As a global crisis grips the world, we are all feeling the challenges of lockdowns, self-isolations and quarantines. Attempting to familiarise and thrive at home in this new world. Now could be the best time for you to kick start your self-development in lockdown.
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This blog explores the biggest trend that we have noticed in self-help and psychology in order to kick start your self-development.
If you want more ideas on how to prioritise your health and wellness during lockdown, check out these 15 activities for wellbeing in self-isolation!
What is self-development and why do you need it?
We at Mind Medicine believe that you need self-development throughout your life in order to become your best self. In this journey, you have the opportunity to create your dream life too.
Often, we find that being your best self can lead to feeling more fulfilled. How? Through self-development, you can discover your values, beliefs and true goals that allow you to take aligned action.
Self-development also helps to improve your mindset and holistic health. Through the mind-body connection, your mental health can positively impact your physical, emotional and spiritual health.
Overall, pursuing personal development is hugely beneficial for all areas of life. At this time during a lockdown, you may feel stalled and restricted from doing the things that you want. However, this can be the perfect opportunity to invest in yourself and your personal development.
In-action can lead to the opposite happening. Feeling as though you are lacking purpose, negative thoughts creeping in and you can totally lack the motivation to even get out of bed. This isn’t good for anything.
The truth is, no one knows what life will be like after lockdown. This is unchartered territory all over the world. Therefore, how do you want to go into this new world? Thinking negatively, hoping things will go back to normal but feeling out of control? Or positively, ready to take on any challenge and ready to make your dreams real?
The choice is yours and the mindset you develop, the behaviours you adopt and the goals you set are crucial every day. This is what makes self-development in lockdown so important. Practising gratitude during lockdown can also make a significant difference.
How can you Pursue Self-Development in Lockdown?
I have personally read quite a few self-help books. My favourites include 7 habits of highly effective people which you can try for free with Kindle Unlimited! And Tony Robbin’s, Awaken the Giant Within.
There are also lots of podcasts and videos that teach techniques for personal development. You can find some excellent resources and downloadable guides for personal development online.
Therefore, a good place to start is consuming this material and educating yourself in different techniques.
Although, consuming this information is not how you are going to kick start your development. Taking action and implementing the techniques is how you develop and make progress.
Download, print and fill out these self-discovery questions to know the best place to start. You can also fill this out at any time to re-evaluate your progress at different stages.
I have found one major trend in what I have learned from my own self-improvement. This is the main idea I want to share with you to kick start your development in self-isolation.
CANI! from Tony Robbins
CANI stands for Constant and Never-ending Improvement. Being and becoming your best self doesn’t happen with occasional change but with constant improvement. It is a real commitment to continually striving for excellence.
The term was created by Tony Robbins after Dr. Deming’s philosophy of constantly improving car manufacture in Japan. The Japanese use the word kaizen to describe small improvements and applied this to absolutely everything.
Knowing that gradual improvement leads to compound enhancements. Therefore, even small changes continually made daily lead to significant change over time.
What can you do tomorrow better or more of than you did today?
Over the weeks or months spent in lockdown, you can choose to improve yourself and your skills little by little. The idea of CANI can be applied to any area of life including your career, personal relationships, health and spirituality.
By the time lockdown is lifted you have the potential to improve yourself and life completely through constant and never-ending improvement.
CANI means you are committed to yourself and becoming your best self. A mantra to live by and to remind you every day to be better than yesterday.
PARB.
This is a term I learned from a free course and I connected with it very strongly. Let’s dive into each letter…
Potential is what you need to see in yourself.
Right now are you thinking ‘I do not have the resources to grow’ or ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘I cannot thrive in lockdown’ and many more negative thoughts?
These are strong disempowering beliefs. What kind of potential does this provide? Very little.
On the other hand, are you thinking ‘this is the perfect time to invest in myself’ and ‘I am worthy’ and ‘I am able to make the impact and change that I want’?
These are positive empowering beliefs. Revealing and encouraging huge personal power, ready for you to take action. Therefore, the first step is changing your beliefs and thoughts right now to uncover your potential, power and desire for your best life.
Action is your next, essential step.
Although it may feel that you cannot take the action you want during the lockdown. However, nothing will change if you choose to do nothing.
Even small, continual improvements are taking action towards your bigger goals. So, use this time in lockdown to plan the actions you want to take next and invest action into improving your relationships and yourself.
Results are what you gain from the actions you take.
Every result, whether successful or seen as a failure, is feedback. Learning opportunities for you to gain information.
Usually, results might be the achievement or the failure of a goal and is either left and moved on from or attempted again. However, no matter the result, can you improve upon it further? What have you learnt that you can apply in the future?
These results are also key to the next step…
Beliefs are reinforced or created from the results you receive.
Positive results will strengthen an empowering belief or create a new positive belief. Such as ‘I am good enough’ or ‘I have the skills I need to progress’ and similar.
On the other hand, a negative result can strengthen disempowering beliefs or cause new limiting beliefs. This is why evaluating your results is so important so that you can choose what to believe.
A bad outcome does not mean you failed or are not good enough. Maybe you need to change your approach or did not have enough information at the time. Therefore, you can choose to believe that you are learning and growing and do have the potential for success.
PARB is a cycle that you can apply to any area of your life. It also encourages constant and never-ending improvement through change and building on your self-beliefs.
Challenge Yourself
Dr. Peterson, professor of psychology, has much wisdom in self-improvement. He believes that everyone is big enough to take small incremental steps of improvement.
These steps can be doing something you’ve been avoiding for even 15 seconds. This is still better than what you did the day before!
You can begin to challenge yourself in small ways, you do them and you find out that you can. Facing even small challenges helps you to build a belief in yourself for facing your fears.
Once you begin to conquer small improvements, you can take on bigger challenges. Will they be better and more effective? You won’t know until you try.
Therefore, you tackle new challenges and find the results. A kind of snowball effect is generated with bigger and tougher challenges you want to pursue rather than shy away from. The promise of the resulting improvement pushing you forward.
Ultimately, you take responsibility for yourself and your actions. Through this process, you get to know yourself and also become your best self with each challenge you take on.
Change comes from Within for Self-Development in Lockdown
I’m sure you can see the glaring trend in these self-improvement techniques.
Constant and even small improvements and action are key.
This is an excellent place to kick start your self-development in lockdown. Apply this to every area of life including your health, relationships, and mindset. These are especially important aspects of your life that can be improved and nurtured during this pandemic.
Spending time in close quarters with your loved ones can lead to strained relationships and negative communication. Closures of gyms and supermarket supplies can lead to your health taking a back seat. And your mindset can take a beating from the restrictions and adjusting to this new normal.
Therefore, decide to make the daily small changes to improve your life right now.
Change comes from inside you. The potential you see and the enhancements you want to make are your fuel.
Remember CANI and PARB and challenge yourself mindfully for big improvements in your future. As you consistently do this, you habitually continue to improve for your distant future too.
I encourage you to start right now on your self-development in lockdown and take the first step towards action
Share this with your friends so they can start changing their life too
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