PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

                                  PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT 
personal development is a lifelong process it is a way for people to assess their skills and qualities , consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realise and maximise their potential .

this page helps you to identify the skills you need to set life goals which can enhance your employability prospects raise your confidence and lead to a more fulfilling higher quality life plan to make relevant positive and effective life choices and decisions for your future to enable personal empowerment .
why is personal development important?
there are many ideas surrounding personal development one of which is abraham maslows process of self actualisation .

Self-Actualisation
Maslow (1970) suggests that all individual have an in-built need for personal deverlopment which occurs  through a process called self-actualisation.

The extent to which people are able to development depends on certain needs being met and these hierarchy. when one level of need is satisfied can a higher one be developed. As change occurs throughout life. however . the level of need motivating someone's behaviour at any one time will also change.

• At the bottom of the hlerarchy are the basic physiological needs for food drink sex and sleep i,e the basics for survival 
• second are the needs for safety and security in both the physical and economic sense 
• the fourth level refers to meeting the need for self -esteem and self -worth this is the level most closely related to self empowerment 
• the fifth level relates to the need to understand this level inciudes more abstract ideas such as curiosity and the search for meaning or purpose and a deeper understanding 
• the sixth relates to aesthetic need of beauty symmmetry and order 
• finally .at the top of masiows hierararchy is the need for self - actualisation.

maslow (1970,p, 383) says that all individuals have the need to see themselves as competent and autonomous also that every person has limtless room for growth
self-actualisation-refers to the desire that everybady has to become everything that they are copoble of becoming in other words it refers to self-fuifiment and the need to reach full potenbal as a
Managing your personal development
there are a number of steps to take in managing your personal development

1. developing a personal vision

personal development can simply be for fun most of us however find it easier to motivate ourselves to learn and improve if we have a purpose in doing so developing your personal vision a clear idea of where you want to be in a few months or years ,s and why is a crucial part of developing this purpose

2.planning your personal development

once you clear about where you want to be you can start planning how to get there drawing up a personal development plan is not essential but it dose make the planning process more realistic

for more about this part of the process take a look at our page on  planning your personal development 

if you are struggling to identify which areas to target for development and improvement you may find it heipful to read our page on personal swot analysls and identtifying  areas for improement

3.starting the improvement process
there are a number of different ways in which you can learn and develop our page on improving performance - some specific techniques expiains some of learning ineluding a technique called expertise transfer
our page on learning pereferences suggests how different types of learning process may
be more effective for certain people you many also find our page on learning styles helpful in understanding how you like to leam

4. recording your personal development
it is often a good idea to keep a record of your personal development by writing down key development in your iearning and development as and when they occur you will be able to reflect on your successes at a later date 
there is more about this on our page Recording Your Personal Development
This reflected may well help to motivate you to learn more skils in the future .Try keeping a earing log or journal as you development your skills and knowledge .
see our page on Reflective practice for some ideas of how to do this .


5. Reviewing and Revising personal Development plans 
 our page on Learning styles uses  kolbs Experiential learning cycle to show that learning is a cycle. for more effective learning . it is impeotant to reflec on your experienceand consider what you have learnt from it .regularreview of your personal 
development plans and your development activities will enure that you learn from what you have done . it will also ensure that your activities continue to move you toward your gaols and that your gaols or vision relevant to you 
   
There is more about this in our page on Reviewing and RevisingYour Personal Development plan.