Do you have a business? Is it thriving? If anything less than thriving, what are you doing about it? Did you know personal growth can help your business thrive as much as it can help you thrive? Yes. It can. And here’s why: Personal growth makes you a better person, a smarter person, a more creative person, a happier person, and so on. With these things, you perform better in all areas of your life, including business. And when you perform better, your business benefits.
But for some of you, personal growth is an abstract idea. But it’s not. It’s an obtainable idea. It’s a concrete idea. In fact, it’s not even an idea, but an action. It’s you taking action on your life affairs. If you want personal growth, whether it’s to excel in your professional life or to become a stronger, better person, you must first realize that you can do it, and from there, devise a personal growth plan of action. Here’s how to devise that plan.
Identify What Personal Growth Means to You
Personal growth can be one thing to a hundred things, but it should not be an abstract thing—that’s why so many people get stuck and don’t succeed. You need to have specific ideas about what personal growth means and is to you. If you could change anything today about your life, what would it be? If you could be anyone, who would that be? Define your personal, professional, business, familial, romantic, financial goals. Identifying who you want to be helps establish personal growth goals.
Identify Which Personal Growth Goals are Most Important
It is important once you have all your personal growth goals set out to prioritize them. You can’t do everything at once, especially if you have a lot of personal growth on the horizon. You need to be able to focus on a few, achieve some, and then move forward with those accomplishments. Too much at once could mean disaster.
Break Down Goals to Meaningful Steps
Start with one or two goals, and identify the following in order to achieve those goals:
- Do you need to learn anything or obtain new skills?
- What do you have to do or what actions must you take?
- What resources and support do you need?
- How will you measure your success?
- When should you review progress?
Using this information, build a plan with milestones set quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.
Hold Yourself Accountable for Your (In)Actions
Establish deadlines for each goal. For instance, if losing 20 pounds was your most important goal, set monthly milestones to lose four pounds with the sixth month as the deadline to accomplish the goal. Document your progress so that you can keep track that you are on track. If not, re-evaluate your deadline and what you are doing – either right or wrong – and then take action in accordance with the evaluation. And just think, when you lose that 20 pounds, how much more confident and energetic will you be? Lots more. That’s clearer thinking and more energy that can be put into your business.
Helping Your Business Thrive as You Thrive
When you accomplish your first goal, reward yourself and reward your business with greater insight. Accomplishing the first goal lays the foundation to accomplish the second goal and so on. Be good to yourself, and in doing so, good things will happen to you and your business. You will see that personal growth is not something abstract and unobtainable, but rather it is something real and accessible. It will help you think clearer, be more creative, and be more thoughtful. Don’t wait for growth to happen spontaneously. You need to get personal and make it happen, and you and your business will thrive because of it.
