10 Personal Development Life Skills worth Developing…

“Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.”
—Albert Einstein

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Written by Jimmie Burroughs Email this article to a friend

Personal development is a developing process of the essential life skills; it is the honing and mastering of skills that are essential to our success and reaching our full potential as human beings. The following is a list of 10 personal development life skills worth developing…

1.      Develop a deep understanding  of yourself

2.      Develop your mind

3.      Develop Love

4.      Develop loyalty

5.      Develop tolerance

6.      Develop a strong will

7.      Develop a good Sense Of Humor

8.      Develop a healthy perspective on life

9.      Develop A Value System

10.  Develop your spiritual nature

Life skills are a necessary part of survival. Without them we would be like a newborn baby who depends on others for every need. Like a new born baby we have skill potential that needs developing. Without their development it is impossible to reach our full potential and that is what personal development is about.

When life skills don’t get developed, bad results can occur; For example, take #9 on the list: If no value system is developed, you have a list that include murderers, thieves, crooks, adulterers, fornicators and a list of undesirable human beings that must be locked up and separated from the rest of society.

In order to excel in a career, athletics or anything else, you must have and develop certain skills. These include the life skills but also go outside them. For example I developed a skill to play basketball as a youth but it was a limited skill, not nearly good enough to play professional basketball but good enough to get a lot of enjoyment from playing the game. No matter how much I practiced, I could never become good enough to be professional but that was OK because I wasn’t trying to become a professional basketball player. The idea of personal development is to become the best we can and not necessarily becoming the best in the world.

Furthermore, by developing your life skills you’re preparing yourself to better deal with the adversities and difficulties of life. It gives you far more control over your life as well as enhancing your potential for a successful and meaningful life.

Finding a place to begin:

Develop a deep understanding of yourself:

You begin with knowledge of yourself. You become the foundation for all other life skills. Discover what makes you tick; you are uniquely different from everyone else; what are your dreams and desires in life? What abilities do you have?

It is true that getting started in an ongoing personal development program for your life is the most difficult part but once you get to rolling, you won’t want to stop. As you begin to see the progress in your life, you begin to feel good about yourself and you will want to be all that you can.

Develop your mind:

The very foundation of personal development is acquiring knowledge. Developing the mind is a lifetime endeavor but it happens just one day at a time. Knowledge gained just a little at a time mounts up over time. Just reading 10 to 15 pages of a good book on personal development each day is a good start. I like to read 3 or 4 chapters of the Bible each day also. As it has often been said, “No education is complete without knowledge of the Bible”.

Not only does developing the mind help you to become a better person; it also helps you to become an interesting and dynamic person. Developing our life skills fill the void inside that no amount of money or success can do. It gives fulfillment and purpose and adds a new dimension of happiness.

Develop Love:

Love like any other life skill needs to be developed. Little kids love but their love is not fully developed, therefore they often tend to be selfish and self-centered. For some who don’t mature in love, that tendency continues right into adulthood.

Love simply put is caring for others, respecting them and being concerned about them. A husband who truly loves his wife also respects her and would never betray her by being unfaithful to her. So since there certainly is a lot of unfaithfulness today, it is fair to say there is a lot of room for developing love.

Develop loyalty:

Loyalty is one of the most becoming traits of personal development, loyalty to your mate, your children and your friends. Loyalty is being trustworthy and dependable, doing what you say you will do, and being loyal to your word. Loyalty is never betraying another person. I saw a movie recently where a woman fell in love with her best friend’s husband and stole him away and then tried to justify it. There is no justifying betrayal and disloyalty.

Develop tolerance:

We all have traits that others may not like; tolerance is the ability to accept traits in others that you don’t necessarily like or agree with. On the other hand, intolerance is expecting everyone else to do exactly as you would have them to do and expecting everything to be exactly as you want it to be. It is never expected to be tolerant of things which are wrong but the amoral issues and the trivial things of life that can cause us to ignore the things that really matter is the issue of tolerance.

Develop a strong will:

Developing a strong will is not the same as being stubborn. Stubbornness is akin to intolerance but a strong will is akin to determination. It can be a strong will to succeed, to be the best person or be the best spouse or parent. It is the opposite of wishy, washy instability.

Develop a good Sense of humor:

Humor can carry a person further than just about any other life skill. Everyone enjoys being around a light hearted person who adds fun and laughter to a group. Some are just naturally humorous but most of us have to develop it. It is the ability to poke fun at yourself, be at ease around others and laugh often. It is never having a laugh at someone else’s expense.

Develop a healthy perspective on life:

The dictionary defines perspective as “the capacity to view things in their true relation or relative importance.”  It is looking at things from the overall and not in just one small area. It is easy to blow things out of perspective and dwell on the petty instead of on what really matters. It is usually the trivial small matters in life that cause the most problems in marriage or in relationships. This is losing sight of what is relevant and important and letting the smaller issues control thinking and actions.

All of us experiences problems and failures but how we respond to those problems and failures is what distinguishes if our perspective is in order or not. Two people can experience the very same problem; one person lets it spoil his whole day and continually complains while the other takes it into stride and continues on to more important matters. Perspective is what makes the difference; one focuses on one trivial event while the other looks at the whole scheme of things.

Develop A Value System:

A value system is a set of values that guide your thinking and your behavior.  When you develop a solid set of values, it becomes a base for decision making rather than depending on impulse or gratification. Your character is defined by your value system as well as whom you are.

Values impact every facet of life from your relationships, your work, the decisions you make and the life you live. It is extremely important to know your values and to stand firmly on them.

Values are normally divided into four categories:

• Personal Values: Include Respect for law, authority and others; Integrity, dealing honest in all matter; Loyalty, being faithful to others or the causes in our life; Responsibility, being reliable and dependable and accepting responsibility and accountability for all you do.
• Spiritual Values: Recognizing a higher order of things other than just on the human plane.
• Family Values: Holding your family highly and providing their needs in all areas of their life
• Career Values: Taking your work seriously and making an all out contribution.

Develop your spiritual nature:

Developing your spiritual connection with God is the most important thing you will ever do in life: Strong spiritual beliefs are the essence of a strong person.  When there is no belief in a Devine Power, life takes on a sense of meaninglessness without purpose or direction. A spiritual connection with God brings all of life into prospective and gives reason to an otherwise unreasonable world. No peace and joy compares to what one experiences with a connection to God. Read “How to have a Spiritual connection with God”.

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Jimmie Burroughs is the author of JimmieBurroughs.com ; get more tips on personal development: www.JimmieBurroughs.com

JimmieBurroughs.com is founded and maintained by Jimmie Burroughs Nashville, Tennessee. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ © 2011 Jimmie Burroughs. All rights reserved

Who Is Jimmie Burroughs? Jimmie Burroughs has been involved in teaching Personal Development off and on for more than 30 years. He is a dedicated believer in Jesus Christ and considers helping others his calling in life.

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