Of course, your intentions are good when it comes to personal development, but many people are held back by common mistakes. Learn how to avoid them with the following tips.
1. Concentrating on your weaknesses rather than strong points. Nobody is perfect and we’ve all got faults; focusing on them; however, is only detrimental to your personal development. Forget about what you’re not good at, ignore any past failures and subsequent skeletons in the closet and focus on your good qualities. In order to succeed, you have to believe.
2. Failing to set clear concise goals. It’s easy to say “I want to make more money” or “I will become a wise person,” but that’s awfully vague. In order to meet goals, they must be clearly defined along with the steps you’ve got to take along the way. Have a few notebooks around the house and doodle away your thoughts and dreams until you hammer out specific intentions and a way to realize them.
3. Procrastinating. Putting off what you really want to be doing is more than counterproductive to that list of goals you’ve made, it’s self-defeating to your entire personal development endeavor. The whole idea behind improving yourself and your life is about taking action, not putting it off. Get up from the computer, television or whatever else is keeping you stagnant and get to work on things that matter.
4. Thinking too much and complicating the issues. When you make a goal more complicated than it actually is, you make approaching it less desirable. Be more simplistic and cut and dry to avoid putting your goals out of reach. People get lost in the “what if” of the process of change and end up doing absolutely nothing.
5. Daydreaming and theorizing. People spend a lot of time talking about doing things and speculating on the outcomes; rather than philosophizing your time away, be a person of action. Spend as little time as possible on the dreamy side of personal development and dedicate yourself to the doing.
6. Fretting the small stuff. Getting lost in the details will keep you running in circles and never really accomplishing anything. Be adaptive to change and circumstance and keep the end-goal in mind at all times. That way, nothing will deter you from succeeding.
7. Fear of failure or success. Fear is one of the greatest obstacles anyone can face and although contradictory in nature, many people fear success and/or failure! Ultimately, it is resistance to change that holds us back so learn to face your fears, whatever they may be and work to overcome them.
8. Following fads instead of your heart. So called “gurus” are a dime a dozen and most of them do nothing more for you than deplete you of a few dollars. Being trendy with personal development isn’t being true to yourself; understand what makes you tic and brings you happiness and follow that road, not one someone else tells you to take.
9. Not having a solid plan. Think about building your dream house: you need supplies, a lot and a good plan to put it all together. Without that plan you risk complete collapse, no matter how sturdy your wood or attractive the land! Formulate a road map for your personal development and follow each step in order; have a realistic notion of where you are now and where you long to be and take practical action toward achievement.
10. Enjoying the thought of success rather than working toward it. People can live vicariously through dreams, television shows and other ways that provide a sense of satisfaction to the mind. Thinking about your success and how you plan to spend time thereafter will actually inhibit the progress you can make today. Although having a dream is very important, getting lost in it can sabotage it completely.
Avoid the above mistakes and you will be well on your way toward personal development success.