by Venchito Tampon | Last Updated on October 9, 2023
Personal growth is understanding different aspects of personal development. When nurtured, you get to achieve both success and fulfillment in life.
Being self-aware of each of these domains helps you achieve holistic personal growth.
A father can’t simply provide food for his family. He should also be a good father (parental) and husband (marital).
At the same time, he does not neglect his priorities at work (vocational), becoming a volunteer for a church or other non-profit organization (avocational), still in touch with his friends (social), and pursuing growth through reading (intellectual) and manages emotions in downturns (emotional).
This is only an excellent example of how one person should view personal growth. So, in this article, I’ll walk you through the ten essential aspects of personal development.
10 Aspects of Personal Development
1. Physical
Physical fitness is doing two things right: a balanced diet and exercise.
Maintaining good health and fitness prolongs lifespan and reduces the risk of chronic diseases. It also enhances your mood and mental well-being, allowing you to get more things done at work (vocational). It also strengthens your immune system, reducing susceptibility to illnesses.
While doing exercise helps you in weight management and muscle toning. For men, it is a much-needed activity to strengthen their capacity and abilities for home activities.
Any regular physical activity improves cardiovascular health. And doing it along with a balanced diet enhances metabolic functions.
Adequate Sleep and Relaxation
When you have adequate sleep (6+ hours), you improve cognitive functions and memory, helping you to better recover from work. It also reduces stress and prevents you from having mental health issues.
This primary aspect of personal development allows you to be more productive and achieve great things in life. Do not neglect the physical area, as it can primarily affect other life domains.
2. Vocational / Career
We work a minimum of 40 hours every week (based on the work week hours of Filipino workers).
You spend ⅓ of your life daily in the office (or at home – for remote workers).
Paying attention to your career lets you purchase material things from personal or business income. Giving you financial freedom and time you can spend with your family.
Being great in your vocational area is imperative to personal growth. Here are some actionable tips to grow your career:
1. Be a lifelong learner.
You must learn from inspiring and value-adding learning materials to succeed in your career. These include seminars, workshops, books, coaching, and mastermind groups.
By investing in yourself, you’ll reap the rewards after all application and putting the hard work of turning knowledge into action.
You’ll become more productive, delivering value to your customers, clients, and colleagues.
One idea can change everything in your career. So, spend at least 30 minutes reading and learning new insights about your industry and personal development daily.
Some personal development experts I learned from are Francis Kong, Anthony Pangilinan, Jayson Lo, Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, Dr. John Maxwell, and other respective leadership speakers and personality development experts in the Philippines.
By learning new insights, I can apply them to my work and grow my four businesses even more.
2. Number your days.
Numbering your days means you only invest time in things that will add value to your life and lead you to your success goals.
Learn to say no. Only some activities are worth your time. Some will only distract you from your purpose and direction in life.
Productivity is also doing the right things, so ensure you maximize your time practicing the right things to achieve meaningful results.
3. Upskill and widen your expertise.
We live in a very volatile and ever-changing business landscape. Adapting to changes, innovating new ideas, and disrupting yourself to become an expert in one industry area will go a long way in your career.
Investing in various technical and soft skills training is one way to upskill in your space.
Other learning interventions include life coaching, leadership, and business coaching.
4. Set lagging and leading goals.
Goal setting allows you to see incremental progress in your career. By setting goals, you pull yourself into your future achievements.
Any person must set two types of goals: lagging and leading.
Lagging goals take a long time to change and achieve. One good example of this is earning a monthly income of Php 150,000.
Leading goals measure the activities you need to help you reach your lagging goals. In our example, your lagging goal is to find an additional income stream that enables you to earn Php 50,000. Three income streams with similar or higher monthly profits can help you reach your lagging goal – Php 150,000.
5. Build the proper habits.
In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear said it this way: “You do not rise to the level of habits. You fail to the level of your systems”.
Proper habits can help you instill discipline and develop the correct identity you want for yourself.
With habits and systems, it is possible to reach your goals.
So, think of the habits you need to build in your career to achieve your goals. These habits include reading books, attending seminars, listening to inspiring and helpful podcasts, and learning resources – this would allow you to grow by gaining the needed knowledge to hone your craft.
3. Avocational
Avocational refers to activities outside of work. These include hobbies, interests, or leisure that allow you to pursue your passion and help others with their personal lives.
One of the avocational things I do is being part of our church volunteerism group. Helping others through my service allows me to grow my avocational area of life.
Apart from it, I served as one of the Board of Trustees of Elevaxion, a non-profit organization that helps uplift other people’s lives through different outreach programs.
This could be a good example you may want to try as your avocational activities.
Let me give you some other examples of avocational activities:
- Sports (hiking, skiing, basketball, etc..)
- Book reading (non-fiction or fiction books)
- Joining a non-profit organization in your industry that shares the same values as you (e.g., JCI and Rotary Club).
- Being more confident in your speaking abilities through public workshops (e.g., Toastmasters’ public speaking classes).
- Become a volunteer at a church.
Pursuing your passion and interest allows you to maintain sanity and improve your mental well-being (outside of work). As we all know, if you’re only doing things within your vocation (work), it could sometimes lead to burnout. And to avoid burnout, you need some avocational activities.
4. Financial
Financial domain is knowing how to grow the wealth given to you. Being wise and able to save money, earn more, and invest what you have are three keys to a prosperous financial area.
Based on one of the top-ranked financial experts in the country, Randell Tiongson, there are five steps to proper investing:
Step 1: Improving Cash Flow
For every 100% of your net income, try to spend up to 70% of your income and 30% savings.
To improve your cash flow, it is best to find additional sources of income.
I have six different income sources that help me sustain my lifestyle and achieve my financial goals:
- SharpRocket – a digital marketing agency that sells search engine optimization services to clients.
- Hills & Valleys Cafe – a local cafe with available coffee franchising options.
- Blend N Sips – eCommerce website selling coffee equipment, supplies, and tea products.
- Rainmaker Training – corporate training, speaking, and team building services.
- Consultancy services – providing digital marketing advice and guidance to small business entrepreneurs like this event styling business.
Step 2: Getting Out of Debt
Snowball effect – start with a small snowball. As it starts running downhill, it becomes bigger and bigger.
In getting out of debt, it is vital to take note of all personal loans, bank loans, credit cards, and any other type of debt.
By writing all of them, you’ll have a quick look at which monthly payments to go first. The key is to get out of debt quickly so you can proceed to other vital steps in investing.
After all, if you have more positive cash going in instead of cash paying out, you’re likely to achieve your financial goals.
Step 3: Setting Up Your Emergency Fund
Keep a maximum of 6 months’ worth of expenses.
You should set aside an emergency fund you use only when urgent or unnecessary things happen, such as paying for hospital bills.
Make an emergency fund a liquid asset that you can easily withdraw whenever some emergencies in need of cash come up.
Step 4: Getting Protected From Life’s Risks
The biggest risk we can ever face is our untimely demise.
One financial investment you should consider is insurance. This involves investing in accident, life, and critical illness insurance. This gives you confidence whenever unexpected situations happen in your life.
Step 5: Investing For Your Future
It can begin to work for us when we have appropriately invested our money.
The great thing about this wealth creation and investment is its alignment with the Filipino context – how Filipinos behave and think.
Investments available in the Philippines include UITF, mutual funds, stocks, cryptocurrency, bonds, forex trading, and PERA. You can check out this comprehensive list of the best investments in the Philippines.
5. Social
Personal development’s social or relational aspect allows us to enjoy authentic relationships and contribute better to the community.
Building connections with people adds more to our relational bank, which is essential in maintaining a well-rounded approach to personal growth.
We are all social beings. No one, regardless of their personality type, could live alone. As they say, “No man is an island”.
So, here are some ways to improve your social life as a personal development approach to take on.
1. Value other people’s interests.
The key to building more friendships and connections is to be interested in other people’s lives. The conversation shouldn’t always be about you when you talk to someone.
Be an active listener. Empathetically listen to both the verbal message (words) and non-verbal language (body language) of the person you’re speaking with.
The more you become interested in people’s lives, the better and more meaty the conversations you have with them.
2. Consider others better than yourself.
When increasing your social skills, consider what matters to the person you’re talking to. It could be that they have their problem, and you may suggest solutions or advice to guide the person towards something.
Being considerate of what’s in for others allows you to be more of a service to them. This type of trait in personal development gives you leverage in gaining their trust and favor.
Mutually beneficial relationships only happen if you initiate first in helping others with their challenges and problems in life.
3. Build better influence.
Influence isn’t only applicable in leadership but in relating yourself with others. You attract others toward you through words and actions and by simply living a life of personal excellence.
Not from an angle of brainwashing people, but when you serve others and amplify good influence, you allow others to come to you and connect more profoundly.
6. Spiritual
All human beings are spiritual beings. At some point in one’s life, they’ll have to deal with the highest being – your Creator.
I’m certain each of us has some form of faith. We are a Christian nation in the Philippines, with Jesus and the Trinity as our primary objects of faith.
I respect other beliefs but believe in Jesus and the Bible as the source of truth and the manual of life.
To gain a holistic view of yourself, you should also prioritize spiritual growth.
It significantly affects your life once you connect to a higher being. Wisdom, insight, and knowledge will be upon you.
An intense spirituality gives inner peace and purpose, allowing you to sustain your personal growth.
7. Marital
This applies to people in the marriage season.
Investing time with your spouse is one of the highest investment returns for personal growth. You spend the most meaningful time with the love of your life and gain more love and joy whenever you are with your spouse.
Here are some tips to grow your marriage life:
- Invest in a weekly date (without kids) to have an intimate connection with one another.
- Communicate weaknesses, issues, and challenges appropriately. Consider your tone of voice and choice of words when speaking to your spouse.
- Instill essential values in your marriage. Values must be reflected in the way you communicate with your spouse.
- Avoid anything that will start any barrier or wall between you and your spouse.
8. Parental
Parental aspects of personal development will impact your life for decades.
Given that you’ll be investing resources with your kids, your influence on them will be significant to others in their generation.
Nurture and guide your children as they grow up. Never think that just because you provide them with money- it is your only responsibility as a parent.
Set boundaries and take the time to discipline so they will go in the direction you want them to go. Godly, healthy, and wise kids who will be the next leaders in the sphere of influence they’re called to.
More importantly, be a role model for your children. They only emulate your actions. So, displaying the right attitude towards them builds their character and helps them grow into mature adults.
9. Emotional
Emotional health refers to your ability to manage thoughts and feelings when downturns, challenges, and problems come into your life.
In personal development, we call it “emotional intelligence”. This is not based on how intellectual you are (more on this later) but rather on being self-aware of your emotions and being sensitive to other people’s feelings.
This remarkable ability allows you to influence others better and create better connections.
And by improving your emotional intelligence, you can increase positive stress and manage negative stress, giving you an unfair advantage when a crisis happens to you.
Here are some actionable tips to grow in the emotional aspect of personal development:
- Be more self-aware of emotions (especially during downtimes).
- Control your emotions. Don’t make significant decisions at your feelings’ peak and lowest points.
- Be sensitive to other people’s feelings. Learn to discern from their body language.
- Seek support from others when needed. Community can help you overcome distress and challenges in life.
10. Intellectual
The intellectual aspect of personal development is your ability to expand knowledge, gain new insights, and learn wisdom from learning resources and other people.
By building your intellectual capacity, you can make wiser decisions, solve problems better, and significantly impact other people’s lives by sharing what you know.
Some people tend to make intellectual (or education industry) their vocation – so they earn a living by sharing what they know with others.
Here are some ways to grow your intellectual domain:
- Read non-fiction books, autobiographies, and ebooks.
- Listen to inspirational and thought-provoking podcasts from top speakers, leaders, and successful business people.
- Attend seminars, workshops, conferences, consulting, and coaching sessions.
By seeking knowledge and wisdom, you get to increase your value in the marketplace – that will be helpful in your vocation, avocation, marital, emotional, parental, and other life domains.
Key Takeaways
There are many ways to grow in different aspects of your personal development, but one that will help you thrive and succeed is self-awareness. Every day, learn to invest in various tools, strategies, and systems to grow your personal growth. It will have a massive impact on the quality of life you want for yourself and your family.
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