This week we discussed the importance of personal development in becoming a good leader. I think there are many topics we have discussed previously that contribute to personal development, but this is a broad category that deserves to be addressed separately. I believe that there is no way to be a good leader without continuously working on personal development. Without work on personal development, you can become a stagnant leader, which leads to complacency, boredom, frustration, or burnout. 

Personal development is not just for leaders. Everyone should be looking for ways to grow and change. In our own school philosophy, we discuss continuous progress. This is something that works well because we are living in a time where everything is changing in education and how people learn. We have to continuously change and improve to keep up with all of these changes. The same thing should be true for us as individuals. No one is perfect, and very few are close to it. Most of us have many obvious flaws accompanied with even more flaws that are less obvious. This is normal as it is human to have things that we need to work on. The important thing is actually putting in the effort to work on it. 

When discussing a plan for personal development, I always go back to my goals. This is something that I talk a lot about with my students. I collect their goals regularly throughout the years that I teach them and then I show them previous goals they set for themselves. Oftentimes they find that they have lost sight of these goals entirely, but sometimes they are able to see that they actually completed a goal. When that occurs, the students are typically very proud of themselves. Goals help us track personal development and make sure we are working towards improvements. Without concrete goals it is easy to drag out personal development or delay working on your issues. 

So how do we start actually working on personal development? Well, those of you who are students are already taking an important step towards personal development. Education is a great way to grow, learn, and change. Aside from education, you can identify specific things about yourself that you would like to improve and make a plan to address that. If you are unhappy with your health, you can commit to a diet and exercise plan. If you would like to be a better writer, you can commit to journaling a little bit every morning. If you want to get a good job, look up all of the requirements for a job you might want and start working on checking off the list. Personal development can take time, but it is an important step towards reaching your full potential. What area are you working on improving right now? If you don’t have an answer to that, take some time today and come up with a plan to begin your personal development journey.

• Bria