Why Self-Development is Difficult?
If you’re reading this article, then congratulations. You might be one of those people who isn’t stuffing their face with cheese puffs in front of a TV. You’re genuinely trying to improve the quality of your life and degree of happiness.
In this article, we’re going to talk about obstacles. You may have faced a few obstacles on your path of self-development.
Self-development isn’t something you do once to get over with it. It’s a lifestyle, a set of habits that you adopt to improve your life for good.
That’s basically what we’re going to discuss today. We’ll focus on negatives in our lives that break positive habits, ruining our development.
You can call them habit breakers if you wish.
Issue #1: Can I Do It?
There are a lot of facets to self-development. You’ve got improvements you can do to your physique. You can improve your finances and social life. You can also work on your mindset and belief systems.
Regardless of what you’re trying to do, there’s always doubt that creeps in. There’s always the tendency for us to question our abilities in reaching our goals.
The best remedy to this problem would be success stories. There are plenty of them online that you can check out. A lot of self-development lovers enjoy posting their successes on blogs and YouTube channels.
It’s a good way for them to make money after all. Maybe you can do something similar as you develop…
For example, let’s say that you’re obese and aiming for weight loss. Instead of living in constant despair of not being able to lose weight, go find some success stories. You should seek individuals who have been through the obesity phase and successfully slimmed.
After all, such individuals can give you actionable advice to help you deal with doubt. They’ve suffered from doubt too at some point. Considering that they’ve succeeded, those people should have a remedy for it.
Their stories also show you that the most difficult of conditions have remedies. Regardless of how messed up you were before starting, there’s always a chance. Despair over your ruined life is only allowed when you’re in a coffin.
Issue #2: Commitment.
Let’s take the weight loss example a step further. Maybe you’re suffering from obesity, and have issues conforming to a specific exercise routine. The success of another weight-loss champion can give you practical tips on keeping a consistent routine.
Commitment is one of the biggest problems with self-development. If you do get past the initial stages of doubt, you’ll find yourself living a life of continuous routine. There could be the temptation to quit for a while, or take a “break.”
Sustainability is an important aspect of self-development. Often, people will try to do the impossible in fixing their lives once they start. There tends to be an “all or nothing” approach with such individuals.
This “all or nothing” approach comes from the desire to fix a problem now. It’s a hesitant mentality, an unfortunate result of the fast-paced society of today.
The only result of that is a quick giving up. They’re quite like “new year resolutions” if you think about it…
True self-development is a slow process. It’s quite gruelling and takes time. You need a lot of patience when developing yourself. It’s dangerous to jump the gun with expectations.
You can avoid the problem of hastiness by looking for realistic estimates of development. For example, let’s say you’re trying to learn a new language. You could look for others and ask them about their learning routines. You could then try to find out how much time it took them to reach mastery.
Getting realistic expectations helps you avoid commitment and doubt problems.
Issue #3: The Surrounding Environment.
Yes, your environment impacts your development more than you think.
Specifically, we want to talk about the people in your environment. If you’re trying to develop yourself as an individual, you need to avoid lazy and negative people. This applies to your family and friends too.
We’re not advocating cut-offs here. We’re just asking you to reduce contact with individuals who won’t help you.
You see, one of the problems with self-development is envy. On a social level, developing yourself triggers feelings of guilt in lazy people. After all, they’re bumming around, not doing much themselves!
The rising guilt leads to secret resentment. You’ll start to suffer from negative comments, put-downs, and discouragements. They’ll project their failures onto you, resenting you for taking action.
When developing yourself, reduce contact with those who do not push you forward. Instead, you should be seeking individuals who will aid in your development. Surround yourself with others who will support you in development.
For example, let’s assume that you’re trying to learn a skill such as programming. You may be detracting from your social time with lazy friends to do so. You may get mocked and put-down as a result.
Instead, simply switch your social time from your old friends to a programming group. Interact with individuals who share your goals and can drive you forward.
Final Issue: Burnout
This is a weird one, and atopic often undiscussed in self-development. There’s always the possibility that you could push yourself too hard, to the point of burning out.
Burnouts can be one of the worst things to experience in self-development. It’s actually a problem related to sustainability. You see, burnouts (extreme exhaustion) may completely ruin your routine or habits in life.
You should try to avoid being in a burnout situation as much as possible.
The cause of burnouts is pushing yourself too hard for too long, without psychological support. You need people when you’re self-developing. It’s not enough to work alone as a hermit. That’s simply torturing.
Having psychological support can really refresh your mind and energy throughout your self-development journey. Make sure you surround yourself with those who can cheer you up.
Always Keep the Previous Problems in Mind.
We’ve listed the issues of this article in order of likelihood. If you’re trying to fix your life’s quality, you’re bound to meet all the previous issue along the way.
We recommend patience, perseverance, and really treating yourself well. That’s how you develop an excellent quality of life!
Take time to explore:
The Horrible Collective Habit of Media Consumption
The Urban Life is Killing Your Soul! Why Not Go Rural?
Main Image Source : Pixabay
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