And welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I am going to talk about some myths that I've heard around personal or self development. And I hear these a lot from organisations, I hear these a lot from humans, and so I want to just talk a little bit about them. Self development or personal development is the process of developing or improving yourself through various growth strategies, techniques, and time. When you engage in self development, you might set goals, learn new skills, and engage in personal reflection. And this helps you become a better and happier human, which overall is the point. Self development will improve your life. Through thoughtful and intentional action taking, great things can happen. You might learn how to manage stress. You might develop better decision making skills. You might develop better methods of communication. You will learn a lot about yourself. Just because you've lived with yourself for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years doesn't mean that you know everything about yourself or where things stem from. And also, we change as humans over time. You will also, in that self development phase, practice self acceptance. You might also practice self love, allowing you to gain more confidence and be more compassionate towards yourself.

Through focused self development, you probably end up accomplishing more of your goals, but in a way that you least expect it. You'll build positive relationships and develop better communication and problem solving skills. All of these traits will improve your life by allowing you to achieve more of your goals. They will assist you in making better decisions that align with your principles, your morals, and your values. So to sum it up, self development provides the necessary tools to help you grow as a human, and therefore, making your life better. But one myth is self development is expensive. And that really depends how you look at self development. You taking the time out to meditate for one minute a day t hat's free, that's not expensive. There are levels, but not all self development is expensive. Some folks will tell you that it requires expensive classes or workshops. The truth is there are many free or low cost options available. There are books, online resources, and podcasts totally related to self development. People will tell you self development is time consuming. You don't have to spend every waking moment on self development to reap the rewards. The truth is small daily habits like, for example, the meditating for one minute a day can lead to significant personal growth.

Reading or practicing gratitude or walking for 15 minutes a day can significantly improve your life over time. They don't necessarily have to be time consuming in one day. Something else I hear is, Oh, well, I don't have time for that, or That's selfish. There's so many other things that I could be doing, so many other ways that I could be making an impact. And so you might feel it is selfish, or people might tell you it's selfish to spend so much time or money, or brain power on self development. And the truth is, self development benefits not just you, but everyone around you. You could become more productive. You could become more empathic. You could become more effective with professional development and personal development and growth. Therefore, it's not just about you, it helps others. And another thing I always hear is, Well, this person did this one thing and it worked for them, so it's going to work for me. One size does not fit all. The great thing about self improvement is everyone's different, everyone's unique. So you can tailor it to meet your needs at the time. Just because your neighbour spends an hour at the gym every day doesn't mean that you have to.

A rabbit diet might work great for your co worker, but not much for you and your body type. The key is to figure out exactly what you wantand research ways to obtain that. Choose the way that best fits with you and your lifestyle. If you find it doesn't work, that's okay. It's an experiment. Pick another method and try again. Improving your self development isn't all that hard. Making small changes slowly can give you just as good, if not better results, than jumping in at the deep end. It's just individual. The first start is just getting started and to recognize that there are some myths surrounding this topic and ignoring them will help you over the overcome any misgivings so you can put yourself first. Thanks for listening. This is Janice at thecoury introvert. Com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.