What is personal development?

Definition of personal development:

Personal development means living your life not the way others tell you to live it, but as you know you must live it. It means rising up each morning with great expectations of the new day that lies ahead. When you are in a continual personal development you feel that every moment is, not something special, but an intense sparkle in time, one that is here only now and will never be again.

And, knowing this, you live it once and learn from it's greatness and continue your journey. Personal development is a journey that isn't open to anyone, although anyone can do it, few choose to take this road. This journey isn't all fun and games, and sometimes the traveler will feel that he can't go on. He feels tired and weak and he seems to have forgotten why he started the journey in the first place. "Why did I start this at all?" he asks himself.

And when he is right on the edge, almost certain that he will give up this foolish attempt to go further in to the unknown, a Hand appears from nowhere and grabs the traveler from the edge of the cliff and puts him back on it's road.
 
The traveler is amazed by what has just happened, but he knows now that he must continue the journey. He doesn't ask anything. He is just thankful that he is not alone. He now knows that he was never alone. The Hand was there all along, guiding him through the wilderness and darkness. He now remembers why he started this. It was because he feels that his life is worth more than a lousy wage, 8 hours of work, enough sleep and tv. He knows that he must do something in the short time that he is here, on this earth.

He and only he can accomplish what needs to be done. He doesn't know exactly what he has to do, but something tells him that he must take the journey to find out what it is. He knows that before he discovers what he has to do, he will have to discover himself. The traveler knows that before he can change the world he has to change his own ways.

Although he is afraid, he encourages himself and goes ahead. This is the difference between a traveler on a personal development quest and a traveler that doesn't like risks and prefers to live in his present life, as boring and unfulfilling as this may be. He just wants to be left alone. He chooses to stay away from the unknown path that is right by his right, and takes the straight road till the end of his life.

This traveler will always try to make everything as safe as can be, will try to work only if it is absolutely necessary. "Why should I do more than what I'm obliged to?" he says. "Why should I help someone else? No one helped me." And he keeps everything for himself, day by day retreating himself in his hideout, away from "someone else" that hasn't ever helped him. He thinks that the others are all against him, evil people that only care for them selves. He doesn't know that life is not more or less than just what he thinks it is. He will never know this, and even if someone tells him... Maybe he will understand someday. I hope he does, because he is missing so much. People aren't good or bad, life isn't great or miserable. All is as we think it is.

But you know what? Personal development isn't just for a select few. It doesn't matter how much money one has. Anyone can choose to take to path to himself. The good traveler knows this very well. Before he embarked on his personal development quest he was living that boring life as well. But something happen one day that maid him ask some questions. "Why am I here?" he asked, "Is this all my life can be?". But the answers didn't come. He waited and waited but nothing. He then realized that no one is going to answer. The answer was already there, staring him in the face. He knew the answer from the day he was born and the answer was: "Yes. There is so much more to life than this."

He suddenly remembered all those dreams and plans that he had made for his life in the past. It's been so long since that time, but he still remembers. He laughs a little at his childhood decision to become the president of the United States. But he suddenly stops laughing. It's so clear now. Why wasn't this clear before? It's the first thing on his list. He reads it out loud: "By the age of 40 I will be free!" He starts to cry and looks at the calendar.

In one month from now, he will be 41. Was he wrong? Would he ever be free? He wipes away his tears and realizes that in a normal day he would just forget about that stupid list. He would throw it right in the garbage can. He would laugh at his stupid dreams and go on with his life. But not today. Today he remembered how it was to have dreams and he feels something that makes him feel lighter. It's like if he wanted he could just flout away. He feels calm and relaxed.

He feels that he has just answered the greatest question of his entire existence. And the answer is personal development. He must start his own quest towards his forgotten dreams. He knows now that his dreams weren't dead. They were just berried under 5 feet of fear. But all of a sudden fear has no effect on him. It's like he could confront his fear, look it in the eye and give it a good kick in its derriere. He laughs at this thought. Then he thinks at all those people that are still living in fear. He feels that he has begun his road to freedom, but what about the others? He puts his list of dreams in his pocket.

He wishes he could do something for the others, but he remembers that he has to be free himself so that he can help others get free as well. So, by freeing himself, he is actually making a giant step in changing other lives. This makes him feel good and confident. He knows now that he is fighting the good battle, and that others are counting on him to win, although they don't know it yet. So he steps on the uncharted path, confidently, keeping his hand on his pocket, where his most important thing lies: his dreams.

Have you guess who the traveler is? The traveler is you. It doesn't matter if you are on your personal development quest already or if you don't even know you want this. The fact that you are reading this means that you are starting to be free! You are pushing your fear aside and stepping into the darkness. You must know that you are not the only one that is afraid. We all are afraid. But courage doesn't mean the absence of fear, it means fighting it.

If you know that you are afraid but you want to stop feeling this way, then you already know the definition of personal development and all that you must do is start your journey. This journey, if you choose to take it, is not going to be easy. It will have its ups and downs along the way, just as life is. But, no matter what happens, you will be following one of your dreams (the most important dream for some) and that is to be free!

What does free mean? I will tell you but first you have to make sure that no one interrupts you. This is very important so please lock yourself in a private room if necessary. Ready? Ok. Free is feeling peace in your heart. Its happiness, joy and a feeling of easiness.

Do you remember the times when you felt as if you could fly? I'm sure you felt this at least once in you life. It could have happened when you were a child and your parents hold you up and you felt you could touch the beautiful sky. It could be when you got an A at school and you were so proud that you told everyone. It could be when you had your first kiss or when you first fell in love with that great first love.

It could be when you've finished an important project at work and you were congratulated by your boss and everyone around, or it could be when you received an award from work or an association for you efforts. Remember all of those people applauding you? Find such a moment from your life and hold one to that feeling a little bit.

Just close your eyes and remember the most important moment in your life. Are you there yet? Feel the joy of the moment, get that wonderful tickling and those great chills down your back. Smile and relax. Don't say or do anything else. Just relive the moment. Try to stay in this state for a couple of minutes. Yes, just stay like that. Please don't just read what I'm saying here, try with all your heart to do this. It will help you a lot. Will talk in about 5 minutes, after you've fully lived this moment again.

All done? I hope that you've relieved a magical moment and that you feel great now. How about if you could feel like this all the time or at least most of the time? I know what you're thinking. You're saying "Are you crazy? I can't feel like this all the time. I have a lot of things to do. I can't just sit around and try to get this lost feeling all the time." Well, how about if you could improve this feeling so that in the future you don't even have to remember that moment to feel happy?

How about if you could feel joyful most of the time? Wouldn't this be great? I mean, most of the time we have to deal with different problems and we just forget how happiness really feels. But how about we make the other way around? How about we forget how unhappiness feels for a change? This would be truly great. And I think we should try it. I'm sure you deserve to be more happy because you are a special person. I don't know you, but I feel you are a good person just because you are looking for a way to solve your problems and change your life to the better.

Congratulations on trying this! It really takes gouts to do it and I'm really glad you are here. I truly hope I can help you become more happy, positive and relaxed. But I can only solve a part of the puzzle. The bigger part it's yours to do. I'm going to help you as much as possible but I'm trying to teach you (actually we are learning one from another) how to fish so that in the future, you can catch your own fishes.

But for this to happen you must help yourself. You must be willing to make a change, be willing to learn and must important: you have to try out what you learn. You'll never get results if you don't try out what you learn. It's like watching a big match at Tv (if you are a man). You feel great, but you will never know how it feels to be on that field in front of ten thousand people or more.

You can't feel that unless you try it. Or if you are a woman, think of when you are watching a fashion presentation. You see all those pretty women, dressed with those great clothes and you wish you could be one of them, but you will never know how that feels until you try it. So try it! Do it! Learn how to and then try to see if it "fits "you, if it works for you.

Don't just listen to me or someone else. You could just look at someone walking through the sand and say "I guess that's great!" But, how about you walk on the sand as well and really feel the sand under your feet? Leave your own mark on things! Try to see if something that has worked for someone, or didn't work for some, will work for you. You can't just listen to someone who tried to do something for a while. If he/she tells you that it's a waste of time, he might be right or not. You are a different person and you could sometimes do better than others. So try it! Don't just take advice from anyone that tells you this and that, do this and don't do that. Do it yourself and see if it's ok or not.

This is kind of what I wanted to say to you. I hope you understood what personal development means, but if you didn't, don't worry, you will have plenty of time. Now it's time to go further, if you still want to find yourself and discover exactly what this life is all about for you. And remember: you are not alone. You have never been and you will never be alone. So, take my hand and let's start the quest.

I embrace you,
Razvan

Continue the quest  Why personal development? - 7 Reasons

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