How do you go about developing yourself?

[vai123]

For the past year I have been reading, and making changes based on personal development books, and articles. I think think that I have made some good changes since then, but I am not sure if these changes are from the personal development. I just dont understand how to change your life. I don't understand how to organize it all. Are there any books on how to actually use all this material? Somtimes I feel like theres so many things that I want to change, so many ideas going through my head that nothing gets done.
What do you think of this? Are there any books that you know of that teach this?

[Parthon]

If you think you have progressed, then you probably have.

Most of the progress you make in your life isn't in the huge jumps where you suddenly wake up as a different/better person, it's the small shifts from day to day that get you closer to where you want to be. The small, but permanent, changes is what counts.

Making the small changes stick is the hard part, and what helps is writing them down so you don't have to remember them, and then putting them somewhere prominent so they remind you instead. Once you have them where you see them, you can focus your attention on making the changes happen. You sound like you already know what you want to do, it's just the doing and sticking to it that's the problem right now.

I think the most useful tool for yourself right now would be Steve's post on 30 days to success. It's his most popular article for a reason.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...ys-to-success/

I hope this helps you,
Parthon

[vai123]

very interesting...A while back I decided to write all my goals down everyday. That only lasted for two days but I felt more in control. Thanks I will try that. One thing that I was thinking about is the idea of Just sticking to a system even if your not entirely sure if its the best one. I got it from Julia Morgenterns book organizing from the inside out. This is something that probobly would make a lot of sense... so the 30 day trial article will probobly be very useful for me right now... thanks

[kiosan]

Try to make more actions, think what is good for you and do this.
Find the walls, that stops your actions. Brake them, one by one.
Do meditation, this will help to understand yourself.
Do not stop, at some point quantity transforms in quality

[jakethegreat]

Changing your life means appraoching it differently in every aspect. Do you still think the same way? Are you making more money? Do you interact with people the same way?

In my personal P.D. experience, I made huge changes. Every time I had a negative thought, I would stop, take out a pen, and write down what I wanted from life. I would write my goals down daily, as does everyone else. I would write up a schedule and try to stick to it.

The biggest change I've made is whenever I feel lazy, I think to myself, "when I'm 90 years old will I be more satisfied knowing I laid in my bed or that I went out, took some risks, and changed myself?" I then get up and bust my ass.

Results come slowly, but are usually noticable. A compliment, a raise, 6-pack abs (which I'm still trying to achieve lol) are all indications of improving you life.

Hope this helps!

[alexyeo]

To me it's just 4 simple steps

1. Read more quality books
2. Take actions and practice what's taught
3. Get your desired results you wanted
4. Back to step 1

But a word of caution, I know of people who likes to read a lot of self improvement or personal development but never apply what are taught in those books. Reading those books just make them feel good only.

[Tayrak]

I have to second Alexyeo. Reading a lot of books and articles is good for you, you pick up different methods, ideas and certainly opinions. But at some point you have to do something. And keep in mind there are a million ways to do these million things. There is so much out there and then so much you want to change all at once it's overwhelming. Let your mind and subconcious work on a lot of what you've read, it will sort a huge amount for you. Take one thing and begin to change it. Make it one thing that you really want though, not something you think you should change because everyone else is. There used to be this old saying 'baby steps', we laugh at it now but it holds a lot of truth. Crawl first, then walk, then run.

[vai123]

Thanks! Im going to start a few 30 day trials. One thing that im wondering though is can you do more than one 30 day trial at the same time? And if I was to do more than one how would I keep track of all these.

I came up with ideas to organize it myself, but i thought I would just ask what everyone else does. i decided that the first thing I would do is a 30 day trial for assessing results. Well i kinda took the idea of universal laws from the living congruently, and thought that i could probobly use a universal action for my first 30 day trial. What I could do is write the experience of the time put into an important activity. I would have it very clear about what activities I would assess. What do you think about that?

[Ilya]

Originally Posted by vai123

One thing that im wondering though is can you do more than one 30 day trial at the same time? And if I was to do more than one how would I keep track of all these.

You can do more than one 30 day trial. But it may not be the good idea. Our habits are sometimes very inter-related. Sometimes, you would attempt changing two things at once and fail, because of some weird synergy. For example, at some point I tried to jog in the morning and also have breakfast. And that was a failure. It just took too much time each morning. So I've done it separately. First of all I honed the cooking routine. After some time, I would prepare my breakfast in 5 minutes. Then, I've added the jogging. I was again inefficient at dressing up, picking my jogging stuff, but it without long cooking, it was acceptable. Then both processes optimized.
So, during 30 day trial, you don't have to really learn the habit, but if you do two things at once, then, you might fail and you wouldn't be sure which trial caused it.
On the other hand sometimes, you would do one trial and realize that you have to do two things simultaneously to achieve the result. Or one habit would be the prerequisite for another. The idea to pair jogging with breakfast was born when I've tried to jog first. I couldn't. My idea was that without breakfast my body lacks energy for the run. Mind you it was a wrong idea - later I've found out that running without breakfast is better for burning fat, but at the time it was a good thing to test.
So, I suggest you do one at a time.

[TheFlyingMan]

Can I suggest something a little bit different. I was on a major self improvement drive before, but it stemmed from a lack of not being good enough.

think of a man who's in love with his car. He spends hours polishing it, cleaning it, admiring it. Then think of someone who hates his car, and spends hours trying to make it better, before he can go out into the world.

A lot of people in the Personal Development world are in the second category, and I believe the first thing one has to do is to move in the first category. Otherwise you'll forever be hating yourself, no matter how much you work on yourself (and strangely all your self work will reinforce your low sense of value).

A bit more detail here:
The Flower of Love » Personal Development - The Urban Monk

[eblight]

Check out a book called "Live Your Dream - Discover and Achieve Your Life Purpose". It's a step by step programme written by Joyce Chapman M.A. published by New Page Books. I found it clear and well written and it offers many challenges.