Personal Development

Development comes through knowing what you want to learn or change, what you need to do to achieve that and how you will know when you have arrived.

There are three aims of personal development:

1. Emotional Control
2. Understanding
3. Effectiveness

We tend to react automatically in response to an inside or outside event. Sometimes we respond in ways which, when we have calmed down, we regret. We get angry, we get upset, we give up, when logically, we wish we had expressed a different emotion. Similarly we get excited and enthusiastic about things, which had we been able to follow our reason, we would not have pursued with such passion. We feel we cannot control or direct our emotions. We are at the mercy of outside or unconscious forces.
The goal is to be free to express emotions appropriately.

In order to accomplish any aim we need understanding - the skills maps and tools. We can know what we want to achieve, but not be able to do what is required, just as we can have the ability but not the knowledge of what we want. This area is traditionally the area of education.

Just as skills, knowledge, emotions etc, can be a barrier to achieving personal development, so can a lack of effectiveness. We can know what we want, be able to achieve it, have the motivation but not the personal effectiveness.
The goal is to be free to know.

To be effective, one requirement is to influence ourselves and others. Personal effectiveness is mainly concerned with communication. Personal effectiveness involves overcoming the barriers within ourselves too.
The goal is to be free to act.

Personal development cannot be fully attained without addressing all these factors. We cannot attain our aim by merely feeling good, although we need to feel good to attain our aim. We cannot attain our aim merely through understanding. Nor can we attain our aim merely through effectiveness, although we cannot attain it without it!

In summary:

* We need to be in the right state of thinking and emotion,
* Know how to get into this state,
* Know what we want,
* How to do it, and
* We need to act effectively.

Ken Ward and Peter Shepherd are co-authors of The New Life Course, and Think Different! For more information, please visit: Tools for Transformation and Freeing the Mind.

Most recent revision 16 August 1998
Copyright © 1998 Ken Ward,
All Rights Reserved.

How EFT can help:
EFT creator, Gary Craig, uses a wonderful metaphor to explain that we all live in a Palace of Possibilities, but tend to live in just one or maybe two rooms in this palace. It is the writing on the walls in our 'comfort zone' rooms that prevent us from going out into the other rooms. The writing is made up of our beliefs, , periences, thoughts and emotions, some of which will need to be re-written if we are to be free to live in our palace. EFT can help to identify these underlying blocks and dissolve them, quickly and effectively. Read more about the Palace of Possibilities at the EFT web site.

To arrange a session by phone or in person, see Book a Session

Download a hypnosis session
You can purchase and download specific self-development or self-improvement hypnosis sessions using the links on the left. These can be played at home at a time when you can relax. Many people use these in conjunction with personal therapy sessions, and if you would like to speak to either of us to explore this option, please see the contact details where you can either email us or telephone us.