Self-development is one of the broadest subjects. For some of us, it has become a lifestyle, something that is with us 24/7. In the search for happiness, health and wealth, we try to completely immerse ourselves into it. We constantly read books, watch documentaries, buy programs and listen to smart people talk because we truly believe that all of that will help us move forward.

But do you ever feel like self-development is just exhausting you? Do you ever feel like you have had enough, that you just want to relax and be able to enjoy life doing nothing? To be completely honest with you, I know I do. When you work so hard, but see so little progress, it is only a matter of time before you get fed up. And that is the exact reason why everything should have a structure and be done in moderation, including self-development. In other words, we should avoid being fanatical about it.

In this post, I want to talk about the three pillars of self-development and their underlying principles. The main goal of these three pillars is to serve you as an indicator that you are not only consuming information, but also putting it into action and moving forward with it. By applying these 3 simple pillars of self-development, you can be confident that you don’t fall into a paralysis from analysis and eventually burn out.

1. Learning

The first pillar of self-development is learning.

Some people say that you should never wait or doubt yourself, and that action should be taken as soon as possible. While that can be in some rare cases acceptable, you will always get better results if you first do your homework. If you take the time to study and understand the subject that you are going to put yourself through, you are going to make fewer mistakes and have higher chances of not getting discouraged when difficulties arise.

Recommended read: Stop Doubting Yourself: Learn How to Be a Risk Taker

That being said, don’t make the mistakes so many of us do…

– Don’t spend a year trying to learn something that can be done in 2 weeks.

– Don’t postpone reading a book that you can read today.

– Don’t procrastinate when you know that you are procrastinating. Always be honest with yourself.

– Don’t try to learn everything in the world all at once. Pick one or two subjects to learn at a time.

As Bruce Lee once said:

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

To make it easier for yourself, pick one of the following areas of life, and start mastering it.

– Social & Family Relationships

– Career & Education

– Money & Personal Finances

– Physical Health, Recreation & Leisure

– Life’s Routine Responsibilities

– Mental & Emotional Wellbeing

One important thing to remember regarding the three pillars of self-development is that once you have learned something, you don’t have to put it aside and go back to learn another thing. Instead, take it directly to the next pillar.

2. Taking action

The second pillar of self-development is where all the fun begins. This is the pillar that allows you to completely transform your life for the better. You will have the opportunity to do many things, some of which include earning more money, becoming fit, improving relations with your loved ones, parents, friends and even yourself. This is the where you take action and put to use the theory that you learned before.

On the other hand, this pillar is the most frightening. This is where most people drop off due to fear of failure, fear of being judged and, believe it or not, fear of change towards the better. Sometimes people don’t want to let go of old bad habits.

When you take action, you will inevitably have to go outside of your comfort zone and do the things that you are not used to doing. But don’t worry, this is actually exciting. You wanted to improve your life, didn’t you?

Because you took the time to learn before you began taking action, this pillar should be a lot easier to work with than it would have been otherwise.

Also, at the stage of the second pillar of self-development, you have to begin applying certain tools in order to be more effective:

Goal setting

Goal setting is extremely important. If you have no goals for the day, week, month and year ahead, you don’t actually know where are you are heading and how well you are doing at any given moment of time. You must set goals for maximum achievement.

Recommended read: 5 Powerful Goal Setting Tools to Spark Your Achievements

Positive visualization

Some believe in the law of attraction and some don’t, but that doesn’t even matter, to be honest. By visualizing how you already have the success that you are after, you are making the process of getting there a lot more positive and enjoyable. See yourself being slim enough to fit into your favorite dress, rich enough to be driving your favorite sports car or living in the house of your dreams. Just remember:

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

–Napoleon Hill

Gratitude

Every day you wake up and go to sleep, spend 5 minutes being grateful for everything that you have either learned or are about to learn.

It’s easy to get caught up in all of the activities of the day. We forget the people we meet, the connections we make, the knowledge we acquire, the experiences we have and the progress we make. In order to keep these things in mind, practice gratitude to remind yourself that you are thankful for all of the opportunities that come your way and the improvement you are able to make every day of your life.

Recommended read: 26 Best Productivity Apps That Will Help You Achieve

3. Helping others

The last pillar of self-development is about helping others.

I strongly believe that self-development without helping others is not self-development. Sure, to help others, we need to first help ourselves, but that’s exactly why this is the last pillar out of three.

You can’t be selfish if you want to grow and expand. By giving away, you learn to be humble, you help others who are in need of it, and you solidify the knowledge and information that you have received from others.

If you were able to lose a lot of weight, create a successful business or master some special skill, don’t keep it all to yourself. Teach it to those people that also have the passion to learn and are asking for it. And I’m not saying that you have to give away everything that you’ve got, but what I am saying is that the more you get, the more you are able to share with the world.

Being generous and willing to help others is one of the most important things we can do as human beings. You may think that by doing this you are only helping others, but that’s not true. By helping others, you attain fulfillment, which is the genuine road to your happiness. Don’t you enjoy giving gifts to your loved ones? What if you could give gifts to the whole world?

You can’t help everyone, but if everyone could help at least one other person, we would be living in the perfect world.

Thank you for stopping by and good luck!

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