How to Increase Personal Growth

Quick Navigation:


What is personal growth?

Personal growth, also known as self-development or personal development, is an ongoing process during a person’s life. Personal growth involves learning and growing emotionally, intellectually and professionally with positive life skills. Personal development starts with people assessing their skills, potential, abilities and qualities to succeed at life and in their relationships with others. Development results from making decisions relevant to the individual’s life that give personal empowerment, healthy self-esteem and confidence in the future. In a person’s professional life, personal growth is emotional maturity and career development in the workplace.

Why is personal growth important?

Personal growth is important because it helps you develop and succeed as an individual. When you work on your personal development, you are planning for your well-being. As an individual, personal growth helps you meet your emotional needs. For an employee, personal growth means you are better equipped to understand how to meet goals at work, find work satisfaction and aim for a higher role in the company. A person who pursues personal development in the workplace is someone who shows initiative and leadership among coworkers. Personal development goals for you as an employee can give you emotional satisfaction as well as professional success.

How to improve personal growth

Improving your personal growth can create a more mindful understanding of the values and goals you are seeking in your life, and specifically, your professional goals for your career. Being aware of your goals and setting some objectives to reach those goals is critical to gaining personal growth.

Here are some ways to improve your personal development:

1. First, understand what goals you want to accomplish by focusing on your personal growth

The first step to personal development is knowing what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve something. Personal growth should include an assessment of why you want to pursue a personal development goal. Do you want to be more productive at work, have better work relationships with your coworkers or be able to show initiative and work in a leadership role? Understanding how you want to personally develop in the workplace can give you focus in the workplace for your personal growth.

2. Second, assess the skills you have and the skills you want to develop

Having goals and objectives is great, but you need to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. You can assess your skills before starting your personal development. Do you need more education or other skills? When considering your personal growth goals, consider the knowledge and resources you have for attaining personal development in the workplace. For example, if you want to be more productive at work, you can start by keeping track of how you currently spend your time. This personal assessment can be the first step toward attaining your goal because you can see where you need to manage your time more effectively.

3. Third, focus on the most important steps in your personal growth process

Setting priorities for your personal growth is essential. Have a plan for what is most important for your personal development. Knowing what is most important for you will help you plan systematically what you are going to do to achieve personal development.

4. Then, seek reliable resources to help you reach your goals

Some good resources that you can tap for your personal growth are your human resources department for mentoring programs, coworkers for ideas on how to move forward as a team member or management for ideas on how to proceed with leadership initiatives. Other resources for your personal development are higher education, conferences and networking.

5. Last, manage your schedule to set realistic timeframes for your goals

Create a timeline and weekly schedule for working on personal growth. Use a day planner or online calendar for your timeline and weekly schedule.

Personal development template

Writing your personal development goals is essential to remember your objectives.

Here is a template that you can use when developing your own path for personal growth:

What are my strengths?

List your strengths for personal development. For example, you might list leadership skills and the ability to take initiative in the workplace as a strength.

Areas for improvement

Areas for improvement are not weaknesses. Having an area for improvement is simply an area where you know you could do better just by focusing on that skill or learning something new to help you in the workplace. Focus on these areas as strengths that need help.

Your intent for personal development

The intent section is where you state what you want to achieve in your personal development. State your end goal or ambition in this section.

Resources

The resource section is where you list the methods of learning for personal development such as mentoring, human resources and other self-help education.

Schedule and timeline

The timeline section is where you will create the deadline and schedule for personal development.

Personal growth and development tips

Personal growth is important for continued success and satisfaction in the workplace. 

Here are some tips for personal development:

Take small steps

Act on your personal development plan systematically. Break a large goal into smaller parts to achieve your personal development goals.

Embrace change for personal development

Change is good and stretching yourself to change is a sign of maturity and emotional strength. Pursue the changes you are making wholeheartedly.

Build on past accomplishments

Build on past successful personal development behavior as strengths. Your past accomplishments and strengths can inform you about the path you need to take with your personal development.

Learn from others

Be open to learning from others to be more knowledgeable about your industry or company. Being more knowledgeable and willing to learn can give you more opportunities to learn and thrive. Mentors, for example, are essential to give you advice about what has worked and the resources you may need for personal development.

Be accountable

You are responsible for your own development. With personal development and growth, you are responsible for initiating and pursuing the steps necessary for your development.