It is unfortunate that many Americans today do not pursue the "American Dream." They get stuck working a 9-5 job for 20 plus years with nothing to show for it.

With the importance of personal development at hand you learn how to begin taking small steps towards a life filled with joy and passion.

This has become such a fast and growing industry everyone wants to learn about self help in some area of their lives; you begin to understand the importance of personal development.

So why all the fuss you ask? Well we have all be raised in a society that instills limiting beliefs, and yes you probably still possess the beliefs that you picked up when you were young and they continue to hold you back today.

Personal development will teach you techniques that have been utilized in the past and are still used today to assist individuals to begin creating and working towards the "American Dream." The importance of personal development is not taught in our schools. (which I believe it should be)

So what are some of the techniques that are utilized by athletes, entrepreneurs, salespeople, professionals, and anyone else who decides to utilize them?

I have listed some of the techniques below:

1.) Goal Setting: believe it or not this is the most important step in the whole process. Without a goal you have no direction, and you will keep going in circles.

2.) Action: Okay now that you have a goal in place, take the time to write it down on paper. (believe it or not this is extremely powerful) It now becomes more than wanting, what are you willing to do to reach this goal? How much effort will you put forth?

3.) Set A Date: A goal without a date of accomplishment is just a wish. However learn to set a realistic date, if you set a unrealistic goal, you can tend to become discouraged a not ever pursue an endeavor again.

4.) Read, Read, and Read: Never stop learning. You must continually be open to receiving more education. You can receive this education through books, weekend seminars, or classes.

5.) Mastermind with others who understand the importance of personal development as you do, and they are on the path. The more you can surround yourself with people who think like you do, it will benefit you both.

Remember the saying "birds of a feather flock together." We become like our closest friends we hang out with.

The importance of personal development is; it is never too late to begin. However the sooner you begin your journey the sooner you can begin to let go of your limiting beliefs.

Once you let go of your limiting beliefs you will begin to find the courage to pursue your dreams. Without dreams, we are just living without a purpose. When we do not have a purpose, We have no spark or happiness. We as humans must have something to look forward to everyday.

So why not begin your journey today? You will begin to develop a passion and begin to find out what your passions and hobbies are. You also will be able to assist your children and encourage them to "follow their dreams" and lead by example.
Remember the importance of personal development is to help you lead a more positive and powerful life.

The decisions we make during the course of our life is the primary force that directs our life. Daily we make thousands of decisions about a range of topics. We decide what we want to wear, what we want to eat, how we are going to respond to a certain situation, even doing nothing, procrastination, is a decision. There is a multitude of possible outcomes from the decisions we make, so it is vital to be aware of what we are consciously deciding to do, and the impact it might have on our future.

Before we can start evaluating our decisions and see whether they are producing the results we desire in life we first must understand what a decision is. And what exactly differentiates a good decision to a bad one?

Practically a decision is a choice; it’s a conscious or subconscious evaluation of a given situation and based upon that evaluation an action is taken. These evaluations are viewed through several filters of perception. These filters are usually our beliefs and values. We create our beliefs and values through our life conditioning, mostly due to childhood experiences or significant emotional events. Awareness is the first step for change, and being aware of the possible conditioned responses can be a way of altering your decision making process.

A good decision usually comes from intelligence, intelligence usually comes from experience, and experience is usually derived from mistakes made in the past. The difference of a good decision and a bad decision is intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to have hindsight on a specific topic. Intelligence is also the ability to understand ones own habitual tendencies, and how to overcome them. Being conscious of your possible life conditioning and your current intelligence factor can be a great way to improve your decision making. Being aware that there might be outside forces influencing your decision making (environment), and choosing to decide for your future, will positively impact the direction of your life.

The decisions we make during the course of our life is the primary force that directs our life. Daily we make thousands of decisions about a range of topics. We decide what we want to wear, what we want to eat, how we are going to respond to a certain situation, even doing nothing, procrastination, is a decision. There is a multitude of possible outcomes from the decisions we make, so it is vital to be aware of what we are consciously deciding to do, and the impact it might have on our future.

Before we can start evaluating our decisions and see whether they are producing the results we desire in life we first must understand what a decision is. And what exactly differentiates a good decision to a bad one?

Practically a decision is a choice; it’s a conscious or subconscious evaluation of a given situation and based upon that evaluation an action is taken. These evaluations are viewed through several filters of perception. These filters are usually our beliefs and values. We create our beliefs and values through our life conditioning, mostly due to childhood experiences or significant emotional events. Awareness is the first step for change, and being aware of the possible conditioned responses can be a way of altering your decision making process.

A good decision usually comes from intelligence, intelligence usually comes from experience, and experience is usually derived from mistakes made in the past. The difference of a good decision and a bad decision is intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to have hindsight on a specific topic. Intelligence is also the ability to understand ones own habitual tendencies, and how to overcome them. Being conscious of your possible life conditioning and your current intelligence factor can be a great way to improve your decision making. Being aware that there might be outside forces influencing your decision making (environment), and choosing to decide for your future, will positively impact the direction of your life.

To help ensure success in life it is good for every one of us to have a personal Development Plan (PDP) to guide us along life’s road. Your Personal development is not a destination, you’ll never get ‘there’ wherever ‘there’ is. Your personal development is ongoing so as you accomplish or master one area of your life you will move onto the next level or expand that area.

Many people have a ‘mental block’ when it comes on to addressing problems about themselves and fact there are those who are terrified about taking time and thinking about any such problem. These folks find it much much easier to work on a project or to help someone else to solve their own problems but won’t even consider addressing their own. For this reason and others it is important that we all have a PDP.

Based on your current situation and role, a PDP will help to prioritize the most important areas of your life that you need to concentrate on and will point you in the right direction for further advice and training.

Identifying Areas that need development.
When constructing your PDP I suggest you begin by identifying the areas in your life that need attention. It can be challenging to identify areas of your life that need development especially if you are not in tune with who you are, what you desire, what you have and don’t have. You have to be aware of where you life is now in terms of what’s working and what’s not and also what you are ignoring totally. Just because you have tried in the past to develop certain areas of your life and failed doesn’t mean you cannot be successful in the future, the timing may be wrong.

For many of us our personal development goals are just not strong enough, they have no ‘humph’ in them, no great desire behind them so we keep changing them from day to day or year to year. I’m sure you know those people who on January 1st every year list out the things they want to achieve for that year when they have not even tried to accomplish their goals for the previous year.

So to identify the areas in your life you need to develop the first thing you need to do is to ask yourself “what are the areas in my life that are very important to me and to well being and my existence.” these areas will be different for each of us, for me they are:
1. Physical health
2. Mental/emotional
3. Spiritual
4. Achievement/recreation
5. Financial
6. Relationships-romantic and family

Be careful not to get too hung up on names and what falls into what category, just write them down. This is really just to make it easier to decide on what you want to improve in your life and is by no means carved in stone.

What are your Personal Development goal for each Area
Once you have identified the important areas of your life write down everything that you would like to improve for each area as it relates to your personal growth. In most cases your development goal is going to be about either building on your existing strengths or developing new skills and competencies. So under ‘Physical’ you can state how you would like your body to look, do you need to join a gym today, stop eating meat, exercise five times a week and so on. The key here is to write down anything and everything that comes into mind, whatever you can imagine write it down. You can include short-term goals –something you may want to achieve this week and also long-term goals –things you want to achieve in twenty to twenty-five years. Make the goals ones that you can get excited about.

Put a Timeline on each goal
Once you have listed the goals for each area of your personal development you then have to take the time to put a time line on each goal. It’s not important right now to know how you are going to accomplish your goals. All you do right now is to write down a time frame within which you’ll want to operate. By deciding when you’ll achieve a goal providence comes to your aid in making them a reality. If one year is your time frame and you are committed to this then write down one year. If it’s five years then write down five years.

Begin with your one-year goal
You want to choose the one goal that you consider to be the most important in any of the areas you have identified, make it a goal that would give your great excitement and make you feel that your year was well spent if you were to accomplish it. Next write a paragraph or two stating why you are totally committed to achieving this goal within the year. Include why this is a must for you, what benefits will you gain by achieving it, what will you lose or miss if you didn’t achieve it. Whatever reasons you come up with ensure that they are strong enough to get you to follow through. If they are not, then come up with better and more empowering reasons or better goals.

Where are you now
Once you have determined what your one-year goal will be you start by analyzing where you are starting. This will become the “baseline” from where you measure your progress. A clear awareness of where you are now will help greatly in facilitating your development. If you find it hard to focus on this or to be honest with yourself you can ask for feed back from someone who knows you well and can be objective. You can ask your friends, family, or even your work colleagues as they are all observing you and are affected by the things you do and will therefore have some views about your skills. Ask them questions like:
“What am I good at”,
“What am I great at”,
“What do you think I could be better at”
Make sure they are specific in what they are saying to you. If you do not want a long drawn out epistle from your friends you can limit them to two or three comments.

If you choose to ask someone else pay careful attention to what they are saying as not everything you hear will be flattering to you and some comments will be useless to you. Note whatever is said keeping in mind that good feedback is always specific, clear and non-critical, so if someone says “you’re always doing crazy things’ this should not be take as feedback but criticism and you should total ignore it’s not worth your time.

Once you are done combine your thoughts and the feedback you get and make a list by writing down what you think were your strengths and weaknesses. You need to be honest with yourself here. Check to see if there are any patterns emerging from the comments.

The End Result
At this point what you do is to imagine what it would be like if you got up tomorrow morning and your was solved. Write down how you will feel, what you will be thinking and what it will be like. Make sure these statements are made in the affirmative and positive. So instead of writing “I feel o.k. about the way I’m dressing now” you should write “I fell happy and confident about my clothes and how they look on me”

Action Plan
Next you need to identify what you need to do to take you to where you want to be. This is the time to think creatively about what you need o do. There are wide range and a large number of resources out there, ready and waiting for you to use to take you in the right direction. There will be a mixture of self-study, formal training, informal training and “on the job” experiences. Only you will know what’s best for you, your budget and your lifestyle. So if your goal is to be physically then you will want to find out information on health and fitness. Your fist stop would be you doctor, and then maybe a trainer, then you need information on a gym that fits what you need. You get what I mean. After you have written down all the things you need to do put them in some order some that you know what you will be doing first and what’s next and so on. Break it down to its simplest task if possible. Take your time when doing your plan and one important point is that it doesn’t have to be perfect, so do not try and make it so.

Your Reward
Though not necessary you may want to include a series of rewards as you make progress and achieve the smaller goals. You can make it as simple as a slice of your favourite cheesecake after you have been working out for six weeks. For some people no extra incentives are required the improvement is reward enough but small rewards are a good idea still.

Review Your Plan
Once you have finished writing out you PDP it is always a good idea to review it. It’s a good idea to take a break away from your initial PDP of about five to a week then return to it and review it. When reviewing the plan you may also ask someone else to look it over and give their views. If there are any changes that you think are necessary make them.

Implement the Plan
Now that you have completed your PDP, it’s time to implement it. Start with the first task you must accomplish and keep going until all the tasks are finished. Each time you complete a task or do something you are not used to doing do a kind of short review. What did you do well and what could you have done better.

Review Your Progress
By checking your progress you will be able to reflect on what is working and what is not, so you can adjust your actions or change course if you are not achieving what you want. You have to decide how often you check on your progress, it could be every week, every month or every six weeks.

When you develop your own personal development plan and follow through with action it can be one of the most satisfying things you have ever done. It can even build your self-confidence and boost your self-esteem, as you will have a sense of surety about what you are about to do.

The key here is to take the whole process one step at a time. If you ever feel yourself getting overwhelmed, it could be a sign that you are taking on too much. Slow done and concentrate on one thing at a time. Now get going and enjoy the process.

Do you realise the power of having a personal development plan? It's like having your very own blueprint for success in your life – tailored to create your life exactly how you want it to be. If I could show you how to build your own personal development plan, would you be willing to devote 10 -15 minutes per day to nurture it and put it into practise?

Before we get started, let me ask you a question: "Why do successful people seem to find it easier to get what they want in life?" And why do some people get to the top of their careers and earn good money, while you continue to struggle to make a decent living?

The way I see it is this – the people who are able to achieve their goals and ambitions in life, with relative ease are much less inhibited, and are even totally un-inhibited.

These people still get nervous and anxious when in demanding situations that take them outside of their comfort zone, but they have learnt how to control those limiting and dysfunctional emotions and behaviours and even eliminate them completely from their lives.

Successful people have learned the behaviours they need to achieve their goals, and they practice them on very regular occasions. So much so, their old, limiting behaviours have all but been eliminated from their life, and their new empowering behaviours and now the norm.

If these people can learn how to not feel nervous and anxious in important situations, so can you.

If these people have learned how to remain calm and relaxed when they get into winning positions in sport, so can you.

If these people have learned how to stand in front of a room full of people, be relaxed, smile, and present their ideas, so can you.

And if these people have learned how to overcome their frustrations and inabilities to achieve their highest goals in life, so can you.

If you can dedicate 5 to 10 minutes each day to practising some simple NLP techniques, you can start to take control of your fears and frustrations and turn them into positive and empowering emotions.

Before you turn tail and run at the thought of learning some NLP techniques, or if you're not really sure what it is, in it's simplest form, Neuro Linguistic Programming is basically a method of helping you change the way you habitually react to any given situation. When you experience anxiety or frustration, you are simply reacting negatively to the situation that is causing those emotions. NLP teaches you how you can easily change your reactions to be positive and empowering.

To get started, there are two very simple exercises you need to learn and practice:

1. You need to become aware of all the situations and environments that make you feel nervous, anxious and inhibited. Carry a little notebook in your pocket so that you can make note of them whenever they occur.

In order to start tearing down the barriers that are standing in your way, you need to know exactly what those barriers are.

2. The second exercise is even easier – you simply need to write down how you would like to feel most of the time, and what feelings and behaviours you want to eliminate from your life.

Take you time to do step two thoroughly – the more detailed your list, the better you will be able to focus in on those areas, and create a personal development plan that supports your goals.

The idea of personal development, or the course by which we can improve the "substance" of ourselves, has been in existence since ancient times. There is no knowledge in this field that is new. That does not mean however that we have learned all there is to learn about the subject of personal development.

Knowledge, in this case, does not equal accomplishment. If you're reading this article it's a good bet that you have made attempts to improve yourself in one arena or another. If you have than you know one thing for sure, personal development is not easy!

The fact that personal development is difficult, to say the least, has led a lot of people to accept the idea that after childhood change is nearly impossible. You are what you‘ve become. This sentence is partially true and partially false. First the truth of it. The experiences we “acquire” since our birth play an immeasurable role in shaping who we are. Experience is the ultimate developer of us. The behavioral responses created as a result of these experiences can be difficult to “reprogram”. Difficult does not equal impossible.

The inaccuracy of the thinking by those who accept personal development to be unattainable is in their belief that just because something is very difficult means that it is impossible. They believe that because they were unable to change in their first, second, or third attempt, it can not be done. Who wouldn’t accept that some of the greatest accomplishments in our history have only come after surmounting that which ,at first, seemed impossible?

It is important to keep a few things in mind:

* Though personal development is not “easy”, it is simple.
* Determination + Motivation + Action = Change
* A few practical personal development tactics used consistently is all you need for amazing growth.
* Overcoming ingrained habits is not only possible but not all that complicated.

Whatever personal development means to you, whatever it is that you would like to change, you can do it. Who you are is not who you have to be. What you currently feel yourself capable of can be dramatically increased. “Unwanted” habits can be replaced, and old emotional hurts can be healed. You must simply realize that the journey to a new you may not be all “wine and roses”. As with anything that is worth it in this life, personal development requires perseverance, commitment, determination, and sacrifice. If your personal development is truly worth it to you, you can have it.

Some manners will always be with us, like saying please and thank you, sharing, and being on time. Some other manners are not commonly required anymore and may appear stuffy, while there are many new manners we should observe that go along with our modern world.

Attention. Cell phones, Call Waiting, Instant Messaging – we have more communication and technology at our disposal, but a general rule always applies: Give your full attention to the person with whom you are speaking! If you are having lunch with them or are in a meeting or movie, turn your cell phone off until you are finished. If you are having a telephone conversation, don’t jostle more than once between calls, and then only if you are expecting something urgent like your child calling for a ride home. If you are instant messaging, hold only one conversation at a time and do not allow lags in between. Let the other person know when you need to go on to something else.

Respond. We are inundated with communications these days, but make an effort to acknowledge every personal mail, telephone message, and personal email within 24 hours. If volume is a problem, then give single-sentence responses, or with email and voice mail you can set an auto-response message. It is more polite to let people know with a decisive answer that you are too busy to respond to long emails than to ignore their efforts to communicate. On the other side, don’t spam people with forwarded messages.

Drive patiently and courteously. Do not tail-gate or drive aggressively, and use your turn signals in time, even when changing lanes. Don’t park blocking a sidewalk or blocking anyone in. Don’t make people walk around your car at a crosswalk. Keep your muffler repaired and keep your radio low when in residential areas. Never honk to get someone to come out their building to your car, but rather, walk to their door.

Some oldies but goodies include: don’t use foul language, don’t litter (cigarette butts are not exempt), don’t smoke near non-smokers or in smoking restricted zones, don’t let your pets disturb others or leave mess on their property, keep clean personal and food related habits, curb your interrupting others, and when in doubt, ask.

Once upon a time there was a young woman who had some problems as a child. Her mom and dad both worked long hours to give her the things she wanted and she believed that, since they weren’t around much, they didn’t love her. As a teen she thought they didn’t understand her because they set rules for her behavior and she again interpreted this to mean they didn’t love her. She used this interpretation of her childhood as the basis of her life story. . . blaming her parents for her own failures. She’s still tellingthe story and she is still trying to live happily ever after.

What’s your story and how often do you tell it?

Do you talk about how your mother was an alcoholic and you were embarrassed to bring friends home? Do you relate that to any problem you have in your life now – with relationships, in school or on the job?

Do you talk about how your father was never there for you and you tell the story over and over because it’s his fault you are not a success in business or in other areas of your life? After all, he didn’t come to every Little League game, missed your 10th birthday because he was on a business trip, and sometimes wasn’t home to say good-night. Has this become the story that overrides any thing positive your father ever did for and with you? Does it overshadow the good things that have happened in your life and any major accomplishes you have made? My father was never there for me and therefore . . .

Have you spent hours working with therapists only to return to telling your old story and, reinforce the misconceptions (or perhaps even realities) of years past?

Does your story allow you to blame every thing that is wrong in your life on someone or something in the past? Are you tired of living like this and experiencing the same old pain over and over?

Then you need to start telling a new story. Your stories and your statements tend to bring about a reality in your life that can become a self fulfilling prophecy.

I know a woman who hated her job. She was afraid to quit because she feared she would not get another one and she needed the income. She had learned as a child that you have to put up with whatever bad situation you happen to be in. She believed, because her parents had told her, that she “would not amount to anything.” Her current story, based on her past, was how much she disliked her job, her boss, her work assignments. Her story always ended with “I just can’t stand this anymore.” After a few years of telling this story, she developed foot problems so severe that she simply couldn’t stand on her sore feet anymore. She realized what she had done and rewrote her story to describe her perfect job. Soon she found it, quit the hated job, and eventually was able to stand on her own two feet again. (By the way, this is manifesting at its best).

Stories are powerful and may become our reality if told often enough reinforcing every negative thing we can remember from the past.

Why not rewrite your story the way you want it to be? And why don’t you start with right now? Start living your story in the now. Write it as you go. And when you start telling the old story based on limiting believes – as soon as you begin with the equivalent of that “Once upon a time” stuff, let it remind you that you’re writing a new story that starts today.

Put in your new story those things you’re most grateful for. Highlight the wonderful freedom you secured by forgiving those in your past who hurt you and how they helped you mature and grow into an independent adult. Let these events become a very distant memory. Focus on the love you give and receive and your excitement for what each day brings.

Your story can begin “Once upon today . . and end with . . . and I lived happily all day long.” Tomorrow will bring its own story.

It would be fun to journal this daily story and a year from now, read your first entry to see how wonderful your year of living in the now and telling your new story has been.