Sometimes it’s easy to become hyper-focused on making positive improvements in your life. You might be working on getting your next big degree or professional credentials, or maybe you’re tirelessly growing your fledgling business into the next great success story. Maybe you are constantly challenging your body to reach that next level of fitness, or you’re striving to achieve your next big goal that provides a rush of satisfaction and accomplishment.
It’s obviously a good thing to set goals and keep striving to improve in all areas of your life, but it’s also easy to fall into the trap of focusing so much on the outer conditions that you forget to work on the most important project, which is your own self-development.
Any successful person will tell you that it’s not just the actions you take and the results you achieve that create true success. It’s not about ticking off boxes and completing a massive to-do list, or even a so-called bucket list. Rather, success is defined by the caliber of person you become as you strive for better in your life.
Devoting some attention to not just doing better, but actively trying to be better will pay far greater dividends in the long run. Being better means developing yourself as a person, releasing limiting perceptions and building a rock-solid belief in your ability to achieve whatever you desire. Being better also includes consistently expanding your skill set and becoming more focused and efficient so that the actions you take will be more effective.
Developing your character and integrity is also a vital part of self-development, so that you are not pursing success for the sake of wealth and accolades alone, but rather you are committed to being a force for good in the world.
When you make your own development your most important project, you free yourself from the trappings of the self-serving ego. You begin to engage with others from a stance of love, compassion, and humility. You begin focusing more on ways that you can help other people be more successful, rather than just yourself. You start seeking opportunities to leave a lasting positive legacy in the world that will remain long after you are gone.
Interestingly, this selfless approach to achievement actually draws more success back to you as well, because you cannot help but attract that which you are. The more generous you are to others; the more life will give to you. The more you care about others, the more appreciated and supported you will feel as well. The more you strive to be the best person you can possibly be, success will be inevitably drawn to you in everything you do.
Making it your mission to keep developing yourself personally, professionally, intellectually, and spiritually will help you to see your goal-setting activities from a healthy new perspective. No longer will you believe that your outer conditions determine your success, but rather your inner state of success will enable you to affect far greater change in the world that benefits everyone, including yourself.
