Personal development begins with appreciation of your life, both past and present. This appreciation combined with self discovery and the application of the knowledge gained through self evaluation gives you the best opportunity for living a complete and fulfilled life. When thinking of your past it is significant to recognize that these events have already happened and they cannot be changed; plus your past has no impact on your prospects for a successful future. This statement may be difficult to accept or comprehend, although there is complete truth in its content. Biographical studies of many successful people back this statement; many people have come from difficult beginnings and experienced failures in their past only to create fantastic success. Appreciate your past because it provides you with knowledge and experience, two major factors in the creation and development of a successful individual. To get the most out of the knowledge you have gained from past experiences it is best to conduct an inventory of yourself; you will gain more value from this exercise by completing the activity in writing. This will take some time to complete and I would recommend carrying a notebook with you so your thoughts can be jotted down as they come to you. Think about past situations in your life that have been advantageous as well as the circumstances that have caused you difficulty. When considering your difficult occurrences, use your present knowledge of the situation to develop a plan that would have produced a more positive outcome. Implementing this system will help you create better habits if and when a similar situation occurs in the future. Complete this same process with both your past personal and professional relationships. As in the previous step make a list of what has and hasn’t worked in these relationships along with what you have learned from your experiences. This information is invaluable to you; what you learn from your relationships really gives you tremendous insight into yourself, which type of person you work well with, the person who you just can’t seem to get along with as well as the type of people who have created the best friendships or love relationships. As you learn more about the way you interact with others you can adapt your behaviors so every interaction is of value. Although you cannot always choose the people you work with you do have options in friendships and love relationships. The most important relationships are directly within your control. Being true to yourself and committed to what you want from these relationships is paramount to their success. Habits control many of our behaviors. Because of this at times reactionary behaviors become almost involuntary. Contemplate your reactions to certain situations, do you think about your responses or do you reply through habit. As you really dig beneath the surface you will find many of your reactions are influenced by habit. To get your mind moving on this topic record your reactions to an aggressive driver, a rude person, someone giving you a complement and someone saying I love you. Do you think first in these situations or do you react out of habit? Chances are in these, as in most circumstances, you react mostly out of habit. Give this a try: for one or two days take notice of your habits and make mental notes about them. This is a fascinating exercise; you will discover a lot of information about yourself in a short amount of time. Knowing and understanding your habits is a great advantage because every one of these habits can be altered or eliminated if you choose to do so. Just as our body uses muscle memory, our mind uses a similar system when creating habits, and when it comes to your mind you are the programmer. If you posses a habit that has little or no value or is preventing your life from moving forward you can change or delete the habit. Easier said than done maybe, although why carry the extra burden if it is not necessary? Effort put forth into improving yourself is always rewarded, therefore every endeavor toward creating a more complete you leads to greater fulfillment. Your present is a creation of your past actions, just as your future is being created by your present actions. This statement gives complete validation to the venture of self-development through self-discovery. Investigating all the aspects of you is intriguing; you are truly a fascinating individual full of promise and uniqueness. As you apply the knowledge gained through self-discovery you will be rewarded with a more fulfilled life.
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