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Here are the 2 things you need to know about personal development and how you can use them to your advantage.

1. You’re human.

2. It’s hard.

Well duh you say. Ok, let me start of by saying that I’m assuming, since you’ve come here, that you’re interested in personal development. I’m also going to assume that you’ve read something about it. It’s probably also safe to assume that you’ve tried various personal development ideas. And you’ve probably failed at some of them.

Most personal development books make it sound so easy. “Just list your goals and work on the top priorities. If you do that you’ll be one of the best time managers of your era!” or “Just 10 minutes a day and you’ll have the perfect abs!” or “Get a clear vision about your projects and you *will* achieve them!”

So you read this stuff and get fired up. “Yeah, I can do it!”

And then…. nothing. Sure, you may do something for a day or so but pretty soon after that you aren’t following through. Maybe you missed a day. Then the next day. By the third day, the whole thing is entirely forgotten. Then you’re reminded of it some time later and it’s like “oh yeah, I should really do that” and again it never happens. The enthusiasm and passion to implement the idea has gone.

Your mind isn’t in the same state as when you were fired up. There could be a number of reasons - often it’s as simple as just being tired after a long day at work. You get home and think “I should do some work on that software app but oh look, my bittorrent client has just finished downloading the latest StarGate episode. Hmmmmm, which shall I choose.” And the video wins most times.

Note that I said “most times”. There will be those nights when you actually get on and do something productive. It’s these small actions that help build your personal development muscle. It can take a long time but it will eventually prove fruitful.

Ok, so let’s look at those 2 things you have to accept.

First, you’re human - what does that mean? It means you’re run by a bunch of desires that are very hard to overcome. “I’d like to get out of bed early and go for that run, but gee it’s nice and warm in bed…” At it’s most basic level you want to gain pleasure and avoid pain. And you have hundreds of conflicting emotions and desires. You are not a robot that blindly follows a script.

Second, personal development is hard - yep, hard. Of course, that’s not what infomercials promise. That’s because no-one would buy “Get thin in 20 hard steps that will take 5 years.” Open and honest people agree that it’s hard. Steve Pavlina says it on his homepage and discusses it further here.

Here’s the important bit. How can you use these 2 things to your advantage?

On being human - if you accept that there are going to be times when you don’t feel like working on your projects you can do two things - make sure that when you do feel like working on them that you actually do it! Make use of those golden times when you feel great. Second, set up brain-dead systems that you can work through when you don’t want to do things.

I have a bunch of business stuff I need to do every month or so. I’ve made it easy on myself by writing HowTo lists for these tasks - completely brain-dead simple lists that tell me exactly what to do. Click here, open this file, get this folder out of the filing cabinet, enter in this value there. Get an envelope out of the drawer. Write this address on it, etc. If I make the task as easy as possible in this way, it cuts down on the pain threshold.

On being hard - don’t get discouraged when you aren’t earning 1 million dollars in 6 months. Have smart goals - you know, the realistic ones - Specific, Measurable, Attainable or Action oriented, Realistic, Time-bound.

Just because you exercise for a week and then don’t follow through for another month does not mean getting up early and exercising is a bad thing that doesn’t work for you. Accept that this stuff is hard and try a different approach - maybe change the exercise or start listening to podcasts while you exercise so you don’t feel like you’re ‘wasting’ your time. If that doesn’t work, alter it again - buy a better alarm clock, place it across the room to make you get out of bed. Just keep trying things and one day it will eventually click into place.

This is the point - it will take time. You won’t get it right first go. But with perseverance and trying out all sorts of personal development ideas, you’ll eventually hit on those ideas that work for you.

And the great thing about personal development is that everything builds on everything else. As you improve your discipline, you’ll find it easier to take the time to write and review goals. As you take more time to write and review goals, you’ll find it easier to follow through in completing projects. And on it goes.

Accepting up front that you’re human and that personal development is hard will save you disappointment and give you the stamina to keep going to achieve your dreams in the long run!