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Personal development

What is personal development?

Personal development, as the name suggests, is personal and means different things to everyone. But in general, it is all about becoming the person you want to be and getting to know yourself on a new level. The problem with personal development is that it can be difficult to define because it means different things to different people. But what all definitions have in common is that they include some kind of positive change. Here I will tell you more about personal development and coaching and give tips on how you can achieve personal development through mental training. Let's start by clarifying what personal development actually is!

What is personal development?

A person can develop in many different ways, from changing jobs to becoming a healthier person who exercises several times a week or something else entirely. As I mentioned earlier, personal development is about making a change and feeling that you are developing in a positive way. You can divide personal development into two different modes of change: physical and mental.

  • Physical change could be, for example, moving to a better home or changing jobs. 
  • Mental change means, for example, improving your self-esteem and your way of thinking.

Whether you want to achieve a physical or mental change, my methods to help you with personal development focus on learning to change your mindset and change the way you look at things. Always with the goal that you will reach a positive change and develop.

How does personal development work?

As personal development means different things to different people, there is no single answer to how it works and no one approach that will suit everyone. A good start is to figure out where you are today and where you want to go, keeping in mind throughout the process that this usually takes time. It is common to fall back into old patterns of behavior when trying to make a change and therefore a coach can be very helpful. In order to achieve a long-term change that means that you develop, the following is required, among other things:

  • Self-confidence 
  • Self-esteem
  • Motivation
  • Knowledge
  • Meaningfulness
  • Reflection
  • Support

A journey towards change is well worth every minute. The change in your mindset will give you both more self-awareness and greater self-confidence which can take you to new heights. And it can all start with something as easy as asking yourself the simple question: "What do I want from my life and how do I get there?".

Personal development and coaching

Support is one of the most important components in achieving lasting change and developing as an individual. Even if you have many good friends you can talk to and who support you, a coach may be what you need to actually succeed. If you want to know more about coaching, I can recommend this one article which covers both what coaching is and what to consider when choosing a coach.

As a coach, I can help you with personal development through mental training where you will have the opportunity to grow, gain clarity, insights and increased awareness as well as the tools needed to reach your goal and bring about change. With powerful conversations, we can evoke action and deepen the learning that is essential for you to grow on your journey towards personal development.

Coaching for development

As you may have realized by now, personal development is about developing yourself and this is something you can only do on your own. But with the right kind of support from a coach, you can obtain different ways of thinking that can help you incredibly much on your way to exactly what you want to achieve. 

As you may have realized by now, personal development is about developing yourself and this is something you can only do on your own. But with the right kind of support from a coach, you can obtain different ways of thinking that can help you incredibly much on your way to exactly what you want to achieve. 

To be able to coach you towards personal development, I work primarily with powerful conversations that lead to you as a client gaining a deeper knowledge of yourself and your situation and getting the motivation to actually act to move forward. With great curiosity and skill, we adapt our coaching to your needs so that you will get that breakthrough you have not managed to get on your own. here you can read more about the coaching we offer. 

Personal development through mental training

Do you want to develop and learn something new, get help to become the person you want to be or just discover new things about yourself? Whatever your interest in personal development, I or one of our other coaches can help you with mental training to develop your ability to be focused, determined, confident and motivated. A coach will help you identify what is holding you back in your performance and work on improving your attitude and mental skills so that you can always perform at your best.

Mental training is suitable for those who want to reach their full potential and learn to perform at a consistent level. It may be that you want to work your way up in your sports career or that you have hit a slump in your life and feel that you need to move on in order to feel good.

Benefits of personal development

Apart from the obvious benefit of the great feeling you get when you succeed with a goal you have set, there are many other things that come with personal development. Even if you don't always achieve your goals, you will experience a more rewarding life where you can take on new challenges with a good attitude. Here are some of the benefits of personal development that you can achieve through mental training and with the right tools that you can get with the help of a coach.

  • Increased self-awareness
    The path to personal development starts with becoming aware of who you are and who you want to become. If you lack self-awareness and commitment to your development, your focus is often on problems and obstacles instead of putting energy into finding the path to the life you want.
  • Clear direction
    When you know who you are, you can get a clearer picture of who you want to be. With increased self-confidence, it becomes easier to make the right decisions and find your direction towards a better life. With a clear direction, you can focus on the activities that will help you reach your goals instead of dividing your energy between too many activities and tasks.
  • More motivation
    With a clear picture of what you want to achieve, it will be easier to see the benefits of the actions you need to take that may not always be fun. Set intermediate goals and motivate yourself to take the next step instead of the big goal that may seem a bit too far away at times.
  • Managing crises better
    With mental training, you can get the right mindset to deal with stressful situations in a good way and thus experience a more harmonious everyday life in the long run. This in turn leads to personal development and makes it easier for you to tackle problems that arise in the future.
  • Better relations
    You may not have always thought about it but some relationships can take more energy than they give. Some relationships lift you up while others drag you down, that's life. With the right tools, you can see which relationships have a positive impact on your life and are therefore worth investing in, and which ones you shouldn't waste more energy on.

These are just some of the things I can help you achieve as a coach. Together we will find the paths that work for you to become the best version of yourself and achieve everything you have dreamed of!

Who benefits from personal development?

Even if you are perfectly happy in your life situation, you benefit from personal development. Everyone has something new to learn about themselves and a coach will give you the right tools to develop for the better. As a sportsperson, you can learn how to perform better, have more fun and develop in your sport. As an entrepreneur, you can get strategies and tools to take your business to the next level and as a private person, you can get the opportunity to achieve your goals and grow as a person in the meantime. In other words, personal development is something for everyone, both individuals and groups. With me, you can get personal coaching that is tailored to you but also team coaching for sports teams and companies so that together you can take on new challenges and trials in the best possible way.

Personal development tips

Have you decided that it is time to evolve? This is a good decision and something that is important for all people, even those who feel satisfied with life. When you start working on personal development, you will learn useful things about yourself that will benefit you in the future. Here are some tips and practical exercises on how you can start your journey towards development.

  1. Personal vision
    Create your own personal vision of what you want your life to look like. Remember, you'll miss any goals you don't aim for, so it helps if you write this down somewhere. Some people also choose to add images that you associate with the things you want to achieve (a picture is worth a thousand words). Your vision can include anything from what career you want to have to what your family picture should look like and what you want to do with your time in the future. When doing this, I like to say that your best guide is your heart and your emotions! It's easy to get stuck in your head and write things that others think you should achieve or that you've learned that "you" should have to be happy. So a rule of thumb is that if you don't feel inspired or happy about your goals, you should think about whether it's really that important to you. Also pay attention to that inner critical voice that tells you that your dreams are not realistic or that it is too difficult. 
  1. Plan how to achieve your personal development
    Once you have your vision and goals clearly in mind, you need to make a plan to achieve them. Find out how you can achieve your vision in practical terms and then break this down into several small sub-goals, making the big goal easier to achieve. With a good plan, the path to your personal development becomes clear and more real. I myself always work with my goals on an annual basis. This means that I use my vision to see where I am now and what I want to achieve in the coming year to get closer to my vision. Then I usually follow up on some things every month, others more often or less often. However, the most important thing is that my goals for the year ALWAYS act as a kind of compass for those moments and periods when I feel lost. So I go back to my plan to see what to focus on there and then.
  1. Start the process towards development
    With your vision and plan in place, it's time to start your journey towards your goal. Create fixed routines for how you will work towards your milestones and make sure to set aside time that you can use to focus only on the tasks that need to be completed to get you where you want to go. For some goals, this will mean that you need to plan and perhaps already book some things for later. But of course, it can also mean taking up small and short routines, or exploring different ways to get things done. For example, if you want to exercise more but always find it hard to go to the gym after work, don't give up there! Maybe you should try exercising early in the morning or during lunch. Again, pay attention to that inner critical voice that judges your ideas without having tried them. Anything new is difficult at first, until you get used to it. Remember that everything in life is a long series of processes. Each process looks different and takes a different amount of time to complete.

Personal development and personal goals

Always keep in mind that personal development is just as it sounds, something very personal. It is about setting personal goals that make you more satisfied with yourself and your life situation. A coach can help you figure out what your personal goals are and how best to achieve them.

One of my personal goals is to teach others how to create the most amazing life imaginable. This is usually basically about learning two things - to maximize your ability to perform and to have a strong self-esteem. To put it simply, it is about learning to perform so you can realize your dreams, but to have an inner security, strength and harmony so you have the ability to both take adversity and appreciate all the positive things in life. Too many people are great at performing, but useless at being happy. Nothing is ever enough for them! In my work, I have developed a model and method called The Flow Mindset. Flow is the state where we both perform best and are happiest. The Flow Mindset is about building a mindset that allows you to live with flow to an increasing degree, rather than resisting all the events you dislike or are afraid of happening. If you are curious to learn more about this, you can participate in my workshop that I do in webinar form and is completely free.

Book a free introductory call

Not sure if coaching and mental training is for you? Then you are warmly welcome to book a free and completely unconditional conversation where you can tell me more about yourself and your visions. I explain how the process works and you can get answers to all your questions about how I work with personal development and get a sense of whether I am the right coach for you.

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About the author

Tommy Davidovic
Tommy Davidovic

Cert. Coach (CPCC, PCC, CTPC) & Mental Trainer. I help performers in sport, career and life to maximize their success and feel good in the process.

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