Personal development is about improving areas of your life.
Knowing what those areas are is important to remain on track and do what is truly important for you. They allow you to see at a high level where you are going with your life. Without specific areas to improve, low level goals become meaningless, and you always have the impression that you are going anywhere.
I consider areas of improvement to be at the same level of values, with the difference that their purpose is to define actions instead of principles.
To find what your areas of improvement are, you can use two methods.
The first method is to look at your core values and ask yourself [em]What can I do to get more of this?[em]. An area of improvement is simply a practical reflection of a value. For example if you care about love, then friendship is probably an area of improvement for you, but also relationships is a good candidate. For each value you should have at least two or three areas of improvement to choose, depending on the situation.
The second approach is to take a list of common areas to improve, and then select those which truly align with your values.
The following is an example of common areas of improvement: health, relaxation, creative thinking, finance, relationships, friendships, family, fun, communication, public speaking, writing, listening, popularity, experience, managing, planning, negotiation, respect, influence, goal setting, awareness, time management. Take the time to research your own list and don’t just try to improve in every area. Work on your strengths instead.
When you have defined your own list using one of the methods above, you have to create specific categories for each one. For example if one of your areas is health, you might want to create sub-categories for diet, body building and stretching/agility. Write down your goals for each of them.
When you are done, it’s time to start working on it. Remember that those areas are the ones which will make a huge difference for yourself, so be sure to work on them each day. It’s also important to constantly look at them every day, so that you’ll be constantly feeding your mind with positive informations on what you want to become.