Personal development - where to begin

Where do we begin with our own personal development? Well I guess a good palce to start is to recognize any patterns that we've been running (probaably for years) that aren't serving us any more. You know the ones i mean. the ones that keep rearing their heads evry now and again and we go "why do i keep doing that". I know it isn't always easy to track your own negative and disempowering patterns but if you stay aware it can be done. I find journaling my day quite useful in this regard.

Of course some of these patterns are easier to spot than others, some may lurk around for years before you begin to get a nudge that somethings still not right but if we stay self-aware we can make headway with some of these stubborn areas and remember personal growth is a life long endeavour. possibly when we attempt to change something in our lives it may just be the wrong time at that moment. We may even be deriving some positive benefit from that unwanted behaviour at that time that we aren't fully conscious of..

Then we need to make a decision to change. Nothing changes until we decide it to be so. Sometimes making that decsion, and saying enough is enough, can be harder than actually changing. I once heard a famous singer (I forget his name) on a chat show state that he had been having problems with alcohol and drugs and that he put himself into rehab. the interviewer said too him that that must of been hard but the singer replied that no it wasn't. He said it was the easy part. He said the hard part was facing up to himself and making a decision to go to rehab, after that he said things were easy.

However for many people it still remains that they don't know where to start. Well how about firstly looking at where you are heading in life. Is it really the path you want to be on. Do you have a strong sense of purpose about your life. Are there things, issues in society that make you angry. Issues that make us angry often conceal important values which may give us pointers to something that we find more satisfying or can point to the beginnings of a new mission. Maybe we have raltionships that didn't work out and one thing seems to be prominenet about these relationships. Maybe we made the same mistake a few times and now its time to correct it. Maybe there is a nagging feeling of dissatisfaction with some part of you rlife and doing something different in that area may just be the difference between you being happy and being despondent.

If your still not sure where to start just look through this web site and read something that calls out to you, the site is growing every week, if you don't find something this week, look next week. But whatever you do, make a decision to improve yourself in some small way and then build on it. You never know where that first step will take you.

Good luck.