Personal Development Hacks: Small Ways to Work on Yourself With Big Results

The year of 2020 has been a personal development journey for me.

I am taking advantage of this time and digging deep to become more self-aware.

As a coach, I have to consistently coach myself. We can psych ourselves out by taking on too much.

It’s unnecessary to move a mountain in a weekend. I am doing a little each day for my growth and I see the results. 

You don’t have to be a superstar each day to become a superstar (well, you should believe you are superstar anyway), you have to start.  

There are plenty of little things you can do that won’t tax your mind or body to any significant degree. 

The key is to continuously make progress.

Here are some of my personal development hacks:

Read something useful each night. I have changed my morning routine (more of that next). Therefore, I head to bed 20-30 minutes earlier than what I was used to. 

I purposely go to bed early so I can spend the extra time reading something that will aid in my development. 

Twenty minutes per day is over 120 hours per year. You can learn a lot in that time.

Replace one bad habit with one good habit. I wanted to understand the hype behind getting up early. So I started waking up at 5AM, and research is correct. I get SO much done. 

I eat my frog (schoolwork) from 6-730AM before work. 

From 5AM-6AM, I meditate, journal, read, say my affirmations, and do my visualizations. I no longer go to bed at midnight and it really makes a difference. 

Pick one simple bad habit, perhaps drinking too much diet soda. Replace it with a positive habit, maybe drinking plain water. Dropping one negative thing and adding a positive is a powerful strategy. I recommend the book Tiny Habits by Dr. BJ Fogg. 

Practice patience. I have learned to give myself grace. 

Everything doesn’t require a response, so learn to be patient with yourself. 

We have a need for patience each day and plenty of opportunities for practice all around us. Standing in line, waiting at the doctor’s office, sitting in traffic, and dealing with negative people. 

I have been using these opportunities to practice being patient. I ask myself “how does this serve you,” take a deep breath and relax.

Prioritize your focus. One way to speed up your progress is to concentrate on fewer things. 

I made a conscious decision to focus on three things in 2020, business, school, and health. Even though each of the three has its own sub-categories, I have kept my focus on these. 

Cut back on the breadth of your ambitions and focus on the couple of most important things in your life. 

Give the most important things the attention they deserve and you will see how your mindset changes.

Try something new. If you want to expand your comfort zone and gain a fresh perspective, try something new. 

It can be anything. 

Just do it. 

It might be going to a Korean restaurant for the first time, taking a pottery class, or joining a kickball team. 

Learning to play tennis and the guitar are next on my list. 

Break out of your routine and give something new a try.

Forgive others. Forgiveness is for yourself, I am sure you have heard this. 

Another reason for forgiveness is, you can’t wish ill will on someone and wish for greatness for yourself. 

Let it go. 

I have accepted a long time ago, that forgiveness does not mean reconciliation. 

I forgave and moved on. 

You can too. 

Review your day. At night before my reading time, I set my next day up and journal my reflections on how my day went. It is so refreshing and I relish each night in the fact that I have a great life, (I choose to think this way). 

I have “WOW” moments every day. “WOW” moments are moments of simple gratitude, such as a bill getting paid, good food, or finishing an assignment. 

Record your “WOW” moments nightly and what didn’t “WOW” you. 

It is your journal, be honest with yourself.

Avoid the belief that you must take on a spectacular task to develop yourself. Focus on placing a brick each day, that is how the Egyptians did it as they didn’t have the tools we have today to build. 

Your vision board pictures will be checked off eventually without you have to do anything spectacular; stay focused on yourself and make changes.

The little things each day eventually make a vast difference. 

Thanks for reading!

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