If you’re new here or even if you’ve been in the self-development game for years, it’s always good to refresh your mind and motives once in a while, to stop and assess…
- Where you’re right now (in terms of your self-development needs 🥸)
- Where it is you want to get yourself to (never be afraid to shoot for the stars 🤩)
- And why you’re doing all of this in the first place (and everyone else isn’t 🤯)
So, where are you at right now with your self-development? Do you currently partake in any activities that are building you up to the badass person you know you can be or are you a complete beginner looking to find out what it’s all about and how you can get yourself started?
If you’re a true beginner, you could well be thinking where do I even begin on my journey to becoming my next level self? Who do I listen to? what stuff do I need? And who do I ask for help? Luckily we’ve got your back here at Five Star Thoughts and will give you everything you need right here to begin your self-development journey today.
Where To Start
A great please to kick off your self-development journey is to try and understand yourself more to make your journey flow a little easier and to understand why you want to begin in the first place. This will help you later when deciding what self-development you want to get into and where you’d like it to take you. Answer these 4 questions below to give yourself the best chance of setting yourself up for consistent successful development to make meaningful changes in your life.
- Why do you want to begin developing yourself?
- What is it you feel you lack and wish to make up for?
- What is it you want to learn?
- Where would you like your self-development to take you in the future?
If you don’t have a meaningful or values-driven reason to undertake our self-development you’ll notice that trying to implement your new SD habits will be rather difficult as you won’t make time to do what you need to, to move towards your SD goals, so get real with yourself here, why do you want to begin upgrading yourself to a better you?
If you’re using SD as a way to fill a void or lacking feeling in a certain area of your life it could be wise to deal with this first and get your mind right, to where it needs to be. A prime example here would be the feeling of not feeling smart enough or good enough. The red flag here is the word ENOUGH, and this could well be the void you’re trying to fill with new SD activities to extinguish this feeling, this is not how you want to begin your journey so if this is the case, let’s sort that first.
NB: If you’re experiencing the feeling of not feeling like you’re enough I want to tell you personally that you’re a f****** hero for making it this far, you’re 100% not alone I can reassure you. The fact you have got to Five Start Thoughts and still want to become your next level self is epic and you should be an inspiration to yourself and those around you!
Let’s Get Down To It
What is it you want to learn? What have you turned to SD for? A new skillset, to gain new wisdom and knowledge, maybe even new experiences! Your options to grow are endless, but only you know why it is you’re here. Once we have answered this question we can begin to look at how we’re going to get what it is we desire and by what forms of SD will help us get there the quickest ways.
Here is an example to help point you in the right direction. If you’re here because you want to increase your knowledge in ‘how to start a digital business’ that is going to allow you to work from anywhere in the world to give you your time back, then a great place to start would be with all of the great free knowledge that’s already out there! You could source yourself what you need from…
- Audiobooks
- Ebooks
- YouTube
- Podcasts
- Blogs based on your topic
- Follow influencers on your topic
- Udemy Course
- Mentors
Your access to super valuable information online has never been better and best of all you can get 99% of it for free.
So now we know how to get it, we need to know how we’re going to best absorb the information we have in front of us and that all comes down to our very own learning style. Some of you right now are going to be like “I have a learning style? WTF is that” and this is because they don’t teach you this sort of life-changing stuff in school. After all, that would be too logical, right? 😑 I’m going to list the different learning styles below for quick reference and then you can decide on how best to attain the information/resources you need to get yourself to the next level and take it in the best way possible for you.
4 Learning Styles
The four core learning styles include visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic. Here’s an overview of all four learning style types.
Visual – Visual learners are better able to retain information when it’s presented to them in a graphic depiction, such as arrows, charts, diagrams, symbols, and more. Similar to how designers use visual hierarchy to emphasize specific design elements, visual learners thrive with clear pictures of information hierarchy.
Auditory – Sometimes referred to as “aural” learners, auditory learners prefer listening to information that is presented to them vocally. These learners work well in group settings where vocal collaboration is present and may enjoy reading aloud to themselves, too.
Reading & Writing – Focusing on the written word, reading and writing learners succeed with written information on worksheets, presentations, and other text-heavy resources. These learners are note-takers and perform strongly when they can reference written text.
Kinesthetic – Taking a physically active role, kinesthetic learners are hands-on and thrive when engaging all of their senses during course work. These learners tend to work well in scientific studies due to the hands-on lab component of the course.
The learning styles above were located from SPHERO and all credit goes to them for their awesome explanations of learning styles.
Where Do You Want It To Go?
The whole reason we do SD is that we want to better ourselves, we want to get better at something, we want to learn something new or we could be using it as a stepping stone to a new chapter in our lives to help us create something new. So knowing what your SD end goal is and or where you want all of the hard graft to take you is going to be a massive help in determining your SD journey and the roads you decide to go down.
If you’re looking to start your own business and begin investing to aid you in achieving financial independence, your end goal is going to look very different to another person who just wants to gain some knowledge about how to speed read their favourite fiction books for example. Knowing that if you want to achieve financial independence it would be suitable to go down and explore all of the available books, podcasts and maybe even mentors you can get based on this topic and what you’re going to need to learn and understand to get yourself there.
My point is, reverse engineer your SD end goal to where you’re at right now and then work towards it knowing what you’re learning and going to learn is going to help you in achieving the results you want to see come to fruition in your life. Remember to break down the information you need to learn into bite-size chunks, as the saying goes ‘you can’t eat an elephant all in one go, but in bite-size chunks’. Don’t overload your brain so you end up analysis paralysis and end up taking no action at all because your brain cannot cope with everything you’re throwing at it.
Summary
- Know your WHY before you begin your SD as it’ll carry you through the times when you don’t feel like doing what you need to do to move you closer to your end goal.
- Understand your intentions behind the SD. If you’re trying to make up for a lack or void in your life, deal with this first and remember, YOU ARE ENOUGH!
- Get super clear on what it is you want to learn and go for it!
- Know your learning style so you can best absorb the information based on your learning requirements.
- Know your end goal, where do you want your SD journey to take you?
I hope you’ve got value from this post and it’s given you a new way to stop, assess and reset your values and intentions behind all of your SD needs. If you think someone could benefit from seeing this post then please share it with them.
Thank you for reading!
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