The importance of personal development

Personal development is different from professional development. Though they are equally important and there are crossovers too. Sometimes it can be difficult to sit down and take the time to reflect on where we are now and where we want to be. It can be particularly important for care professionals. Let’s have a look.

What is personal development?

It’s all about developing our values, skills, talents and potential. One of the benefits of personal development includes resilience building. When working in care, resilience is one of those things that typically can only be learnt, not taught. There are times at work you may feel down, uncertain or stressed. This could be due to an individual showing behaviours that challenge, which you are unsure how to approach. Whilst learning ways to manage behaviours through professional development may help provide you strategies to manage the situation. Resilience is more about your attitudes and values, gained from experiences. Personal development is all about growth, you may not achieve your goal each time, but you’ll be continually working to better yourself.

Why is personal development important?

Personal development is important as it can enrich not only our work life, but our personal life too. It is about being proactive and actively working on yourself, your values, your skills. It can provide benefits such as:

• build self-awareness
• provide a sense of direction
• make clear goals
• encourage, prompt, motivate
• facilitate resilience

There are many more reasons it is so important too.

So what type of things do you need to think about? Keep reading on for more,

Here are some things you can think about?

Reflection enables us to plan and take action.

Here are some questions to think about:

• where are you at now?
• what are your strengths?
• what support do you need?
• what could you improve?
• are there any gaps in your knowledge or skills?
• what are your goals?
• are your objectives and goals SMART?
• is the current care plan and care planning procedure working?
• what do you want to achieve?

If you’re looking for more information, here are some resources:

• The Care Training Company – Our blog – click here

 Let us know in the comments below… What is one of your personal development goals for this year?