The Kids Call It Personal Development, I Call it Growing Up. Au Sio?

For me personal development is important because my business grows when I do. But I do it a little differently from my peers in the industry:

I don’t wake up early. If anything, I sleep at 6am. I am not a morning bird and sometimes I do it out of obligation but I’d rather not. So, with that being said, my development is often scheduled into my everyday life and if I feel like I need a huge mindset shit I set aside one month for that. So let’s pair that up:

Everyday development:

Language learning. I don’t mean a duolingo streak. Truly learn the culture behind the language. What kind of societal issues do they face? How do they solve problems? What are their core philosophies? What do their proverbs say? What do their metaphors look like?

Personal development is meaningless if you’re building an echo chamber that agrees with everything you think and say.

And for me, language learning gives me more than way to get different perspectives on life and problem solving. I can place myself in different shoes all around the world and do business with the people I want to because I understand their ways of life and not just what they can do for me.

When I learn a language I learn how I can integrate myself with the country of origin without abandoning my beliefs. This way, I become multi layered and quick on my feet.

Reading is also a good thing. Articles, blogs, books, newspapers… read and process that information. Read once to understand, read the second time to process what you just read. And then write a list of things you’ve learnt in that book or article and then build on that.  I really love reading scientific research papers on psychology and sociology. It’s just so much fun.

Reading the bible can and will improve everything about you but you have to be intentional about it. You have to sit down for at least an hour or three and sit down with God and dive in. It’s not like reading a self help book and then feeling inspired to change your life. No this is equivalent to going through an identity crisis every single day until God is done refining you. You can’t do that for 30 minutes per week. Not going to work. So, I save this for months where my mental health can handle such a process cause girl, you will go through it.

I go for walks. 45 minutes to 2 hours max. Music and podcasts but also speech to text on my notes app, brain dump everything I am thinking of and just yap all the way. My brain needs to dump and process everything I know and think I know so that I can correct and improve myself when needed.

I go on the opposite end of the spectrum.

If I want to create better content I research on filmmaking.

If I want to write better content, I read up on psychology and how people perceive different messages.

If I want to get better at creating better product labels, I look into art.

If I want to get better at creating better products, I look into how different countries brand themselves for tourism, their national flowers and key symbols.

If I want to be more focused and productive, I learn how to exercise and eat well.

If I want to earn more sales, I talk to my followers and have honest conversations around business and entrepreneurship. That’s data!

Self improvement is important. Too many times, we think that as believers, we are devoid of the responsibility of excellence. If anything, it is demanded more from us as believers.

Long form development: I travel to a country for one month and soak in the local community.

Travel is the best teacher. And I am one of the most pro active students. Travel makes you see things in a different light.

You thought you had problems that weren’t solvable? You see people live solutions every single day like you didn’t just lose sleep over that one thing.

Resilience isn’t built in an environment that suppresses your growth (or doesn’t challenge your growth). It is built in environments that makes success accessible if not possible.

But because we have misunderstood the difference between tolerance and resilience, it becomes harder for us to improve our business and life acumen to the point it bears sustainable fruit.

It’s not a matter of what you do in terms of self or personal development, but how you do things.

Someone can become a better business owner from gardening and growing a thriving garden.

Someone else can build a six figure business through learning how to translate business articles.

Because it’s not what we know that makes success possible, it’s how we apply what we know and how willing we are to adapt when things don’t happen the way we expect them to.

Personal development has never been black and white. We have just become too addicted to oversimplification and generalisation.

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