Understanding self-development

Self-development or self-improvement has become very popular, lately. There are countless self-help books available and many internet gurus are emerging that aim to help people totally change their lives.

All of these things are great, but maybe you feel overwhelmed by the amount of resources available to you and you don't know where to start.

If you want to start improving yourself, then I suggest you firstly think about what aspect of yourself you'd like to change.  I believe that everybody is capable of achieving whatever it is they want to achieve. Anything is possible, if you believe it.

If you have read a lot of my previous work, you will know that I am passionate about the power of belief. Your beliefs are so important. If you believe something will happen, then it most likely will. Research has shown that patients who were given placebos instead of real medicine, made the same, or greater, improvements in their health than those patients who were given real medication. Doctors state that this was because those patients believe they were getting real medication. They expected to be cured and they were.

If you want to improve any aspect of yourself or your life, then it all starts with believing you can change and improve. There are many ways you can work on your self-development, from reading books to attending courses. You could work alongside a life coach, who will motivate you to make positive changes in your life, or you could watch self-development videos or listen to mp3s that aim to work on your subconscious mind, so improvements are made to your thoughts and belief system.

There is always something we can do to develop ourselves, whether it's learning a new language or attending assertiveness classes. Find out what it is that's holding you back and see if there is a book, course or other resource that will help you to do this. We should never stop learning - it keeps our brains active and gives us something to work for. We should all have goals that we're working towards as it gives us the motivation to get up in the morning.

Research has shown that people who retire often end up depressed or they experience a rapid decline in health. I think this is because they don't have any reason to get out of bed. Their job gave them something to do and, unless they replace this with something else, it is easy to get into a state of inertia.

Try not to do too much at once, find the most crucial area you feel needs developing or improving and work on that first. You will then have the confidence to move onto any other areas that you feel may be holding you back from achieving the life of your dreams.