The Secretes Of Growth And Personal Development

Why do people never grow? They complain at the face of every challenge, even when they are familiar challenges they have overcome in time past and are capable of overcoming now; they just choose to complain. Don’t complain over what you have no intention to change. Growth is one thing everybody wants, whether in business, career, family or in any field one might possibly think of. The opposite of growth is depreciation and it doesn’t take long before a thing dies when it starts depreciating. The world is fast moving on and leaving behind everything that fails to grow with it. This article is designed to reveal the crucial and fundamental things to be done for growth to take place. Anybody that desires growth in any field he operates in, needs to understand that like success growth is not accidental neither is it spontaneous. A writer wrote, “except for the books you read and the people you meet, you will remain in five years time the same person you are now.” Some people hope to reach great heights and attain enviable positions, which is a good thing to do, but very few take interest in developing themselves first. You have to be built up to stay up, if you jump up you will come down.
Growth begins from the mind and grows from there. Guard your mind with all diligence for out of it comes the issues of life, even those that will eventually produce your growth.

#1 desire growth: if your desire is pale and flabby, your achievement will follow that same hue and consistency. An earnest desire for growth is very essential before anything else will take place at all. Have that desire to improve in your field of choice. Your desire for growth is far more important than you realize. He who intends to grow must first desire it and then do all it takes to achieve it.

#2 believe in yourself: lack of self believe is one reason why a lot of people don’t get to achieve what they want even when they can. In the article “how to gain the trust and confidence of others”, I talked about self confidence and believing in oneself. You can get the whole world to believe in you, but if you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t achieve what is expected of you. What matters is you believing in yourself not who believes in you. Don’t think this is the best you can be, no matter how worse you are don’t even think you cant grow above that. I met a man who was telling me that one can’t change ones destiny. He had been through a lot in life and he has done all he could without breakthrough. Then he came to that conclusion. I have seen lots of people far worse than he; they defied the odds to grow beyond their weakness. The truth is if you think and believe you can, then you can but if you cant then you won’t.

#3 educate yourself: education does not only lie in the four walls of an institution. You can grow yourself beyond expectation outside an institution. Great men that have lived on this earth have. The best and most important part of every man's education is that which he gives himself. –Gibbon. The best way to be relevant in a fast and demanding world is by educating yourself. Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for growth and success in any field.

#4 practice, practice, practice: the key to perfection and excellence is practice after learning. Even if you learn all you want without practicing it, there is possibly no way you can perfect in it. Ask any expert in their field how they got their level of perfection, and they will tell you “practice and more practice”. It is not for sports people alone, anybody who learns must practice to grow, practice to be who you want to be. You don’t grow when you learn, train without competing or showing it. Because in competing, problems are discovered. Problems spot out imperfection and with that, a wise person will know what to do.

#5 develop when you DON’T: strive to grow. Develop yourself by discovering one new thing every day (DON’T). That way you grow with each passing day. Condition your mind to be receptive to discovering new things, new methods, new ideas and you will be sure to grow with each passing day. Remember, you are king in what you discover.

#6 self discipline: your ability to determine your highest priority and then work on it until it is completed is the primary test of self discipline, willpower and personal character. People tend to resent things that will make them leave their comfort zone. And this is a big problem to growth and development. To achieve our goals, sometimes we have to do and take certain measures that we are not comfortable with. If self discipline is not in your tool box for achieving success in life, do all you can to get it, for it is the ability to make yourself do what you should, when you should, whether you feel like it or not.

#7 get a coach: some people need as little as someone to advice them what to do for them to grow past their present point. If you can attain the height you so desire, then getting a coach to help you is not a bad decision. If a coach is what you need to develop yourself and grow beyond your status qou, get one.

#8 there is need for intelligence: you must be intelligent enough not just to know the right thing to do, or the wrong thing not to do, but to know what is appropriate and to do it. Applying what you know require intelligence.

#9 don’t be content with the level you currently operate: don’t maintain the status qou, rather improve it. You will be tying down yourself as well as inhibiting the possibility of further development if you think where you are is “it”. Keep growing, for that is the best way to avoid deterioration.

#10 get around people who are already there: you cant get past what you don’t see. A good way to get to where you want to be is by getting around those that are already there and learning from them. You cant fly with the eagles if you keep scratching with the chickens.

#11 bear your purpose in mind and meditate on it. You must picture yourself at that expected level, by meditating on what you want to achieve (growth and development), you generate more interest towards it and by power of meditation you gain valuable ideas to achieve it. For where your heart is, there you put your treasure and resources. If the dream is held close to heart and imagination is applied to what is at hand, everything is possible.

#12 invest your resources towards your growth. A lot of people want to get everything for free. But if you are waiting for free you might have to wait for a very long time. If you take your development seriously, you will do all it takes to achieve it. Invest your time, money and effort in developing yourself or be left behind by a world that doesn’t tolerate mediocrity, neither does it wait for anyone.

#13 don’t grow wild. Wild trees produce wild fruits. You don’t want to harm people, do you? Be intelligent and grow well not wild.

Don’t take others as a milestone for your development, if you will ever grow past them. One way to be very inefficient is to live in past glories. Grow with every challenge and opposition, an intelligent person will from his challenge spot out his need. Like the body needs food to grow the mind also need something to feed on, that keeps it in positive and productive shape in order to grow. It is very important not to feed the mind with yesterdays failure if you want to achieve tomorrow’s success. Grow your mind first, for when the head pulls through, the whole body follows. Be willing to pay the price for growth, personal development takes time but there is discipline in waiting for something that is coming to you especially if you have done all to achieve it. Don’t spend the whole time focusing on your weaknesses while depriving your strengths, thereby turning your strength into part of your weakness. Efficiency and effectiveness is increased when people lay more emphasis on their strength while working gradually to improve an d strengthen their weaknesses. People are more productive, happier and creative when utilizing their strength?

Three Action Steps For Planning, Implementing And Achieving Your Goals

Over 49% of the result of a general survey attributed the failure of business, goals, purposes and projects to planning related issues. The result underlines the importance of not just planning, but proper and strategic planning. Successful planning begins with the details and grows from there. Planning is quite different from preparation; one might be prepared for a thing one has not really planned for. Having a strategic plan is an integral and fundamental part of achieving goals and purposes. Planning can be as easy as sitting down and contemplating in expectancy how things will play out. You don’t want to put yourself in the category of those who plan by mere head thought alone, do you? Like I always say, successful people plan on paper. Planning can also be taken a step further by obtaining, organizing, sorting, brooding, removing, working into a pattern as well as strategizing a model that if achieved would produce the desired success. Enormous care and effort would be required in strategizing a plan for success, in planning you are operating on simulated experience and that underlines the need for creative thinking. This could add up to the reasons why lots of people don’t plan effectively. Where there is a goal there must be a plan. Failure could result not because people deliberately want to fail; they only failed to plan for success.

#1 Prepare your plan outside the situation: Noah did not start building the ark when he encountered the flood. You can’t plan in the situation to succeed, since planning is a simulated experience, it requires learning from anticipated expectations at states other than the present one. You don’t want to commence planning when the situation is upon you. Doing that will defeat the purpose of planning, which includes utilizing time and opportunity to make the most out of resources and ensure success.
Have a long term plan. It could be demanding to implement long term plans amidst distractions and other things that require urgent implementation. That is why it’s necessary to have targets worth living for as long term goals. Think of having a purpose worth living for, you would do anything to accomplish it, won’t you? Such goals create hope; hope urges on and tells us that tomorrow will be better. Preparing your plan outside the situation creates the opportunity for accessing how realistic the plan really is. During this process get the best counsel you can possibly get, for without counsel purposes are disappointed. You don’t want your plan to result to failure and disappointment, do you? How well you strategize your plan determines how confident you are about it. It boosts confidence knowing that what’s coming has already been well planned for. Like you well know, (confidence is key). Know what you want to achieve before planning and work out your strategy to actualize it. Planning outside the situation gains you time and opportunity to familiarize and patter your operation accordingly. Value time in planning and incorporate it wisely because everything hangs on time. A purpose without a plan is as good as a dream.

#2 make your plan fit for you: it is one thing making a plan, it’s another thing adapting to it. Some people make plans that end up countering their efforts as well as drawing them back. Don’t plan because they say it is necessary, plan because you are organized, you know what you are set to achieve and how to get there. That’s what planning is about, knowing what’s coming and strategizing a arrangement to handle it.
Since you alone know how best you operate, you can play the role of chief architect in strategizing your plan.
Consider your haves: there is need for having a wide variety perspective while planning. It is necessary to plan considering resources already on ground, list out the resources you have that will help and enhance your chances of achieving the purpose.
Consider your “don’t haves”: also listing out what you don’t have will save you the ravage of trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Now you are aware of your haves and don’t haves, you have to find out the resources you need, to implement your plan. You don’t want to make a plan that does not cover the fundamental aspect of implementation.
Remember, your plan is your guideline to achieving your goal. So, as much as possible make it adaptable. However, if the adaptability of your plan does not demand discipline and giving your best effort, then it is not worth it. You don’t want to be making another to-do list that you end up ignoring, do you?
It is a good way of checking and avoiding unnecessary distractions when you know the things that are needed and those that are not, in the process of achieving your goal.

#3 build on your plan: now that you have made the plan, you want to implement it knowing that by so doing the purpose of the plan will be achieved. It would interest you to notice that step one and two would produce as much of the desired result as a handful, if more of step three is not carried out. Executing the plan is what you want to be doing right now, there is no better way to accomplish a feet than by starting it. Likewise a purpose can’t be achieved if its plan is not executed.
There might not be such a thing as a perfect plan; but in doing the right thing, one can strategize a practical plan that if executed would bring forth the expected results.
Specifying your roles and goals, incorporating a mission statement and a vision statement in your strategic plan would further enhance it execution. To implement your plan you must strive to execute it. No matter how strategic and well worked out a plan is, it cannot execute itself. You must ACT upon it.
A – Accept it as your guideline when you have thoroughly accessed its potency.
C – Commit to it and comply with it.
T – Take significant, disciplined steps towards its implementation, get the right counsel, build a team to help if need be. Planners know what to do; executers know what to do next.
Anyone who tells you that there isn’t need for planning is either confused or trying to mislead you. Facing the future or pursuing a purpose without a strategic plan will not produce the expected result. Battles are not won by strength alone or military capability, but with strategy and careful planning. Only a fool goes into battle without a plan. The best time to plan is not when the situation comes calling. Anticipate events and plan for them, that is called foresight. Planning require learning from anticipated experience other than the current one. Planning is a simulated operation; it can’t also be a solitary pursuit. Remember, no matter what you plan for, plan big. Small plans have no capacity to steer people’s soul.

6 Qualities That Successful People Have Adapted And Internalized

Does success really have secretes? Are successful people evasive about some qualities that made them so successful and outstanding; is there a conspiracy of silence? Definite answers have not been given to this question; I know you would like to know the answers to this question so read on as this article will reveal the so called secretes that successful people adapted and have internalized.
Success as so many people think has secretes, but these secretes are actually no secretes. These are not esoteric or supper humanistic principles, they are qualities exhibited by seemingly ordinary people who took that first step of resolving to succeed despite the overwhelming opposition that comes with success. There is one prominent fact to be noted: successful people have principles, well internalized principles that have propelled them from ground level to the outstanding position they now occupy.


#1 They have a precise passion: it’s very important to be passionate about ones’ aspiration however without the exact undivided enthusiasm channeling to that purpose, the expected end result might not be achieved. It’s easy to be passionate about anything but never has it been an effortless task developing and focusing ones’ passion and resources consistently towards achieving an aspiration amidst all the distractions. That’s why so many people excuse divided enthusiasm, they don’t have the tenacity to hold on and follow their aspiration through to the end. Do you know what the secrete of success in life really is? One thing—just one thing you stick to and that, you have to figure out. In the words of Emerson “nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” It’s not enough to have passion, know what you want, single it out and give it all you‘ve got.


#2 They Aspire for greatness: the height successful people attain, they aspired to reach. Motivated by that aspiration they do whatever it takes to achieve it. Bill Gates aspired to build his own company; today that company has over hundred thousand employees worldwide. Even though most successful people try to be humble by saying they never dreamed of getting where they are, they still worked hard from the onset knowing they can get to the top. No matter what field they perform all successful people share this quality. And being highly successful begins with aspiring to be successful, for what you can conceive you can achieve.


#3 Their passion was not born overnight: their motivation is not by one flight. The reason why so many people fail is because they want to achieve in one flight what has taken successful person years to accomplish. Case in point: a man was going down the drains of failing business and he sees another man whose business is exceedingly flourishing he immediately switches to that business, after some time if the business is nothing to be compared with what attracted him in the first place he now starts thinking of another one. No he got it all wrong; don’t be that man, don’t do something because another is succeeding in doing it don’t copy their methods or achievements rather adapt the principles to achieve your own passion and goals.

#4 They spend time developing themselves: first and foremost, educate yourself. That’s the essence of having a successful foundation to build on. Invest time in educating yourself on each and everything you care for. They know more than sitting back and thinking of success as a position or destination which they have arrived at.

#5 They cooperate: cooperation has been effectively utilized by the most successful people, they know they can achieve a lot on their own, they are also aware of the fact they can achieve a lot more with the help of another. They know the power of synergy; they know that two is better than one. The famous brand Google never came to existence until Larry Page met with Sergey Brin and together they formed one of the biggest internet companies today. Successful people know they can’t achieve everything alone, they believe in team work. If you can’t find that extra edge to achieve it alone, don’t sit back or give up on it. Find some one achieve it with you. A man said he cannot find the solution to a problem but he knows that someone a little bit smatter than him can

#6 Determination: you can’t afford to be giving up if you want to be successful. Highly successful people dont give up on their aspiration; by hard work they keep determined to see it all to the end. It is never easy to hold on when things are not working out well, those who made it never held on because they want to be seen as determined or because they don’t want to be termed quitters. They were sure of their objective and the end result, so they held on.


The ability to be successful is not a gift bestowed on a few endowed people; the fact is that anybody can be successful. Don’t think that highly successful people are super humans; they are like every other person on earth on earth. Only they have adopted and internalized certain principles that have enhanced their climb to the top. You can be successful if you so desire…studying this article would help you understand the principles successful people internalize. However, these is not a quick fix procedure, study and practice them, let time perfect it in you and your success will appear more achievable than you thought.