8 examples of personal development goals to aim for

Striving towards continuous self-development is a way to future proof your career and keep your brain both healthy and engaged with learning new skills. 

The direct benefits which can come as a result of focussing on your own personal development speak for themselves, with enhancing the quality of our lives, achieving career success and ultimately becoming a better person the most obvious of these. 

Listed below are eight examples of personal development targets which will aid your personal growth and augment your journey to success.

Raise your self-confidence

Studies indicate that an individual’s IQ is not the most important factor for success. Instead, self-confidence, goal setting and perseverance have shown to be more effective as ways to gauge an individual’s potential for success. 

Therefore, aiming to improve your confidence with materials like books, courses and podcasts can be a fruitful personal development goal.

Improve your body language 

Body language amounts for the main form of non-verbal communication, and can be an effective way to convey your message more efficiently. Owning your body language, and even mastering certain body postures, can help to convey assertiveness and confidence. 

So, making an effort to study and improve your body language may lead to a difference in your personal conversations and business meetings for the better.

Master the art of conflict resolution 

Conflict is part and parcel of life – and having the ability to resolve conflicts rationally and amicably will set you in good stead to prosper both personally and professionally.

Improve your resilience 

Resilience is the innate ability to overcome adversity and stay determined. It’s the difference between feeling helpless and facing your problems confidently. Learning how to bounce back from problems will help you become a stronger person and is a valuable target to work towards.

Learn how to manage stress effectively

Too much stress will have a detrimental effect on you and others around you. It impacts both your physical, mental and emotional health. There are many effective ways to manage and deal with stress such as breathing and mindfulness exercises. 

Successfully taming your stress levels will bring positivity to your personal life and also has the potential to open doors in other areas – as the ability to work under pressure is a skill which is in high demand.

Ignore your self-confessed limitations 

Limiting yourself hinders progress by keeping you in your comfort zone and will prevent you from challenging yourself, taking risks and trying new things for the fear of failure. Everyone has encountered limiting beliefs in some form or another - whether it be relationship success, money or fitness. 

It is important to recognise this self-destructive behaviour when it arises. Working on ways to ignore this ‘lizard brain’ talk will enable you to go further in all aspects of your life and achieve your goals. 

Become more mindful

Mindfulness helps you to acknowledge the abundance and positives that you have in your life. Instead of spending time thinking of past failures, or focussing on your future goals and expectations, learning to live in the present and enjoy the moment for what it is may be a successful goal for you to work towards.

Work on your growth mindset 

Your attitude defines who you are as a person, so it’s important to be aware of how it can be improved to make it an attitude conductive for growth. A positive mindset can move mountains for you and help you achieve the things you want in life, so if you think this is a skill which could be developed, this could be the goal for you.

Some of these examples will hopefully help to get you on track with setting goals to work towards. It’s important to think of areas you could improve on, and tailor the goals accordingly to what you feel could be improved.

This article was adapted from a piece in Medium.