8 Daily Practices To Achieve Personal Growth
For the longest time in my life I knew I wanted to be successful, yet I had no clue about what path to take or how to even get there. As life took its course, the more I was going down a single career path, the more I realized it wasn’t what I wanted. So how was I going to figure out in a single day,what I wanted to do with the rest of my life? The answer I come to find, after researching and reading countless books, lies in personal growth, and it was going a lot more than a day to figure out my life’s purpose.
So, what is personal growth and why do we need it?
Personal growth, or personal development, is known as a process in which a person takes actions in reaching their potential, expanding their knowledge, increasing self-awareness, improving skills and enhancing their overall quality of life.
Personal growth is a lifelong journey and cannot be achieved over night. In fact, it’s a tedious process of really small, seemingly unnoticeable daily improvements that compound over time and yield astounding results later.
In order to grow and reach our potential, we must be intentional about it. Unlike our physical growth, personal growth isn’t automatic and has no limits to how far we can go. We can go wherever we want.
Why bother with personal growth if it’s going to take a lifetime?
Life is going to pass us by regardless and the choice of getting better by a little every single day, or staying the exactly the same, is entirely up to you. It might not seem like a big difference in your life if you read a few pages of a book today, but if you do this every day over the course of a lifetime, you’ll be compelled to ask yourself just how many more books you can read. The point of personal growth is to grow, gently and steady, not to rush and tumble.
Why do you need to grow to be sucessful?
Personal growth is key to success in all areas of life. No matter what you aspire to do in life, the success of it will lie in achieving growth. If you want to excel in your career, you need to improve your work skills. If you want to be a better human being, you need to grow your character and values. If you want to be more healthy, you need to prioritize diet and exercise, and so on. In order for us to become the best we’ve ever been, we have to put effort into growing.
Here are some ways to help you get started on your personal growth journey:
1. Cultivate healthy sleeping routine.
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”. — Benjamin Franklin
Getting up early is synonymous with having a productive workday. Similarly, those who wake up late tend to retire early. It’s also important we don’t just wake up early but also get a solid 7–8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Being fully rested and recharged is the foundation of having a successful day. Getting the necessary amount of sleep each night, improves our brain function and gets us prepared for the challenges that present.
2. Read more.
“Read 500 pages…every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest”. — Warren Buffet
Whether you enjoy a crime novel or a popular self-help book, reading is always the best way to kick start you personal growth journey. Our brain is a muscle and we need to keep it in shape, just like working out to keep our bodies in shape. Besides gaining knowledge, reading will also improve your memory, reduce stress and anxiety, decrease the risk of potential diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s. After all, reading is just pure fun.
2. Create positive habits.
What we do on a repeated basis is a reflection on who we are. If we eat junk food, we are someone who doesn’t prioritize our health. If we make time for family and friends, we are someone who values the relationships with have with the people in our life. Good habits help us succeed in life, while bad habits hold us back from living up to our true potential. Every successful person will tell you that the key to their success was not one massive action that happened overnight, instead it was the little improvements they did over the course of months and years that lead them to their success. Figure out what bad habits you may have that are keeping you from reaching your goals and find a way to replace those habits with ones that you know will help you.
3. Journal every day.
Writing an entry in your journal every single day in important for self-growth. We record our thoughts and process our emotions on the page, we ask questions about who we are and what direction in life we want to take. It’s a great tool for self-reflection and self-discovery. Journaling is a way to bring clarity in your life and deal with any past emotional trauma that we may have tried to suppress before. Writing every day will help improve your mental health and also relieve stress and anxiety.
4. Take care of your physical body.
You’ve heard it so many times before, it’s a tale as old as time. But there is a reason people often talk about the importance of a healthy diet and exercise. In order to excel in any area of life we must be physically healthy to be able to perform any kind of tasks. Through healthy diet and exercise we show ourselves that we value our well-being and respect our bodies. Being physically in shape also helps keep our minds sharp and well-funcioning.
5. Meditate.
There is a wide array of positive benefits that come from meditating. Ranging from physical to emotional and mental, there is absolutely no downside to spending a few minutes or more a day in complete stillness. Meditation helps center your mind onto the present moment, therefore acknowledging your humanly presence in this world. Having a strong sense of self-awareness can lead to having a positive outlook on life. Mediation is also a great way to reduce stress and anxiety, both of which may steer you off the personal growth journey.
6. Prioritize your mental health.
As life gets busy, we often tend to put our mental health aside. We go on about our day not noticing our inner thoughts and feelings, leaving them subdued to be dealt with later, when we have more free time. The truth is, those little voices inside control how we act on the outside, and they don’t wait till later. Our mental health affects all areas of our life. It’s important to take care of our minds just as we would do for our physical health. In order to perform at our best, we must become our best. Make time for your mental health, call a friend or a professional to talk, do activities that are wholesome and add to your personal values, go for a walk to clear your mind. Self-care is different for everyone, and making time for ourselves is a must.
7. Make time for others.
“Do what you can to show you care about other people, and you will make our world a better place.” — Rosalynn Carter, Former First Lady of the United States
Just how making time for ourselves is important for self growth, so is making time for others. No matter how busy our day gets, make sure to connect with an old friend or check on a family member, even if it’s just for a few minutes. The relationships you have with the people in your life are reflective on the one you have with yourself. We treat others the way we treat orselves. If we are patient and caring for ourselves, we’ll do the same when it comes to other people. On the contrary, if we don’t value our self being, neither will others.
8. Do nothing.
Society has thought us to believe that if we’re not being productive every waking moment of every day, we are doing something wrong. Constant busyness is often deem as constructive while doing nothing is linked to laziness. But in reality, not all busy work is going to help us improve and it’s can lead to mental and physical burnout on the long run. Take a moment to catch your breath and notice how great it feels.
Final thoughts
Making the time and effort to practice these daily routines is crucial for personal growth. Not all these routines need to be suitable for everyone, after all, each of us is deeply unique and individual. The key is to find the daily practices that your values align with. Waiting for your schedule to clear us so you can finally focus on yourself won’t cut it. Being intentional about growing and commiting to yourself to do those daily routines is what will set you on this lifelong journey. Remember that it is the small little things we do each day that make up the big things in life.
Thanks for reading,
Katerina T
