6 Personal Development Ideas That Don’t Break the Bank
Personal development is becoming more and more popular as we all strive to find some meaning to our lives. Especially in this crazy time when we are being reminded of the fragility of life every single day - as we watch covid deaths and cases continue to crescendo. It is also a time when many people are worried about money - I cannot believe anyone has not been impacted whether you yourself are on reduced hours, or a family member or friend has been made redundant or furloughed… Personally while my own job is so far ok - my fiancé was made redundant in July…
And this is great opportunity to take the time to work on personal development but I understand it can feel like it is a luxury just for the rich and famous; those who have already made it. And I want to show you that is not the case!
A really simple way to work on your personal development is through reading! There are literally millions of personal development books out there - millions - and they are a really inexpensive way to work on yourself. Libraries are a great resource - you can peruse their library collections, and if you have specific books you can always order them to your local library. You may have to wait a week or two for the book - but it is totally worth it! You are saving so much money not buying new books, and you are being a friend to the environment!
More on Irish local libraries here: https://www.librariesireland.ie/
Some good personal development books I recommend:
Self Love & Spiritual Alchemy - Dani Watson
Chillpreneur - Denise Duffield Thomas
Weekend Life Coach - Lynda Field
Speak to people who you admire and find out what has helped them get to where they are. Depending on who you admire - this can be a super easy or hard, but look around for people in your vicinity who would be easily accessible and happy to speak with you and give you some advice!
It can also be inspiring to watch TED talks with people you admire or on areas related to personal development. And make sure you take notes! I know you think you don’t need to :), that you will remember all the key points when you get to the end or indeed, tomorrow, but unless you have an identic memory - you won’t. So take notes that you can refer back to! You’ll thank me later! This also applies to the books in point 1 - or you can get some coloured tabs to mark out the pages that stood out to you.
Work on creating a good routine and curating some daily positive habits! If you have read a lot of this blog you will know how much I bang on about a good morning routine! I know I say it all the time - but I cannot stress enough how amazing I have found this! It has really changed the game for me! You can check out my post about it here.
Invest in yourself - this is really dependent on you and your finances but investing in yourself is a great way to really take a big leap forward in personal development. If you can afford 1:1 coaching then this is amazing. You have someone who will help you get clarity on your goals, help you figure out what is standing in your way - whether that is real or subconscious and work with you to remove those blocks! Many coaches also offer online courses which are less expensive although also less personalised but if you can push yourself to do the work (without the accountability you would get with a coach) then it can be a great way to make some good headway into the world of personal development. As a coach myself I know I might sound biased but honestly, it is through being coached myself that I saw how transformational it really is, and that was what spurred me on to become a coach myself!
Perhaps not a personal development hack as such - but it is good to curate some space for yourself to do your personal development work in! Rather than trying to do it on the sofa with one eye on Netflix (yes I see you there), or as you are falling asleep in bed reading it is better to create a space for yourself to actually do your personal development work - and schedule a time to do it. You will no doubt be completely unsurprised to hear me tell you that my personal preference is to do the work in the morning shock shock but honestly, this is what works for me. My article last week was around creating a good work from home space, and could definitely be applied when creating a space for you to do your personal development work - check it out here.
Personal Development is important but don’t forget to take some time for you too! In a time when many of us are in lockdown - cooped up with our partners from one end of the day to the other - it can be hard to feel like you have any time at all for yourself! One night a week, we have ‘me time Wednesday’ - and basically after dinner on Wednesday we each go to different rooms in the house and spend the time on our own! It sounds strange but it is a great way to get some headspace; you can do something creative, or just watch that show on Netflix that you know your partner hates (like RuPaul’s Drag Race)!
Here you can find some other great ideas for Self Care in Lockdown!
Let me know what you think down below, and let me know if you have any other ideas you would like to share!
See you next week!
Sho xxx