Personal Development

Out of all the things needed for success, personal development is probably the most important. You cannot be sucessful in life until you are 'conditioned' for success. And you condition yourself by developing the right attitude, reading the right books, meeting the right people, thinking in the right directions and taking the right actions. It is rightly said that a man is known by the company he keeps. And it is also said that your income is, usually, the average of the incomes of the five closest friends you have.

Personal development starts with your grooming, the way you look, the way you dress up and the way you carry yourself. It focusses around the attitude you keep, the confidence you display. And a little bit of confidence comes from the knowledge that you are looking good. The rest of the confidence comes from the knowledge you possess and the thoughts that you are thinking.

Our lives remain the same because we keep doing the same things everyday, we keep thinking the same thoughts everyday. Albert Einstein says that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. To get different results, one has to do things differently. Dr. Deepak Chopra says that an average human mind has about 60000 thoughts in a single day. But the only problem is that 95% of those thoughts are the same that we had yesterday and that is why we remain the same kind of person everyday. One has to have a control on his mind and thoughts and think positively. Of course, it is not possible to keep a control over 60000 thoughts in a day. But keep a control on your feelings. Positive feelings like happiness, excitement, passion, love, laughter, confidence etc will give you positive thoughts while negative feelings like jealousy, hatred, depression, disappointment, frustration and anger will lead to negative thoughts.

In the last three years I have literally changed myself completely. I am not the same kind of person I used to be three years ago and I owe it all to the people in my life in the last three years and the books that I have read. The only thing different that I did was to associate with like and positive minded people and I chose to read various self help books. That has really developed me as a person. I would say that Charlie Jones was absolutely correct when he said, "You will be the same person tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and in 5, 10, 20 years except for two things – the people you meet and the books you read."

Success is not only about having the things that you want to have or doing the work that you want to do but also being the person that you want to be. Out of all the books I have read, I think Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People puts it best when it says, "Begin with the end in mind." It means that you should think of a situation where God has given you an opportunity to attend your own funeral and there you see your family, your friends, your colleagues, your bosses and your sub-ordinates are speaking about you and your habits. What would you like each one of them to say about you? Whatever you want them to say, those are the habits which you should inculcate in you right from today.

You took the right decision to read and reach this far in this article. Bookmark this page and subscribe to all the articles that are published here by entering your email address in the sidebar. And believe it or not, in the times to come you will be living the life of your dreams, the life you have always wanted to lead.


Enjoy the journey to success.

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