By Dr. Ari Bernstein

The most successful people among us know that there is an intricate link between personal development and achieving success. If you want to be successful in your endeavors, you need to continually hone your existing skills and develop new ones to achieve your goals.

In my own personal development journey, I chose a path like Napoleon Hill took and decided to study every successful person I could find. I bought books, courses, CDs, audiobooks, digital programs and more produced by people like Napoleon Hill, Dr. Eric Thomas, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, Brendon Burchard, Tony Robbins, and Nick Nanton. I went to Eric Thomas’ and Brendon Burchard’s conferences and participated in their online training programs.

I also went through Bob Proctor’s elite 1-year coaching program, in addition to several other coaching programs by Bob including “Science of Getting Rich.” Now I am currently being personally mentored by Bob Proctor and I am a consultant for him.

I even co-authored the best-selling book The Success Formula with Jack Canfield. I can consider all this just the beginning. I still continue with my path of learning and personal growth because there is always room for improvement.

So, here is my advice to you and anyone who wants to partake in personal development to become more successful.

Adopt a Personal-Development Mentality

Being proactive with your personal development means that you are not sitting around, waiting to see if success will happen. Instead, you are doing the work you need to do to make it happen. You might not achieve every goal that you set out to achieve. However, you will continue to further develop and hone the skills that will move you closer to achieving your future goals by:

  • Building a sense of direction that gives more clarity to your goals and helps you set your priorities.
  • Crafting a sense of self that reinforces your awareness and what your values and beliefs are.
  • Creating a sense of resiliency through tough times so that you do not give up on your goals.
  • Forming a sense of connectedness as you realize what relationships are worth putting the work into and which ones should be let go.

Invest in Your Personal Development

You may be sitting here reading this asking, so how do I invest in your personal development, especially in tough times when you might be feeling a little beat down. Jim Rohn, an author, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker, says: “Sometimes the easiest things to do are also the hardest things not to do.”

Invest in your personal development by reading books, listening to podcasts, taking online courses, or attending workshops given by those who have been in the trenches. If you can, invest in a coach or consultant, and invest in your future by putting money away in savings. And do not forget to invest in your health by adopting a healthier lifestyle that will help improve your focus and productivity.

Personal Development Goals that Successful People Pursue

If you look at the priorities, routines, and habits of successful entrepreneurs throughout history until now, you will see three universal themes:

  1. They devote a lot of time on knowing themselves and becoming self-aware on multiple levels. They have a mission and know how to prioritize to meet their goals. To be successful, you need to know yourself.
  2. They spend time on self-improvement. Yes, they keep up with industry trends and how-to books. But they just do not read. They study their industry, they study other industries, they have interests outside of the business that they study, and maybe what is most important, they study what makes people tick.
  3. They take the time to share with others. Not just money, but actual time imparting their knowledge…their knowledge as to how they have built both their financial success and also their own personal satisfaction.

And here we are…the next move is yours to start working on your own personal development and goals for success.