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Often, to change our lives for the better, we need to allow time and space for personal growth. However, everyone’s personal growth journey will look different and change over time.
For example, you could be on a journey to loving and accepting your body, improving your health, building a new career, or discovering your passions and adding more fulfilment to your days.
Whatever you’re aiming for, there are several tools you can use to help you strive toward your goals, stay on track, and prioritise becoming a healthier, happier version of yourself.
With that said, here are 11 self-development skills that can improve your life.
One of the most liberating and important steps in any self-development journey involves letting go of the things in your life that you can’t control, so you have more time and energy to put into the things you can. Letting go of what you can’t control may also help you start living in the here and now.
For example, you can’t change the past or whether people like or dislike you. But what you can do is leave a relationship if it’s making you unhappy and work on being the best version of yourself.
Other examples of things you can control are how open you are to new opportunities and how you choose to put your values and beliefs into practice.
This article on How to stop worrying about things that you can’t change from Psychology Today has six tips that may help if you’re finding it difficult to let go.
According to research, we’re 42% more likely to achieve our goals if we write them down. Experts believe that this is because putting pen to paper provides clarity. It also forces us to consider how we can take proactive steps to get to where we want to be.
Journaling can be a helpful way to track your progress. For each goal, try to write down at least one action you can take to help you achieve it. This can be particularly empowering.
To go a step further, consider creating a vision board full of images and words that remind you of your goals. These boards can encourage you to visualise your dreams and start to believe in them, which can be a powerful motivator in making them happen.
An integral part of personal growth involves practising self-awareness and reflection to learn more about your strengths, weaknesses, reactions, habits, motivations, and fears.
Self-awareness can help you understand how to meet your own needs and how your actions can impact the world around you. Building self-awareness often means making a conscious effort to take stock of your reactions and behaviours to see how this could be affecting yourself and others – or how other people’s actions could be affecting you.
For example, understanding your boundaries can help you set or re-establish them with the people around you.
Self-reflection is similar, but it requires us to evaluate whether our reactions and behaviours were right for a particular situation, so we can plan for next time. It involves asking yourself questions like: How did I handle that situation? Could I have done things differently? Did my actions align with my values and beliefs?
Observing and reflecting on our actions and behaviours can feel uncomfortable because it forces us to face aspects of ourselves that we may not like, and can leave us feeling vulnerable. But self-awareness and reflection are powerful tools for learning more about who we are and how we can get to where we want to be.
To get started, why not try these 10 practices for self-exploration?
Though personal development can be exciting, it can also go hand in hand with fear. Nine times out of 10, we need to step outside of our comfort zone to grow – but this can come with butterflies, sweaty palms, and a strong urge to run away.
However, some of the greatest feelings of accomplishment and pride come when we achieve the things we thought we couldn’t.
If you find stepping outside of your comfort zone tricky, it can help to start small. Even things like trying a new recipe or taking a different route to work can shake our daily routines up and remind us that there’s always more to explore in life.
Have a read of our article, 18 ways to step outside of your comfort zone, for more ideas.
To quote Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
When we’re striving toward our goals, it’s easy for our minds to be constantly focused on the future, not the present. This can cause us to become unfocused on what’s in front of us and may lead to stress and anxiety about what’s to come.
Mindfulness can help with this as it encourages us to concentrate on the present moment. In doing so, we can start understanding ourselves better, enjoy ourselves more, improve our focus, and let go of our worries.
It’s easy to start practising mindfulness – for example, you can do so on the bus, while exercising, or just before bed. To begin your mindfulness journey, why not take a look at our introductory guide?
“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experiences that reveal the human spirit”
Sometimes, learning to love and accept yourself can be the goal in itself. Yet, other times, it’s needed to help us get somewhere else.
Being your own biggest supporter is important for several reasons. And it’s especially valuable with self-trust and forgiveness, believing in yourself and your capabilities, and prioritising your needs and wants.
When we accept and like who we are and what we stand for, making decisions can feel easier, and spending time with ourselves can be more enjoyable. We may also be better equipped to assert ourselves, set boundaries, and have healthier relationships with those around us.
Learning to be comfortable in your own skin takes time, but with patience and perseverance, it’s possible. Our articles, 16 ways to improve your confidence and self-esteem and 7 powerful ways to conquer self-limiting beliefs, have plenty of tips on how to do this.
Kamal Rivikant’s book, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It, is also a great read. It details how Rivikant recovered from some of his darkest moments and how, in the end, self-love and acceptance helped him move forward.
When it comes to your goals, knowledge is power, so it can help to try to incorporate some regular reading into your day. What you decide to read about will usually depend on what you’re looking to achieve.
For example, if you’re planning to start your own business, you might find it useful to read autobiographies of entrepreneurs or ‘how-to’ books on various business models to equip yourself with as much information as possible.
Some people also get a lot out of reading more general self-development or productivity books, which offer advice on things like forming routines, building confidence, and overcoming fear.
If you don’t enjoy reading or are always on the go, you could consider listening to podcasts or audiobooks instead.
You might also like to check out the various book clubs running on Rest Less Events.
It can be tempting to measure your progress against people’s. However, this can lead to feelings of demotivation, dissatisfaction, and jealousy – none of which is helpful.
Focus on your own journey and try to be happy with your progress. It’s easy to get so caught up in competing with others that whatever we do is never enough. This is why the only person you should ever compare yourself to is you.
Next time you find yourself comparing yourself to others, it might be helpful to…
When practised often, skills like gratitude and optimism can be life-changing. Many people assume that these are inherent traits, yet optimism and gratitude can be learned and developed at any age.
These skills are important as they help us build resilience and keep moving forward. Optimism and gratitude can also help us see new opportunities, have greater satisfaction and happiness in life, and find silver linings even in the most difficult of situations.
If you’re used to dwelling on the negative, it can feel like a tricky cycle to break – but with practise it’s possible to start seeing things differently. To get started, why not have a read of our articles: How to learn the skill of optimism and How practising gratitude can lead to a happier life.
Decluttering and organising can significantly impact the way you think and feel.
For example, if you’ve been holding onto items from your past that bring up negative memories, you may struggle to look positively at the future. Or, if you have clothes that don’t make you feel particularly good about yourself or reflect your current personality, this can also affect your confidence and may hold you back.
Removing these items from your life and making a conscious effort to only introduce new things that add real value or make you feel good can set you on a more positive path.
Plus, whether we realise it or not, having a home, car, or workspace that’s overflowing with stuff can leave our minds feeling cluttered and overwhelmed. So, decluttering and reorganising can leave you with both a tidier space and a tidier mind.
Though decluttering can be daunting, there are plenty of tips and tricks you can use to help make the process as seamless as possible. To get started, why not have a read of our handy guide?
For some people, decluttering can also extend to relationships. This could mean letting go of connections that no longer serve you well or that leave you feeling anxious, upset, or unsettled – and focusing on creating new, positive connections with like-minded individuals.
You may also like to declutter your digital spaces. To learn more, have a read of our 10 tips.
Personal growth doesn’t usually come without some form of failure along the way. However, it’s important not to let bumps in the road stop you from moving forward.
Making mistakes can allow us understand ourselves better and learn how to achieve a more successful outcome next time. It can also teach us lessons in resilience and give us the courage to grab new opportunities in the future.
The most common reason why many people are scared to step outside of their comfort zone and try something new is fear of failure. But once we make peace with failure and start to see it as a necessary part of life that goes hand in hand with self-development, we often feel less afraid to strive towards our goals, even if they come with risk.
Every time we succeed after failure, we’re also reminded how strong and mentally capable we are, which builds confidence and reminds us why personal growth is about the journey, not just the destination.
If mental noise and embracing your mistakes are things you struggle with, check out our Mental Fitness Flow series on Rest Less Events. The classes include everyday tools to build resilience in the short and long-term.
Journeys of personal growth and development aren’t always easy, but that’s part of what makes them so fulfilling. Often, when we challenge ourselves and achieve things we may not have thought we could, our lives develop more meaning and purpose.
It’s also never too late to start working towards becoming a happier, healthier version of yourself. So, whatever your goals, we hope that this article has given you some ideas for how to start achieving your full potential.
One final tip is to remember to trust the process. Sometimes, not all progress is immediately obvious, but if you stay consistent and don’t give up, things will eventually fall into place.
Head over to our healthy mind section for further reading.
Have you had success with any of the tips above? Or do you have any other personal growth and development tips you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
Elise Christian is Lifestyle Editor at Rest Less. She joined Rest Less in 2018 after achieving a first class Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Kent, and writes across a range of lifestyle topics such as mental health, home and garden, and fashion and beauty. Prior to this, she worked as a freelance writer for small businesses and also spent a year training to be a midwife. Elise spends her spare time going to the gym, reading trashy romance novels, and hanging out with loved ones. She also loves animals, and has a fascination with sharks and tornadoes.
* Links with an * by them are affiliate links which help Rest Less stay free to use as they can result in a payment or benefit to us. You can read more on how we make money here.
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