Personal development is an ongoing journey. If you want to keep being successful in your career and life you need to keep being a better version of yourself.
Now, at different stages of life, you can keep improving your personal skills, for example, through your education, self-learning, enrolling in an online course, or advice from your mentor.
But what are personal development skills, and why are they important?
Personal development skills or interpersonal skills meaning the qualities and abilities of yours that help you grow professionally as well as personally.
Now, when someone says interpersonal skills, what skills come to your mind first? Some may think of 7 C’s of communication, while it could be self-confidence or problem-solving skills for others. But personality development includes more skills than these, such as:
- Interpersonal skills
- Organizational skills
- Integrity
- Adaptability
- Work ethics
- Leadership
How to improve personal development skills
There are many ways through which you can develop and improve interpersonal skills. However, what you need is some simple tips and guidelines to follow that will ensure you keep going and keep growing with every effort you make.
- Overcome your fear.
When you decide to try something new, be it trying a new activity or learning a new skill, what’s one thing that stops you from taking steps ahead – discomfort, anxiety, fear?
Fear is among the many things that can block your journey of improving your personal development skills. Now, you must be thinking, “fear is an instinct when we try something new.” Well, yes, it is. In fact, you should feel the fear and embrace it and accept that something is stopping you from being a better version of yourself.
When you accept and analyze your fear, you will be able to work on your weaknesses. For instance, your career goal requires you to speak in public, which you are afraid of. In this case, you can join a class, an online course, or group discussions to overcome your fear of public speaking.
- Learn something new
Once you have overcome your fear of taking risks, being judged, and fear of failure, you are ready to learn new skills. To make your learning easier and simpler, you can find a mentor or sign up for classes.
In the era of the digital revolution, webinars have come up as a new way of learning from subject experts and industry insiders. Make sure you watch relevant and legit webinars on the internet and social media to learn different aspects and different angles of the subject.
- Read
Books are by far the most important sources of gaining knowledge. While what you learn on the internet, webinars, or digital media is sometimes only scratching the surface to get the detailed knowledge of the subject, you have to dive deep into the book’s pages.
If reading seems tedious, setting up practical goals like completing one book a month will encourage you to keep going.
- Travel and network
They say life is the biggest institution; you learn to hear things that you can’t learn in classes or corporate seminars. Do you know why? Because we learn from life’s experiences.
To learn something new, be it a new language or programming skills real-life experiences, meeting with people will give you different insights on the subject.
For instance, if you are learning a new language, traveling to that particular place, meeting with the natives, and experiencing their daily lives, food, and culture will give you valuable insights no book can.
A similar thing can happen when you connect with an experienced professional when you are learning a programming language. Doing so would give you an insider’s knowledge of how the particular language is used in the practical scenario.
- Ask for feedback
You have made tremendous progress in learning interpersonal skills till now. But who would decide whether you are going in the right direction?
Feedback from your tutor, senior, or mentor can help you evaluate your progress and encourage you to keep going. In case you are self-learning, ask for feedback from your friends or family who have some knowledge of the subject matter you are learning.
Now that you are confident with your newly developed or improved personal development skills, you shouldn’t forget to highlight these in your resume.
Also, mentioning the real-work situations where you have successfully demonstrated these skills will help grab your employer’s attention and increase your chances of taking one step towards your career goal.