7 Stages of Self-Development for Students

There are no standard programs by which you can change your inner world. But it is possible to achieve results by moving in small steps, step by step. In this case, there are more opportunities to improve their abilities. Consider a sample self-development plan.

Become Aware of Change

The main task of the first stage is a clear recognition that it is necessary to change. To do this, analyze all areas of your life, make a sober assessment of everything that happens to the inner world. Test yourself by honestly answering the following questions:

• Why has the world become against you? You may note that everything around you has become bad, it’s all negative, everyone is against you, there is no understanding, you are repulsed, your work is not fun. If your relationship with the world has deteriorated so much – it’s a clear signal that you are no longer enjoying life, stuck in one place, you need a change.
• What are you dreaming about? If you don’t have a specific goal, a dream – this is a dangerous signal that you have a complete lack of life satisfaction, you are tired of the gray everyday life, your inner world is in disharmony.
• Why are you doing this? It may happen that you act contrary to moral values. This is a sure path to degradation. Say you are up to your ears in debt, but you keep borrowing money from acquaintances instead of working a little harder and earning that money by honest work.
• Why are you self-destructive? Bad habits don’t just appear in life. They are a subconscious protest against the current situation. No matter how strange it may sound, but addictions – a signal that it is time to change, to engage in self-development, to improve as a person. If you realize what caused this or that addiction, it may well become a turning point on the path to personal development.

Honest answers to these questions can help find the impetus to change yourself and your life.

Accept Your Shortcomings

Not only do you need to be aware of your shortcomings, but you need to learn to accept them. It is difficult, but through this step, you will be able to make your weaknesses an advantage. For example, there may be days when you’re using homework help history because you don’t want to do anything. Some students are feeling quilt but that’s absolutely ok with that.

If you cannot accept yourself as you are, with all your flaws, you risk developing complexes, not enjoying life, and loneliness. Working on your weaknesses is a very important task in the process of self-development. If you cannot work on them yourself, seek the help of a psychologist.

Determine the Direction of Your Development

To understand what areas of your life are worth good work, you need to think: what reasons prevent you from living to your satisfaction. Why are you unhappy?

Reasons might be the following:

• Poor health.
• Relationship problems. (Perhaps you’re not making a couple, or your family is falling apart, or you’ve fallen into an addictive relationship, etc.)
• You are dissatisfied with your profession.
• Lack of career advancement.
• Lack of money.
• No occupation for the soul, intellectual and spiritual stagnation.

Inability to get along with people, build connections with your environment.

At this stage, the main thing is to identify the “weak link” among the areas of your life. After that, start working on self-development in this area.

Find Your Dream and Move Toward It

A person is engaged in self-improvement to get full satisfaction from life, to live in harmony with the world and himself. However, you need to realize what exactly you want, what you need to strive for. Here’s a sample plan for how to do this:

• Write down on a piece of paper all your cherished desires. Write everything you dream about, even if it seems unrealizable to you. You don’t have to think about it for a long time; you have to write whatever comes to mind.
• Analyze how you feel about achieving these goals. Reread each item and imagine that this wish has already come true. What do you feel? Happiness, satisfaction, you are smiling and full of new strength? Then this dream is real, it is worth spending your resources on it. Have you become bored, bored, anxious, or indifferent? This desire is insincere, perhaps it was imposed advertising (an expensive new phone model) or someone from your family (your father wanted you to become a military man). Listen to yourself and your heart, feel free to cross out unnecessary wishes.
• Think and write down what prevents you from achieving their goals. What are the real reasons? Fear? Laziness? Self-doubt? Think about whether it is possible to eliminate these reasons.

On the big way to the dream move small steps: set yourself daily tasks that will help a little closer to the goal. For example, in a day you can find and learn the information you need, learn new skills, learn ways to cope with fear or shyness.

Try to imagine what your changed world will be like when your dreams come true. Imagine everything in detail: a new apartment, a promotion at work, doing what you love. Keep this picture in your head, let it serve as a further incentive.

Find Ways to Self-Development

It’s not enough to use one way of self-improvement, try different methods:

• Communicate with people who have achieved success, adopt their experience. Get away from an environment that has stopped in its development and stops you.
• Read more.
• Take a variety of training, courses.
• Look for information on self-development sites.
• Move only forward.
• Self-development requires daily hard work, pauses are unacceptable. Do not wait for a miracle to happen suddenly, by itself. To get better, you need to constantly work on it.

This stage calls to discarding all the patterns, fears, and inertia. The beginning of self-development may be present in small things, in the daily commission of something new and unconventional. For example, start taking new routes to and from work – changing the familiar environment stimulates brain activity.

Working with A Comfort Zone

We all need our comfort zone. It is our security, our base, our support in life.

Now it is fashionable to call on people to leave their “comfort zone,” to go further, higher, faster… Naturally, such appeals provoke fear and misunderstanding in people in the first place. Why do we need to change the life in which it is so cozy, comfortable and everything satisfies?

Any sudden changes in life provoke stress and discomfort. There is no need to run away from your comfort zone, the right thing to do is to gradually expand its boundaries.

The process of self-development just implies a smooth transition from the narrow boundaries of life, satisfying all current needs, to the productive improvement of personality and its consequences without unnecessary discomfort and stressful situations.