Today we have a post from Kirrilee Johnston of Illumin8life. Kirrilee was on last month’s Sponsor Spotlight and in today’s post she talks about what personal development means for her.
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Personal Development
For many, Personal Development is the new buzz word, the new kid on the block, heralding the arrival of self help Guru’s and their cliches and words of wisdom, but for me Personal Development is a means in which to develop myself in any way I choose…personally.
I have for many years, since swapping the fun and carefree world of primary school to the more fraught and confusing time at high school, been trying to figure myself out. Why do I do the things I do? Why do I think the things I think? and why do I react to things the way I do? I ask myself why, a lot. I am really curious as to why I behave and act as I do and how it might compare to an others behaviour, in the same situation. As a young person, I sought to change me, to become a better version of myself, the fun, out going, popular, full of life girl I though I needed to be, to journey happily through life, but as I got older I started to allow myself to just be myself and do the things that I enjoyed, the things that inspire me.
Now, as an adult fast approaching forty, I have well and truly come into my own and it’s no longer important for me to be anyone other than who I am, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to improve areas of myself and that is where Personal Development comes into the picture. There are a handful of areas I would like to improve, for instance I am overweight and overeat for a number of reasons. I use Personal Development as a tool for me to discover the reasons behind why I overeat and why I use food for more than just fuel for my body. I journal about it, I think about it and I write down what comes up for me. Before I know it, I have some understanding as to why I do as I do and I’m then able to find some different techniques and bahaviours I can implement in order to improve my situation.
I also love to use Personal Development to feel better. Sometimes we come across situations, people, opinions and comments which are darn right rude, wrong, insulting and limiting. If I find myself in these situations, I grab a book and read a chapter or two or I journal about the situation in order to find some clarity and to see where I might have been responsible for the situation and how I might have played it differently. This does two things… and fast! I am able to take the emotion out of the situation and look at it logically, which frees me to feel better and secondly, I can close the book on it, instead of rehashing it over and over in my mind, which only results in me feeling bad for longer. I had a situation come up today which could have left me despairing, yet I wrote about it; how I was feeling and how I contributed and how I might do things differently the next time and guess what? I feel awesome!!
So for me Personal Development IS the new buzz word and it allows me to be my own guru.
Why not personally develop yourself today?