“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude towards what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you” ~ Brian Tracy.
We all have qualities for self-development and improvement. Everybody has it in them to develop themselves to their fullest potential, whatever they set their mind on.
The last few months have seen me delve a little more into the subject of personal development and self-improvement.
This is a very wide and interesting topic that I recommend everyone to be interested in.
If you want to achieve anything worthwhile you should be a student of personal development and self-improvement, you can never go wrong.
During the study, I have noted that the following were the common qualities or attributes needed for self-improvement or be it personal development.
Yes, there are many more qualities that I came across but the most common ones are the ones that will be covered in this article.
Attitude
The first quality is attitude. Let’s start by defining the word attitude, “the way a person views something or tends to behave towards it, often in an evaluative way” ~ the free dictionary. “Attitude is everything” ~ Unknown.
The starting and ending point of all self-development is attitude. Without the right mental attitude in life, you will not achieve anything of great significance. Your attitude will largely determine the level of your achievements.
The mind is creative, and conditions, environment and all experiences in life are the results of your habitual or predominant mental attitude.
Personal development and growth starts with the mind. If you have a negative perception of something most likely the negative result will be attained and vice versa.
This means that the attitude of the mind depends mainly on what thoughts we harbour. The thoughts we harbour have a great influence on our self-development journey.
Man has the mental power to determine his future. They say all growth is from within. This means that all self-development comes from within. This theory is very true because you become what you think about most of the time.
Personal growth does not happen by chance or accident. You attract it to yourself. If you want to attain your personal development goals you must first change your thoughts and attitude towards life.
Having the right mentality coupled with the right attitude will surely guarantee you better results. Yes, setbacks will be encountered; the most important thing is how you react when faced with challenges.
For all I know is that there is no success without challenges. To every successful person, there are more challenges than success. I believe that our environment reflects the conditions corresponding to the predominant mental attitude which we entertain.
It is the attitude of the mind toward life that determines the experiences with which we are to meet; if we expect nothing, we shall have nothing; if we demand much, we shall receive the greater portion.
Attitude has everything to do with the mind. We must endeavour to have the right mental attitude as an ingredient to achieving our life’s objectives.
Faith
What is faith? The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen is faith.
“Faith is like a bird that feels dawn breaking while it is still dark” ~ Scandinavian.
The one thing that distinguishes success from failure is self-belief. In fact, the strength of your faith is the one thing that determines whether you conquer mountains or foothills.
It means believing in something that you cannot prove or be certain of; something that you have not seen physically. It means believing in life’s magic.
If you are a Christian like me the emphasis on faith in the bible is very well taught. Christianity is a faith-based religion. In this regard, religion plays a major role in helping to increase your faith.
One of the best ways to increase your faith is by the recognition of your spiritual nature.
The other best way to acquire faith is to have positive affirmations. The bible says “faith comes by hearing.” True to this statement is that you must formulate positive affirmations to encourage you achieve your intended purpose in life.
Replace all negative thoughts with positive ones and keep reminding yourself about them. I have some magic words that work for me. Every morning I remind myself that “I can do all things possible through Christ who strengths me.”
This is my magic sentence, it has done wonders for me even in the darkest of situations, I have managed to pull through. This is because I have faith that I can do all things through Christ.
Courage
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged” ~ the Bible.
It is very easy to start the process of personal development, but it is much more difficult to keep it going especially when faced with tough decisions to make.
The make or break of your journey to success could end if you lack enough courage to see yourself through trying times. Believe me, you will be tested and tried to your limits before you move to the next level.
Courage is the main distinction between being successful and being a failure. The people who succeed are those that exhibit enough courage in times of difficulties and are willing to go the extra mile.
Those that fail have very little courage. Wisdom, strength, courage and all harmonious conditions are the results of power and we have seen that all power is from within; likewise, every lack, limitation or adverse circumstance is the result of weakness, and weakness is simply the absence of power; it comes from nowhere, it is nothing.
The following sentence underlines the link between courage and faith.
“You must first have the knowledge of your power; second, the courage to dare; third, the faith to do” ~ The Master Key.
Courage can help you eliminate one of the greatest enemies to success and that is fear. If you want to eliminate fear, then concentrate on courage.
To achieve greater success always concentrate on the ideal as an already existing fact; this is the germ cell, the life principle which goes forth and sets in motion those causes which guide, direct and bring about the necessary relation, which eventually manifests.
Courage is best illustrated by the story of David and Goliath in the bible.
“It’s not the mountain we conquer but, ourselves” ~ Sir Edmund Hilary.
Ability
You will have a tough time achieving your life’s intended purpose by doing something you are not gifted for.
Before you set out on your personal development journey, it is very important to recognise what your natural talents and gifts are.
Having the ability and skills to pursue your life’s intended purpose using your natural gifts is much easier and more enjoyable.
It is of no use running a pig farm badly and only to realise that you should have been a footballer after thirty years. By that time pigs would have been your style.
The ability to produce is found to be the real source of wealth for the individual. It is for this reason that he who has his heart in his work is certain to meet with unbounded success.
He will give and continually give; and the more he gives, the more he will receive. We as human beings are related to the creative principle by our ability to think. It is this ability we must acquire in order that we pursue our self-development goals.
Action
Action is perhaps the most important of all qualities. We can acquire all the knowledge and have all the best plans but without putting them into action nothing would have been achieved.
They say the richest place on earth is the graveyard. This is a place where you find plans that have never been put to the test, songs that have never been sung, discoveries that have never been unveiled and many more things that would have benefited the human race.
Do not deny the human race of what GOD has put in you. It is not for you alone but to be shared and enjoyed by us all. Remember we are all part of one big family and if we all play our part, surely the world would be a better place.
Whatever plans that you have for your life please ensure that you start acting on them now even before you are very sure of what they are. The picture will become clearer as you go ahead and continuously act on your plans.
Imagine how the world have been if the discoverer of the internet had not acted on his plans. We would have been denied the pleasure of communication and possibly you would not have read this article through this medium. But alas they acted and today the internet is a big medium for communication.
Action is the soul of any business and the cornerstone for prosperity. Action is the only process that brings about results.
Opportunity follows perception, action follows inspiration, growth follows knowledge, and eminence follows progress. Necessities are demands, and demands create action, and actions bring about results.
If you want to see results begin to take action and you will see them. Without action faith is dead.
Perseverance
“All endeavour calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. In the fight to the finish, spirit is the one characteristic we must possess if we are to face the future as finishers” ~ Henry David Thoreau.
There is no success without perseverance. All successful people will attest to the fact that they persevered before reaching their life’s purposes.
Let us take the example of education. If you set out to have good grades or good results at school you will agree with me that you may need to put in extra for the results to show.
Perseverance and endurance cannot be avoided in your quest for personal development.
Whatever you set out to achieve if you are not prepared to persevere you are most likely to fail measurably. Perseverance is the ability to continue moving on even when the odds are against you.
“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance” ~ Samuel Johnson.
Napoleon Hill in his famous book “Think and Grow Rich” says “perseverance and persistence are essential factors in the procedure of transmuting desire into its monetary equivalent.”
Conclusion
There is a close connection between perseverance and faith. As you have seen we achieve our self-development through faith and perseverance. In the same way, you can only develop faith through perseverance.
I have also noticed that faith can be induced into our minds. The more you believe in something the more faith you develop. Remember faith is a very critical ingredient to personal development so please have faith in what you are doing.