and depressed mood, people start undertaking important work. So, self-development takes a back seat!
According to the famous business coach Tony Robbins, if a person does not have 10 minutes every morning to work on himself/herself, then the person has no life. Special rituals help to cope with morning fatigue, bringing the mind into a cheerful state and giving a boost of motivation.
Anything can be such a ritual: exercise, listening to inspiring music, reading a chapter from your favorite book. For example, the already mentioned Bill Gates walks on a treadmill immediately after waking up, and, at the same time, he watches educational lectures.
A separate ritual is also required for the evening to relieve mental stress, relax and go to bed in a good mood.
2. Don’t spend too much time on your smartphone
Aimless social media scrolling, online games and funny videos take up valuable time that can be used more productively.
There are special applications, like time trackers, that track how many hours a day you spend on your smartphone. Let’s say you find out that you spend 1–2 hours on your gadget every day. Think about what you could do for yourself during this time. Make a list of self-development tasks and turn to it whenever your hand reaches for your smartphone.
3. Write down your goals on paper
Get a notebook in which you will jot down your own dreams, ideas and plans.
An experiment conducted by the Dominican University of California showed that people who write down their goals in detail achieve them much more often than those who do not keep records.
Putting ideas in writing allows you to concentrate more and articulate the idea more clearly. Scientists have found that the process of writing involves different areas of the brain responsible for thinking, speaking and memorizing. According to neuroscientist Murali Doraiswamy, today, when many people work at the computer, training of handwriting skills helps to keep the mind sharp.
We have listed only a few ways to develop a harmonious personality on a daily basis, but there are thousands more. Modern human being has much more opportunities for self-improvement than Aristippus had in ancient Greece. You just need to awaken an irresistible quest for knowledge, learning and development.
Heed the advice of the ancient philosopher — create your personality just as an artist creates a priceless masterpiece!
Read also:
