Personal Growth

Definitions of Personal Growth:

Personal development (also known as self-development or personal growth) comprises the development of the self. The term may refer to traditional concepts of education or training, but it is also associated with the New Age movement through professional developmentbusiness trainers who offer counseling and coaching of personal transformation and "inner pathways" to solve social and psychological issues.

To understand this further: a man can have different personalities (at home / at office / at parties etc.) but his personal self is one and cannot differ on each occasion. When someone is referring to personal development then he is meaning a full and total transformation from deep within and not just a temporary personality change for the occasion alone.[6]

Personal development refers to activities that improve self-knowledge and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations. The concept is not limited to self-development but includes formal and informal activities for developing others, in roles such as teacher, guide, counselor, manager, coach, or mentor. Finally, as personal development takes place in the context of institutions, it refers to the methods, programs, tools, techniques, and assessment systems that support human development at the individual level in organizations. The concept covers a wider field than self-development or self-help: personal development also includes developing others. This may take place through roles such as those of a teacher or mentor, either through a personal competency (such as the skill of certain managers in developing the potential of employees) or a professional service (such as providing training, assessment or coaching).

Beyond improving oneself and developing others, personal development is a field of practice and research. As a field of practice it includes personal development methods, learning programs, assessment systems, tools and techniques. As a field of research, personal development topics increasingly appear in scientific journals, higher education reviews, management journals and business books.

Any sort of development - whether economic, political, biological, organizational or personal - requires a framework if one wishes to know whether change has actually occurred. In the case of personal development, an individual often functions as the primary judge of improvement, but validation of objective improvement requires assessment using standard criteria. Personal development frameworks may include goals or benchmarks that define the end-points, strategies or plans for reaching goals, measurement and assessment of progress, levels or stages that define milestones along a development path, and a feedback system to provide information on changes.[7]

Personal Growth

Written By: Dr. Bobbie Stevens | August 2, 2009

Personal growth affects every aspect of your life. As we evolve we grow through different stages of growth, and our ability to understand is determined by where we are in our growth process. Abraham Maslow in his famous hierarchy of growth model describes how we evolve from the ability to fulfill our most basic needs to being able to fulfill higher needs. ... At the top of this hierarchy of personal growth we find self-actualization. At this level people have discovered their inner ability to fulfill all of their needs.

There are two things that block our personal growth and they are the stress that gets stored in our nervous system and our beliefs. Once we understand the value of personal growth and start to focus our attention on it, we must find a process for releasing the built-up stress that gets stored in our nervous systems. As this stress is released our awareness expands and we are then able to see different possibilities and change some of the old beliefs that had kept us from making the progress we had hoped for in the past.

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