What Is a Personal Development System?

As @nefret said, it takes a lot of motivation to get started with a personal development system and a series of change. Does anyone have any tips on how to form their own personal development system, or advice on how to get motivated and stay that way?

@surfNturf - You're so right! Many people know that they want to make a change in their lives but initially, it's hard to know exactly how to go about it. That's why personal development systems are so useful, since they create a sort of action plan and motivational path to help people follow a linear series of steps.

It's also the first part which is often the hardest since it requires a huge push to start any sort of change. Once you get the ball rolling, it's easier to continue. Of course, it helps when you start seeing positive results too!

@sunshine31 - I don't think you necessarily have to hit rock bottom in order to take advantage of a personal development system. It's more a matter of a person's willpower and motivation to make a real change in their life.

For me, college was one big personal development system. A class I had to take during my first semester trained the students to think differently than they had in high school.

This class encouraged critical thinking. The instructor taught us to question everything. He told us that we should always have concrete evidence to support our theories and assumptions. We should never write an essay that relied only on how we felt.

Every class I had required this type of thinking. It has been ten years since I graduated, and I still think this way. It has really helped me to see the world differently and to analyze things for a deeper understanding.

A car wreck spurred me on to a personal development system. My knee was messed up pretty bad, and I knew that I would not be able to exercise for a couple of months. I needed to lose weight, and the accident provided the motivation I needed to seriously change my eating habits.

I had been wanting to lose a few pounds and eat better for quite some time, but the temptation to adhere to my habits had been too great. In my new situation, I knew that if I continued to eat the way I had been eating while not being able to burn off the calories, I would gain more weight.

I stopped eating foods high in fat, and I switched to diet sodas. I ate lots of fruit and vegetables, and I started eating whole grain crackers and baked chips. Within a week, I had started losing weight. Over the course of several months, I lost ten pounds. My eating habits today, nine year later, are so much better than they were before the wreck.

I spent years confused and basically condemning myself for being human. Desperate to find relief from my thinking, I visited a therapist.

He told me I had an error in my belief system. He was a Christian like me, and he pointed out scriptures that said God was loving and forgiving, and the whole reason Jesus died was to save us, not condemn us. He then told me that I needed to find a church with like-minded people.

I remembered a minister I had heard years ago who gave me hope. I found his church, and I have been attending it ever since. My entire spiritual outlook has changed for the better.

My personal development system started when I reached out to the therapist, and it continued at the church. I had hit rock bottom, but love lifted me.

I came up with my own personal development system after two years of unemployment had kept me depressed and unmotivated. The way of thinking that I developed continued even after I got a new job, and it has stayed with me ever since.

I decided that every moment of my life should be spent doing something worthwhile to better my future situation. I started studying books on a couple of different computer programs that most office workers would need to know to land a job, and every day, I would read and experiment with them. This became my job for the duration of my learning process.

I eventually found employment, but my thinking had already been altered. Because I came to believe in the worth of every second, I now have trouble relaxing or resting if it isn’t time for bed at night. I must say that I have gotten a lot done over the past few years, though!

@Suntan12 - I think that some people have personal development goals but really don’t know where to start. I know a lot of people that want to go back to school but they don’t know what to study or have the courage to take the first steps.

I think that in order to make any personal development system work, you really have to have concrete written goals that allow you to make small progress towards your goal. You really have to do something every day to get closer to your goal. In a week the difference won’t be much, but over a year or so the changes will be significant.

I think that some people dream but don’t plan and that is what keeps their dream from becoming a reality. You really have to visualize yourself achieving your goal and how it will positively impact your life in order to keep you motivated when you hit some obstacles along the way.

The passion for achieving your goal is what is going to keep you going. I recently read a book called, “Quitter” by Jon Accuff that addresses ways of achieving your career goals little by little.

@Suntan12 -I agree that you really have to hit rock bottom in order for a personal development program to really influence you. Whenever I hear motivational speakers they always talk about some insurmountable odds that they had to overcome that makes their story so inspirational.

Whenever we take a personal development course and hear the details of this person’s life and all they overcame, we start to realize that we too can be successful and change the course of our life. I remember listening to a financial advisor that actually went bankrupt in his twenties.

He said that this was the source of inspiration in order to change the course of his life. He is now a multimillionaire that advices people on budgeting and becoming free of debt. People that go through his financial development program learn to take control of their finances and really free themselves of debt.

Once his students start to see what it is like not to have any major bills to worry about they become hooked on this new lifestyle and never go back. Tackling financial problems like this really give you a different perspective on life and help you appreciate money more.

I think that personal development is really essential for people to achieve a higher quality of life. I think that many people experience a lot of obstacles in their life that often get in the way of achieving their dreams and creating a more fulfilling life. For example, a person battling a lifelong problem with their weight might finally learn ways to cope with their weight problem in order to finally take control of their weight.

Losing the weight actually allows the person to take control over their life that will probably inspire them to grow in other ways as well. I think that when people read personal development books they can really focus on what is keeping them from their goal. Some people are actually afraid of success and sabotage themselves.

This is really frustrating because whenever the person gets close to achieving their goal, they tend to take a few steps backward. I think that this is why diets don’t work because most people that need to lose weight really need to focus on living a better life that they deserve. I think that you really have to want to change your life for the better in order to be successful.