There's an old saying that goes, "If you don't know where you're going, any path will take you there." The same is true of personal development. Everyone who starts down the path of personal development wants to grow - to evolve into something more than when they began their journey. But figuring out just what path to take when you set out is a major challenge in and of itself.
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As a holistic health practitioner, I'm a big fan of getting right to the heart of the matter. So the first thing I do when I meet with a new client who is ready to begin their quest for personal development is to ask them if they have a legacy.
What exactly does that mean?
Most of us have some sense of the meaning of the term "legacy." The common use of this word is backward looking.
Take this question: "What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?" In this case, a legacy is something like the achievements we're known for when we're gone. But this backward looking sense of a legacy is just a small part of what I'm after when I talk to clients about their legacy. After all, we're not planning for their funeral here!
The reason why I use the word "legacy" is that it focuses our attention on the whole picture and purpose of our lives. It's fantastic to have career goals, financial goals or relationship goals, but often times we tend to ignore the other aspects of our lives in favor of pursuing those particular achievements. This imbalance inevitably slows down our growth and frequently results in all sorts of health problems.
True personal development requires a holistic approach, one in which you've set out the ideal picture of your life and developed a goal structure that supports that the achievement of that total life goal. Because a legacy just is your complete life's goal, having one is a crucial step in taking a holistic approach to personal development.
So one fantastic benefit to having a legacy is that it can help you to create and organize goals. It provides you with the ideal towards which all your efforts in life are directed. But having a well thought-out legacy offers so much more. As with any other project, there will always be distractions while you are working on yourself. We have habits to overcome, patterns of procrastination, people who need our time and energy, and so forth. The power of a legacy is that it can provide a very powerful tool to conquer those habits, steer clear of the procrastination, and to meet the needs of those around us with out getting diverted.
In fact, the reason why these diversions can have such a pull on us is because we don't have any particular force guiding us in a direction that we truly want to go. But when your day is built around your legacy, those distractions become impotent. The short term pleasures that procrastinating offers pale in comparison to the potential of your legacy and as long as you stick to your goals, you're always one day closer to realizing that dream.
Of course, the extent to which your legacy will help you to create and organize your goals, and boost your motivation is going to depend upon how much detail you give to the picture of your ideal life. This picture of your legacy often develops over a long period of time, but you can get a decent handle on it by thinking about the following lifestyle components:
1) People - what kind of people do you value, feel comfortable with, get excited about spending time with?
2) Passion - what is it about life that enlivens you and fills you with energy?
3) Purpose - what is it that brings meaning to your life or gives you a sense of fulfillment?
4) Responsibilities - what kinds of responsibilities are you comfortable handling in your life, whether they be personal, professional or spiritual?
5) Career - what manifestation of your abilities, purpose and passion would best fulfill your career needs?
6) Values - your values are your needs and desires, ranging from your most basic physical needs to those that dictate your relationships with your friends, loved ones, co-workers and the environment at large. What are your values?
This list here certainly isn't exhaustive, but it's a good start. Not only will it help you to fill out the picture of your career, but the relationships you develop with your self and your loved ones. At the C.H.E.K Institute and in my PPS Success Mastery Program we get into much greater detail as we help our clients find and create their legacies on a daily basis.
Because this picture you're developing is your life's goal, I recommend, just as with any goal, that you write it down. Or, if you are artistically driven, you can draw it, paint it, sculpt it, or make it physical in whatever way works best for you. However you do it, don't allow your legacy to remain just an idea! Your legacy will be much more motivating when you can look it in the face each and every day.
Knowing that you have a purpose and that you are living your purpose every day is a wonderful thing. It makes me spring out of bed each morning, energized and excited! How many people do you know that look forward to their day, every day, in that way? So take the time to map out your legacy today. You'll be giving yourself a path to personal development with a purpose and that's a path to success!
Today the concept of personal development has become popular. People are trying to find the solutions to their problems to improve the quality of their life. This can be done through visualization, affirmations, meditation and analysis of behavior and everyday stress. The desire to change, have new ideas and to change some negative patterns of behavior, to develop what is useful for us. We do not have to be frustrated or disappointed if we do not get results soon. We must continue our efforts and never give up. One may go through a free personal development site available on the Internet, if you don't have the money yet.
In the modern world, life moves quickly which results in disturbance of our peace of mind. Everyone in the world wants success and happiness. No one can ignore the importance of discipline in life. Hard work can be rewarding but sometimes it is a painful and boring experience for us as they can't enjoy life that results in fear, stress, loss of concentration, anger, insomnia, headaches, depression and lack of interest in food. Therefore, it is important for us to be happy at any cost.
Happiness is a state of mind that occurs from joy, love, etc. There is a feeling of inner peace and contentment. It is usually experienced when there are no worries, fears or thought and this is often if we get something we like to do, or if we win something. We must think positively and find the balance. In most cases, stress is a product of a life out of balance. We must exercise regularly, eat a healthy balanced diet with adequate nutrition and enough sleep. Listening to slow and relaxing music makes us relax and stress will elimination from our bodies to help makes us happy. We may read books of inspiration of our choice. Meditation is another form used by the practitioners and a deep state of relaxation to make their daily life happier. It is a matter of our choice and attitude that we may feel happy or unhappy.
Motivation is a driving force. To be motivate, we need to know exactly what we want, have strong desires and willingness to move forward in life and achieve our goals. Motivation has a lot to do with our emotions and personal development courses imagination, which means that if want to increases our motivation, we need to work on our emotions and imagination. We must make a clear objective. We can read and learn about people who have achieved success. Motivation is the powerful engine that drives us to success and achievements in every area.
We can also find other essential tips on a free personal development site. We must read them and implement them for our personal development, success and to live a happier and stress free life.