Barriers to Personal Growth and Development By Keith Perrett

Personal growth and development are the building blocks for improving your life - irrespective of which aspects of your life you are intent on improving. Most of us have a deep seated desire to improve (who doesn't make New Year's resolutions?), yet far too many of us fail to reach our goals.

There can be numerous reasons for this, although those that have achieved their goals might view these as excuses rather than valid reasons. Whatever your viewpoint, I think you'll agree that it is both frustrating and demoralizing when you realize that having set some goals and been all fired up, you find that once again your best intentions have come to nothing.

What makes this so common?

1) Time constraints...

We are so busy being busy these days that more often than not we just don't get around to doing the important stuff. A strange human condition, but very common.

2) Focus...

This goes hand in hand with time constraints. We rarely spend enough time focusing on the things that will be of benefit to us. Your personal growth and development will never happen without you focusing on what needs to be achieved.

3) Effort...

As nice as it would be, deep down we all know that to get something, you have to put in some effort. Unfortunately, in today's world, this is not a very popular theme.

4) Distractions...

The flip side of focus. There are just too many other things out there that will demand our attention if we are not careful. When this happens I always find it useful to remind myself that they want my attention for THEIR benefit, not mine!

5) Personal programming...

From a very young age, and mostly without realizing it, we accumulate knowledge of what is "normal" - a sort of default setting that we become comfortable with. This programming is very strong and is there to protect us from getting hurt.

Unfortunately the negative side of this is that if we are to change and improve, we need to lift ourselves out of this comfort zone. We thus find ourselves in a tug of war between what our subconscious knows is "safe" and what we conciously know we need to do to make our lives better.

No prizes for guessing which side usually wins!

The good news for anyone wanting to overcome barriers to personal growth and development is that you don't need to have a brain transplant or emigrate to another world.

All you need do is find someone who has already done the hard work and found ways to conquer the barriers and then follow their advice and guidance. It really is that easy!
_________
Keith Perrett is a qualified Veterinarian, holds an MBA degree, and has had some success in overcoming barriers to personal growth and development.

Josh's Thoughts:
Keith made some excellent points in the advice above. I particularly liked his point about distractions. We all have very busy lives. Sometimes it is as though things are moving 90 to nothing -- and by the time we look up, the things we know we need to do -- those things that will get us closer to our intended goals -- they have been put to the side while we deal with whatever happens to have taken it's place.

So how do we manage distractions? While there's no shortage of solutions to this question -- it doesn't have to be that complex. The key is being aware of the fact that we're going to have to make time to work on the goals we set, and then put a simple system in place to make sure we in fact work on our goals. One of the easiest systems is using Goal Cards -- 3x5 index cards -- here's a quick overview of how you could do just that.

Take a 3x5 index card, at the very top, list your major goal statement. Give it a deadline that you want it completed. A goal without deadline is just a dream. Dreams are nice, but you need the ingredient of a timeline for it's completion if you want to give yourself a better than average chance of your desire coming to pass.

Right below the Major Goal Statement list the actions you'll need to take day in and day out that as they are completed will move you towards achieving the goal you have set for yourself. A key point to remember here is that overtime you may very well find that more actions are needed. Simply include them in this section of your goal card -- you can also re-write your goal card if it starts to get crowded. Also, you can have multiple cards for each goal you set.

The advantage to using Goal Cards is that they're easy to carry with you -- you can keep them in your shirt pocket or wherever you choose. Use a universal binder clip (basically a heavy duty paper clip) to keep your goal cards together for easy viewing.

Finally, after you've included your actions write a benefit statement. The point here is to get really honest with yourself as to why you want to achieve your given goal. Avoid the tendency to think too broad when writing this. Get detailed. Be honest with yourself. Reading over this part of your goal card will be the fuel which will keep you on track as to why exactly you're putting in the effort involved in achieving your desired goals.

Finally, keep in mind that things don't have to be complex. Have fun on your personal development journey. Track your progress so you can look back and see how far you're progressing. We all need a little validation. Remember, this is a process -- don't beat yourself up if you find that a particular goal doesn't transpire exactly on time. Stick with it -- believe in yourself and keep at it. You've got greatness in you!

-To your goal-setting success, Josh Hinds :-)

Any thoughts you'd like to share? You can do so in the comments below...