By Ustaz Mark Bang
Personal development can be understood as a growth process aimed at building a better version of yourself. Identifying your life goals and taking action to achieve them.
There is always something about ourselves we can improve on. The human potential is limitless, so it’s impossible to reach a point of no growth. As a passionate advocate of growth, I’m continuously looking for a way to keep developing myself, because growth is constant. I’ve compiled some of my best self-development ideas, which will be helpful in your personal growth journey. READING, LEARNING, SOCIAL GROWTH, EXERCISE, SPIRITUAL GROWTH, and OVERCOME MY FEARS: As the saying goes “we don’t know what we don’t know”. Most of my personal development starts with reading. When you’re reading a book every day, you will feed your brain with more and more knowledge. Books are concentrated sources of wisdom. The more books you read, the more wisdom you expose yourself. Exposing yourself to new opinions, thoughts and recommendations can have a profound impact on our lives.
Not all readers are successful, but all successful people read. Just as reading exposes us to new viewpoints, it enables us to learn, which one of the foundations of psychological is as well. Learning new ideals, goals and visions is something, I never joke about. Learning and growing are the Hallmarks of personal development. I improving my communication skills. Learning how to become an active listener and a clear speaker helps me work more productively within a team. It helps me develop friendships at work that promote job satisfaction. Your physical condition affects all other areas of personal growth and development, as a healthy body facilitates effective brain functioning. I never failed to pray to God every day. I cultivate the habit of involving God in my daily activities. I fear of failure. I want to learn but am afraid of failure and disapproval. Instead, I want to play it safe, avoiding risks and trying to maintain the status quo. Whether it’s the fear of uncertainty, fear of public speaking or fear of risk, all your fears keep you in the same position and prevent you from improving your life.
Recognize that your fears reflect areas where you can grow as they act as a compass pointing at areas that need attention. Fear is a self-imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. Personal development increases your self-awareness and your Self-esteem. It increases your skills and fulfils your aspirations. Personal growth takes time, but tracking your progress can help you visualize your improvements and encourage you to further your development.
Fear is simply because you are not living with life, you are living in your mind. Your fear is always about what’s going to happen next. That means your fear is always about that which does not exist. If your fear is about non-existent, your fear is a hundred per cent imaginary. If you are suffering the non-existential, we call that insanity. So, people may be in just socially accepted levels of insanity, but if you’re afraid or if you’re suffering anything which does not exist, it amounts to insanity, isn’t it? People are always suffering either what happened yesterday or what may happen tomorrow. So your suffering is always about that which does not exist, simply because you’re not rooted in reality, you’re always rooted in your mind. Mind is – one part of it is memory, and another part is imagination. Both of them are in one way imagination because both of them don’t exist right now. You’re lost in your imagination, that’s the basis of your fear. If you were rooted in reality, there would be no fear. If you use fear as a tool to protect yourself, your intensity will go down. Once it goes down, your ability to experience life is gone. You become a psychological case. What happens in your mind is all there will be. You will never experience anything fantastic and ecstatic because when you are fearful, you will not feel abandoned. You can’t sing, you can’t dance, you can’t laugh, you can’t cry, you can’t do anything that is life. You can only sit here and grieve about life and all the risks of life. If you look at it carefully, what is fear about? Your fear is never about what has happened. It is always about what may happen. It is always about the future. The future is yet to happen. It has not yet happened. That means it is not in existence. So, being fearful means, you are suffering that which does not exist. If you suffer that which does not exist, should we call you sane or insane? Your only comfort is “everybody is like me.” You have the majority with you! But that still doesn’t make it right because of you. “Public Staunchest Ally”
The writer of this article is a Human rights activist, writer and professional teacher.