Why do some people fear personal development? When this way of life will empower you and help you see that you can be do have anything you desire. The personal development industry is thriving and becoming bigger and bigger every year. However there are still people who fear personal development and tend not to believe some of the principles it teaches.

You must understand that there are people browsing the self help books area in book stores. People are becoming more dissatisfied with their lot in lives; and looking for some way to improve it. You can become a part of the pro-active crowd as we.

There is no reason to fear personal development; the principles are here to stay. If the principles were not delivering peoples goals and dreams; then it would be dwindling in size and becoming more and more popular. However the people who utilize these principles on a daily basis are beginning to live the lives of their dreams and are able to able to live in contentment.

Okay so if it works for some people; why does it not work for others? Have you watched the movie "The Secret?" It will explain in complete detail why this system works for some and why it does not work for others. You attract to you what you put a majority of your focus on. If you constantly fear personal development techniques will not work for you, then guess what you are attracting. You have to be semi selfish when you begin pursuing your goals. Most people always work hard for others because they enjoy helping other people. This is great I am not saying not to help others. However you must feel the same way about yourself, you must be willing to do anything to help yourself to what you desire.

You can turn on the internet and type in the word "personal development" in the google search box; and thousands of links will appear that will take you to things they claim will help you achieve anything you desire. Yes there are all kinds of useful products that will assist people to reach their goals; however are you truly ready to use them? What I mean is yes sometimes we set goals for ourselves; however deep down inside we do not truly believe that we can achieve these goals. You must be totally honest with yourself when you set a goal; do you have the desire to work towards that goal also do an honest insight into your own thoughts and beliefs about the goal.

Can you see yourself with what it is you desire? If not why? Do you feel like you do not deserve that goal? You must figure out what is holding you back from achieving that goal. There is no reason to fear personal development; if you can figure out what beliefs are holding you back then you will be able to utilize the principles to help you achieve whatever it is you desire.

The personal development niche is worth billions of dollars a year. People across the world are flocking to the self improvement book shelves searching for information and desperate to improve their lives.

There are a lot of traditional methods of reaching your market, but with the rise of Web 2.0 technologies there is a brand new method of reaching a highly targeted, and eager, audience.

A personal development forum used to be a good place to find this audience, but people are moving away from these archaic, text based forums into communities of the MySpace and FaceBook kind. These new communities are taking the world by storm as a way to not only meet people but to share information and resources.

These new web based communities combine the traditional forum format with the ability to share audio, video, pictures and articles (usually via a blog on the community site).

Joining one of these sites will really help your business take off because you can advertise your products and services under the guise of joining in the community. Obviously, don't be too overt in your advertising, though some sites do allow classified adverts, so take advantage of those sites!

Visitors to these online communities browse through all the information available and you will find people following them through to your site and entering your marketing funnel.

By posting these resources you can establish yourself as an expert in your field. It's a great way to build your reputation and build your traffic. Not only do you get these people viewing your resources and coming through to your site, but you are also gathering free backlinks to your site in the search engines! Most social networking sites are regularly spidered because they have a lot of activity on them.

If you are a marketer in the self improvement niche, then you need to be joining a personal development community today and marketing your products and services.

Personal development forums are a great place for you to share information, learn new techniques and to meet new people.

Let's face it, sitting at home reading a book can be very lonely. Some of the concepts in these self help books are not exactly clearly explained or easy to understand. I can't even begin to tell you the number of times I've had to re-read a page in order to grasp the concept.

And that is where a community like a forum comes in to its own.

You simply pop along to the forum and ask a question and someone there will answer your question. Best of all, you are likely to find more techniques and perhaps gain a much deeper understand of what you were originally reading. Plus, you will get contrasting viewpoints, which are always good to have.

There are a lot of forums out there these days, and most of them are fairly quite. With the rise of MySpace and FaceBook, a new type of personal development forum is growing in popularity. This is the type of interactive forum based on the aforementioned social networking sites. These new forums makes meeting people and sharing people much easier and more interactive.

No longer are you limited to just text but can share audio, video and photos (within copyright laws of course) with other people. Not only do you get to meet people, but you can get to advertise your business and build your credibility in your chosen field.

If you are someone who is interested in self improvement then you should definitely join some online forums and get to meet some new people!

When we are at work and we become familiar with our job role, it is very easy to become complacent and stuck in a rut as we do the same job every day. But in the long term this can spell disaster for us.

The more versatile a worker we can become, the more protected we are, as we can more easily move between job roles as and when required. Acquiring a much wider knowledge base is also useful in giving us a greater understanding of the job we are currently doing.

Personal development in the workplace is also essential if we are to remain interested and passionate about the work we do. If we continue to do the same job day in, day out, we become less likely to do it well.

Think about the interests you have in your job, and ask yourself some questions to determine how you could invest in your own personal development:

# What brought you to the job in the first place?

# What skills do you have that you enjoy making use of?

# Could you further these skills in any way?

# Are there any training courses you could attend that would open the way for promotion further down the line?

# Is there anything you don't like doing any more that you would stop doing if you could?

The answers to these questions will help you to decide which areas of your working life are ripe for development. Although the term "personal development" makes us think of something we need to do, we can ask for the help of others to help us progress. Sometimes speaking to our manager will open the door to further possibilities for us to stretch ourselves in our chosen career, so don't be afraid to highlight any concerns or needs you may have. A willingness to learn and to take a pro-active approach to our own development is usually seen as a positive.

SECONDMENTS

Personal development is often associated with a complete change of job - leaving what we are doing now to take on a higher paid role with more responsibility.

But you don't need to take such a big leap in order to test the boundaries of what you may enjoy doing at work. Attending in-house or external training courses is one obvious way of expanding your knowledge and skills base. However a temporary secondment to another area within the company you work in now would also allow you to see whether another department or area of working would be suited to you.

There are plenty of ways to invest in your personal development at work. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that you should constantly be looking for them - and making the most of these opportunities when they arise.

Communicating with others is an essential skill in business dealings, family affairs, and romantic relationships, and is an essential part of any personal development effort. Do you often find yourself misunderstanding others? Do you have difficulty getting your point across clearly? When it comes to communication, what you say and what you don't say are equally important. Being a good listener is quite crucial.

In my quest to become a better communicator, I came across a few things I will have to overcome before I succeed:

Challenge 1

Listen more carefully and responsively. Listen first and acknowledge what you hear, even if you don't agree with it, before expressing your experience or point of view. In order to get more of your conversation partner's attention in tense situations, pay attention first: listen and give a brief restatement of what you have heard (especially feelings) before you express your own needs or position. The kind of listening recommended here separates acknowledging from approving or agreeing.

Challenge 2

Explain your conversational intent and invite consent. In order to help your conversation partner cooperate with you and to reduce possible misunderstandings, start important conversations by inviting your conversation partner to join you in the specific kind of conversation you want to have. The more the conversation is going to mean to you, the more important it is for your conversation partner to understand the big picture. Many successful communicators begin special conversations with a preface that goes something like: "I would like to talk with you for a few minutes about [subject matter]. When would be a good time?" The exercise for this step will encourage you to expand your list of possible conversations and to practice starting a wide variety of them.

Challenge 3

Express yourself more clearly and completely. Slow down and give your listeners more information about what you are experiencing by using a wide range of "I-statements." One way to help get more of your listener's empathy is to express more of the five basic dimensions of your experience: Here is an example using one of the five main "I-messages" identified by various researchers over the past half century: What are you seeing, hearing or otherwise sensing?/ "When I saw the dishes in the sink..."

Challenge 4

Translate your (and other people's) complaints and criticisms into specific requests, and explain your requests. In order to get more cooperation from others, whenever possible ask for what you want by using specific, action-oriented, positive language rather than by using generalizations, "why's" ,"don'ts" or "somebody should's." Help your listeners comply by explaining your requests with a "so that...", "it would help me to... if you would..." or "in order to..." Also, when you are receiving criticism and complaints from others, translate and restate the complaints as action requests. ....").

Challenge 5

Ask questions more "openendedly" and more creatively. "Openendedly...": In order to coordinate our life and work with the lives and work of other people, we all need to know more of what other people are feeling and thinking, wanting and planning. But our usual "yes/no" questions actually tend to shut people up rather than opening them up. In order to encourage your conversation partners to share more of their thoughts and feelings, ask "open-ended" rather than "yes/no" questions. Open-ended questions allow for a wide range of responses. For example, asking "How did you like that food/movie /speech/doctor/etc.?" will evoke a more detailed response than "Did you like it?" (which could be answered with a simple "yes" or "no"). In the first part of Challenge Five we explore asking a wide range of open-ended questions.

Challenge 6

Express more appreciation.

To build more satisfying relationships with the people around you, express more appreciation, delight, affirmation, encouragement and gratitude. Because life continually requires us to attend to problems and breakdowns, it gets very easy to see in life only what is broken and needs fixing. But satisfying relationships (and a happy life) require us to notice and respond to what is delightful, excellent, enjoyable, to work well done, to food well cooked, etc. It is appreciation that makes a relationship strong enough to accommodate differences and disagreements. Thinkers and researchers in several different fields have reached similar conclusions about this: healthy relationships need a core of mutual appreciation.

You know, with the evolution of technology and the human mind, you would really think that today's education system would evolve along with the evolution of society. We have children that are capable of learning and doing so much, yet we still tend to regurgitate the same information over and over again.

Why do we not teach children to become successful? Why do we not teach them to save money? Why do we not teach them that they are capable of creating things that are unimaginable?

Perhaps it is because teachers, today, are not educated on such things. They say to make a difference in the world or, to promote change, we need to start at the child level. Where this is correct, how could we possibly begin at the child level, when the teachers have no idea how to teach these skills?

Here's a thought, there are many personal development speakers and mentors around the world that are capable of teaching older adults to create substantial success in their lives; why are we not providing our children with this education. Think about it, what would it take to integrate personal and success development into the public school systems at the education level.

There are many people who have seen the movie "The Secret" but, what most don't realize is that they left 90% of the details out of that movie. But, the mentors that were speaking throughout that movie, are some of the most profound educators that this world has to offer. What would it truly take to acquire the assistance of these phenomenally talented mentors to help develop a new educational system. Wouldn't it be something if the knowledge that is passed on to our children today, was to decide their success, abundance and happiness tomorrow?

One of the most amazing facts that I realize is, children obtain and retain a majority of the knowledge they learn from the ages of 4 to 12 years of age. So why do we tend to begin teaching algebra and language to kids when they are 13 and fourteen years old?

If we realize that kids are willing to learn more at a younger age, then why does our public school system wait until our children are going through one of the most trying stages of their lives to teach them new knowledge!?

I am a parent, an educator and a mentor. I am a success coach and a radio talk show host. I am creating a fortune 500 company. Did I learn these skills from my parents? No, my parents are farmers who, when I was a child, brought home $150 a week. So, did I learn these skills in elementary school, high school or, college maybe? No I did not.

It wasn't until I was seeking for guidance from the personal development industry that I truly began to realize my passion and my soul purpose. Wow, wouldn't that be a lesson we could teach our children...How to find our passion and develop our soul purpose. Do you think, perhaps, that they would become more successful as a result of doing what they are passionate about? Maybe they will not become rich and famous...but that's what's nice about wealth and success, it has nothing to do with money, it is a characteristic of life that stems from within the people who are following their passions and developing what they believe to be wealth and abundance.

We seriously need to take a long, hard look at the way we are educating our children today. My wife was attending a university to become an elementary school teacher here in Pittsburgh. She decided to ask one of her professors this question, "If you had to state what our purpose is, as elementary school teachers, what would you say our soul responsibility is to these children?" His answer? "To prepare them to be able to acquire employment."

That statement, alone, should make you sick to your stomach...

My wife immediately changed her major from elementary education, to educational development and Psychology. Why? Because as a future educator, she understood the purpose of following one's passion and she knew that, as a teacher, she could not change the educational system. But, as somebody who is in the field of developing education for children, she can have a substantial impact.

I truly hope that this article has not offended any compassionate educators, but I'm sure it hasn't, considering, that if you are truly compassionate and passionate toward the education of our children... then these facts are staring you boldly in the face. Maybe you feel that there is nothing you can do to change things...but what have you done today to do so?

The role of Personal Development and Self Improvement is to help you achieve your goals in life. Both are designed to give you the skills you need to achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve. But can personal development or self improvement really improve your life situations?

Well, the purpose of both is to do just that. They are both just tools that are used to ensure you will succeed in your chosen life areas. They are designed to help you become happier on the inside and more satisfied with what you have on the outside in any are you chose to apply them!

So how do you start to set goals that truly lead to self improvement, more freedom, happiness and a better lifestyle for you and your family and ultimately more success? This question is not simple to answer because success means different things to different people. Therefore, if you want to become successful you must first have a clear understanding of what success means to you!

A fantastic way to get a clear on what success means for you is to ask yourself the question, "what would I do if I knew I couldn't fail?" Let your mind roam freely and immerse yourself in your inner vision. This vision will give you the clue that you need to unravel the mystery of success.

At an early age every human being knows what they want to do with their lives. We develop dreams and ambitions at a very early age. However as we grow older we are conditioned to believe that these dreams are not possible or are mere fantasies of our imagination. We are told to get an education, a good job, get married, have kids, a mortgage and holiday once a year with our family. By the time most people reach their mid twenties they have all but given up on their dreams or even forgotten what those dreams are. They have become conditioned into believing that they are incapable of achieving what they want in life. This fundamental belief forms the foundation of their self image and the rest of their mental attitudes are build upon it!

It is the role of personal development and self improvement to remove these conditioned mental attitudes from your inner mind and free you to pursue the life course that you chose for yourself. Through the use of personal development and self improvement you can begin today to remove mental conditioning that you received from well-meaning family, peers and teachers. In addition you will also be directed to remove all those negative mental attitudes that have been given to you by not so well-meaning people and those you have developed yourself through negative life experiences. This is not always an easy journey nor is it always enjoyable but the rewards that you receive are a thousand times the effort required.

The freedom that you can experience from removing just one negative mental and negative emotional pattern is akin to the feeling of rest and tranquility you feel after extreme physical exercise. Removing numerous negative mental attitudes and emotional stress from your mind and body is a feeling and experience that is truly hard to describe to someone who has never experienced it themselves.

Jesus Christ said, "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you": Matthew 6:33. By removing the negative mental and emotional attitudes from your mind you free yourself to reach your goals. Let me explain.

For instance you may have a desire to be wealthy and thus set a personal development goal to become financially free. There are thousands of different ways to achieve this goal. There are thousands of methods you could follow and plans you could set in motion that would bring you closer to this goal. Millions of people have gone from rags to riches. So, why does following a plan work for one person and the same plan will not work for another?

It is due entirely to the difference in attitude and mental conditioning!

There are at your disposal numerous personal development and self improvement methods that are designed to help you achieve this goal. Now these tools and methods are not designed to show you the way to become financially free but instead are designed to free you from your own inner resistance to being financially free. Many people think this is a waste of time and would prefer to be given step by step instructions to build financial wealth and I was once one of them. Yet however hard I tried and no matter how many plans and formulas I followed my financial situation actually grow worse.

Why was this? Were the plans I was following just not good enough to create wealth? Were the people peddling these rags to riches methods merely conning me out of my money? Was gaining wealth just pure luck like winning the lottery?

The answer to all of the above questions is no!

The plans I followed had worked for thousands and made them rich! The people selling me the products and methods had all made their fortunes using the very same techniques they were trying to teach me! I later found out that gaining wealth had nothing to do with luck!

It wasn't that these things were not good enough to produce the wealth I craved it was that I THOUGHT I wasn't good enough. When you hold a negative self image and have a negative view of yourself and your abilities it is very difficulty to achieve success no matter how much effort you put into it! This is why it is of paramount importance to first remove the negative conditioning that is holding you back in life.

Your attitude, which is only composed of thoughts and feelings, is responsible for your actions. Thought is the creator of action! Every action you perform, no matter how small or big, first begins in your mind as a thought. Each thought begins as a feeling. Think of when you met your last partner. You first felt the attraction. Then you had the thought that you would like to meet them. Then you performed some action to make that happen. Think of the last time you went out socializing. You had the feeling that you would like to have some fun, or be with your friends, were feeling lonely etc. Then you had the thought. Then you performed the action.

If your actions are motivated by your thoughts and feelings and your attitude is composed of thoughts and feelings do you think you could succeed at a given task if you hold a negative mental attitude about it or your ability to succeed at it?

Once you embrace personal development and begin to use any of the myriad of self improvement tools to remove your negative mental attitudes you will naturally find yourself becoming more successful in life. You actions will be more positive and you will unconsciously perform the correct actions that will lead you to success. I am sure you can know see how important it is to set some personal development goals. Not only will you see improvement in your self, you will also see many symptoms of success added unto you!

We have all had times when something takes away all of our courage. We succumb to the effects of doubt, fear, self pity, and denial. It is at these moments in time when our resolve is tested in any endeavor. If you are truly passionate about what you are doing you will stand refusing to give in to the weakness.

Struggles are a natural part of any process. Through the challenges that we face we are building a solid structure. It will not only stand the test of our individual lifetime, but quite possibly endure through time. All great projects, including each one of us, are the sum of countless actions. These actions either build a palace or a shack.

When we are in the process of building our lives our greatest concern must be accuracy. People today marvel at the accuracy with which the pyramids were constructed. With no knowledge of the methods that were employed by the builders it seems utterly impossible for the time when they were built. How did they do it? They used the overwhelming abundance of natural laws to their advantage. Through the power of observation, and action they were able to accomplish the impossible.

Natural laws are absolutely the key to everything. We can observe that water always seeks to rest in a plane across the gravitational axis. The Egyptians observed this natural law and employed its use for insuring their foundations were absolutely level. They followed other natural laws regarding leverage, and consumption. I think you can see that these basic laws of construction, are an absolute in the business world as well.

Egyptian builders knew that their projects would require extreme physical effort, and resources. In turn there would be a demand placed for many consumable products.

I believe you get the picture. Take what you have, observe the natural laws pertaining to what you are trying to accomplish, finally put it all together by leveraging time, energy, and material.

To take on any task of magnitude we have to focus on the big picture. This is a critical key to the success. What will the requirements be? As always time, energy, and material. Those are the key elements, but the catalyst, which brings the elements into a symphony of production, is the human will, from the will comes forth action.

Our will is the most powerful force on this planet, second only to terrestrial forces in existence. Mankind has reshaped the earth in many ways with this force. The will to succeed, survive, surpass, create, and even destroy is extremely powerful. It can change the course of rivers, build magnificent structures, and unlock mysteries that are hidden.

The driving forces behind this will are thought, emotion, and action. The will is then manipulated with the elements of our character. Our character is the gravity, which pulls our will into a state of equilibrium with our ambition, and environment. This character is charged either positively or negatively. Compare say Jesus Christ with Genghus Khan.

Now lets come full circle back to courage. It is responsible for one to charge in when the odds are against you, to attempt what others would have you believe cannot be done, to get up after a crippling defeat and push forward. Courage is a great ally for you to develop. It's nature is pure, and its effects are astounding. It is the limitless potential of courage that will help you discover the natural laws necessary to complete your own life's work.

This life holds all the time, energy, and material that you will ever need. Have courage that you will discover the hidden. Strive for understanding every day. The primary element of success is to have the courage to keep going no matter what things appear to be like. Your courage is what will bring to life discipline, desire, and determination. So be very courageous in all that you do.

The internet works in mysterious ways, but it can have tremendous advantages as there are thousands of opportunities to choose from. What many seem to not understand, though, is that the internet is constantly changing and evolving. And because of this, personal development is essential for everyone.

You may ask what personal development truly means. The answer to this question can only be answered by you. You are the only one that knows what you need to improve on. If you feel like you are not getting the amount of traffic you wished you could, you may want to take the time to learn more efficient methods to generating traffic.

If you have trouble communicating with people and being social, it is essential that you enhance your communication skills. Communication on the internet is one of the most crucial facets to being successful. You have to be willing to approach people online and entice them to come to your online business.

Perhaps the number one personal development that everyone on the internet must do is enhancing their knowledge on their niche. As mentioned above, the internet is constantly evolving. Because of this, it is up to you to take the time to research the new terms and products on the market so that you can be the best at what you do. Without research, you will just be mediocre and get lost in the crowd of millions of other internet marketers.

Personal development can be difficult because a lot of people are in denial of their weaknesses. Admitting that you have weaknesses that can and should be worked on takes a lot of willpower, but it can do a lot for your business once you realize them. Nobody is perfect but it is the people that work their hardest on their weaknesses that succeed.

Anybody can work on their strengths because it is fun to do what you are good at. However, just working on your strengths will bring out your weaknesses. The more you work on your weaknesses, the more balanced you will become to handle any type of adversity you may face.

Nobody said that personal development was a walk in the park, but there are things that you can do to make it easier on yourself. First off, set goals for you to strive for. As soon as you reach a goal make sure to reward yourself in some way for your efforts. Also, try to surround yourself with positive people. This will help you maintain a positive attitude so that you believe in yourself.

Personal development not only can help your online business, but it is essential for you to have success online. If you take the time to work on your weaknesses, you will be amazed at the kinds of success you have with your online business.

Personal development - also commonly called self-improvement - is a booming industry! And Internet-based personal development - also commonly called e-learning - is now becoming increasingly popular.

According to market research and statistics, it is a 64 billion dollar industry worldwide. In the US alone, an estimated 9.6 billion dollars is invested in personal development in 2005 in the form of:

- books

- motivational speakers

- personal coaching

- weight loss programs

- audio tapes

- stress management programs

It is also projected that this industry will grow at the rate of 11.4 percent yearly and reach 13.9 billion dollars in 2010.

People are now turning to gurus for help in various areas as above. For example, Robert Kiyosaki's 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' had been on the New York Times bestseller list for several years in a row and sold 20 million copies!

Likewise, Stephen R. Covey's 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' sold more than 15 million copies in 38 languages around the world!

In a similar manner, many people are spending thousands of dollars attending personal development seminars every year conducted by well-known industry gurus like Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, T. Harv Eker and others.

Along with this mega trend, Internet-based personal development websites, typically membership sites, are becoming more popular as people can learn through audio and visual programs from the comfort of their homes. One well-known example is Success University, which became the No. 1 personal development website on the Internet, within months of launching three years ago.

Essentially, people are beginning to realize that a life time is too short for one to learn from their mistakes and it is actually smarter and faster to learn from successful people who have done what you want to achieve through reading their books, listening to their tapes and watching their DVDs, attending their live seminars or even engaging them as coaches or mentors.

For free personal development tips and resources, visit the author's blog.