Personal Development

What is personal development?  According to Wikipedia Personal development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations.

 

Basically, I see personal development as working to make yourself the best you can be.  As a therapist, I work with clients everyday to help them build skills that will not only help them cope with life's stressors, but to also help them reach their full potential.  Personal development isn't something you just do one time and you're good to go.  It has to be practiced everyday.  It will seem weird and foreign to many at first, but as you continue to learn new things about yourself and start to see improvements in your life, it gets much easier.  

 

Over the last several years, I've been on a journey.  I thought that if I made my outside the way I wanted, my inside would just naturally follow.  Well....it didn't quite work that way.  I have struggled to figure out why weight loss wasn't happening as fast as I wanted it to go.  I have finally realized that I have to "workout" my brain as much as I have been my body.  I am a pro at negative self-talk.  Some of the things I say to myself I would NEVER dream of saying to anyone else.  I try my hardest to be polite and kind to everyone.  Why wasn't I doing the same for myself?  After I became a Beachbody coach, it was made very clear to me that if I was going to help anyone, I had to help myself first.  So...I have been working on me, from the inside out.  For a minimum of 10 minutes everyday, I really focus on myself.  I've read several books, practiced positive affirmations (thinking kind, encouraging things about myself) and examined some of my core beliefs about my life and the way I see it.  I have noticed some changes already.  I am starting to catch myself when I think negatively and I'm able to re-frame those thoughts into something more positive.  I still have my bad days where I get easily stressed, beat myself up and see the world as a big, mean and scary place.  But I have committed to making this the year I finally do what I've been trying to teach my clients since I became a therapist.   This is the year I will LOVE myself and BELIEVE that I can do ANYTHING that I decide to do.   I still have a lot of work to do, but I will get there.  I will be adding to a new page on this blog a list of books I have read and books that are on my "to read" list.   I would suggest any of them as a way to get started on your own journey to reaching your full potential.

Thanks for reading!  If you are interested in learning more about the steps I'm taking to change my life in positive ways, feel free to respond to this blog or contact me at erinkterry@beachbodycoach.com, erinkterry@hotmail.com, coacherinterry@gmail.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/erinkterry