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Personal development is the bridge to a better life. When your appetite for a better life exceeds your comfort with what you have, this is when you begin embarking on a journey that sets you on a new life trajectory.
It might not seem like it now, but reaching this point is a major milestone. Personal development is often the start of a long journey into self-discovery and spiritual growth. There will always be another layer to work on until your pursuit of growth becomes entirely existential.
Here, we’ll examine why the personal development journey leads to spirituality and what might happen if you continue on this path.
Where My Personal Development Journey Has Led Me
Like many of us, I began my journey into self-improvement when I realized that I could learn new mindsets, skill sets, and characteristics that could improve myself. In the beginning, there was nothing spiritual about my path, and my curiosity orbited the idea of achieving a better life.
During my youth, I struggled quite a lot. My social skills weren’t developed, I was a slow learner, and I just didn’t enjoy my life at all. During my teenage years, this lack of fulfillment led to depression. Fuelled by my desperation to change, I stumbled upon the shining beacon I was looking for โ the realization that I could change.
I couldย learnย social skills. I couldย trainย myself to become more intelligent. I could become more confident, funnier, and more charismatic. I could become someone Iโm proud of and create a better life for myself.
It all just clicked.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was a turning point in my life because a seed was planted. A whole new chapter had been opened, and I was excited to experience it. From that moment, I committed to personal development and never looked back.
It took me many years of consistent practice to create big changes in my life. It was slow going for the first few years, but I continued to push forward, powered by hope because I had nothing to lose. Sooner or later, the target changed. I began to wonder what the point of ‘having a good life’ was if I wasn’t happy, and this led me to the next step of my journey: Self-discovery.
The pursuit of developing myself into the person I wanted to be led me down a rabbit hole. This journey became more philosophical as I set my sights on happiness and fulfillment โ which led me into a soul-searching journey.
Interested in exploring who I was and discovering myself, I then began my nomadic journey which has been over 9 years of traveling the world, living in different cultures, and exploring new things. This journey became increasingly focused on finding deeper meaning in life, and my focus over the years almost completely changed from developing my skills to growing spiritually.
What I’ve realized is that the personal growth journey is ever-evolving. There are distinct layers, and once you get deep enough into one stage, it leads to another phase of the journey. This is why personal development and spirituality have a connection because if you dive deep enough into your personal growth, you will begin seeking answers to bigger questions.
Whatโs the Big Deal About Personal Development?
What your life has eventuated into isnโt mere happenstance. Itโs a reflection of your hard work and commitment. As we develop the desire to be better than we currently are, we find ourselves on a journey of self-improvement, knowing that the work we put into ourselves will bear fruit in the future.
When you realize that your mind is a canvas and you are the artist, the personal development journey provides a sense of empowerment that we lack when we remain dictated by our programs and patterns.
Likewise, it offers us a solution to our problems. If we work on ourselves, we can become more competent people who are capable of having a better life experience. Without a doubt, my life would have taken a drastically different course if I hadnโt embraced the idea that I could change myself and the thought that I could take control over my development that set me free.
Personal development is a lifelong journey of continuously improving your skills, abilities, traits, and characteristics to ultimately become the best version of yourself. It’s the idea that everything about you can be improved.
No aspect of yourself is consolidated, which creates space for a complete transformation of self. At the end of the day, personal development is a quest to become the most capable version of ourselves to achieve the best possible quality of life.
The core incentive starts the same: “What do I need to do to become the person who is capable of achieving my goals”.
With that said, personal development is just the first step. In my eyes, there are 3 major steps in the personal growth journey. Each step leads to the next, which is more significant than the last.
- Personal development and self-help
- Self-discovery and personal growth
- Spiritual growth and soul-searching
Personal development leads to self-discovery. Self-discovery leads to soul-searching. Soul-searching leads to a more fulfilled life. But the journey often takes us by surprise.
You may begin improving your dating skills if you believe a partner is an antidote to your misery. Once youโre competent in dating and have a partner, you might discover that there is still a hole, so you start searching for theย keys to fulfillment.
While searching for fulfillment, you may discover that your childhood wounds may be the cause of your contempt. So this leads you toย shadow work, which then leads you to spiritual doctrines, which then leads to your mindfulness, and so forth.
As you progress along this journey of developing yourself, you begin to realize that there’s a whole lot more under the surface. Sure, you develop some great abilities and the quality of your life improves, but you realize that you feel the same, more or less.
After a certain point, personal development alone begins to feel a little flat. You begin to set your sights on fulfillment, happiness, and experiencing more joy, but it’s not a straightforward journey.
For personal development, you have a roadmap. There’s so much information about it, and generally, there is a direct cause and effect. Do A, B, and C, and you will become more optimistic. Practice D, E, and F, and you will improve your social skills.
When you set your sights on happiness or deeper constructs that are more ambiguous, you don’t have a roadmap, and everyone has different views on what success is, what happiness is, and what it means to be fulfilled. You step into uncharted territory, and this is where the self-discovery journey starts.
Why Personal Development and Spiritual Growth Are Connected
As you step deeper into your personal growth, the journey becomes increasingly complex and existential. Personal development evolves into self-discovery, and rather than just wanting to improve a skill or ability, you look at the bigger picture.
As you question why you want to improve this particular aspect of your life, the answer always tends to be the same. “I want to be happier, so of course, developing this characteristic or skill will allow me to have a better life that’s more aligned with my goals, and this will make me happy”.
But once you are successful, there will be another layer. There will still be something missing, which spurs you to ask more questions. No matter how much you accomplish, there will always be another layer, and you will realize that your pursuits to find happiness have been rather shallow. You need to go in, not up.
“What’s the point of becoming my best self or having a good quality of life if it hasn’t made me happy?”
The pursuit of development becomes more and more abstract as you begin exploring deeper concepts, such as what it means to live a good life and how to be genuinely fulfilled. By this point, you know that personal growth is extremely important, but you’re at a roadblock.
There are a million different philosophies and paths out there, but which one is true? What works? This is where you begin finding your spiritual path because from this point, there is no linear instruction, just possibilities and truths that you must discover yourself.
As you continue along your self-discovery journey, the path continues to lead deeper into self-understanding, personal growth, and the realization that there is more to this than what meets the eye.
Naturally, you cultivate an interest in spirituality, philosophy, and different bodies of wisdom. Anything really to better improve your understanding of who you are and what you’re doing here.
But it is a paradox because the deeper you go into yourself, the more you begin to question. This is the funny thing about the self-discovery journey. It’s more about finding the questions rather than finding the answers.
When you’re deep enough in this pursuit, you may realize that there’s no going back, because there is always something more to find. Having a ‘normal life’ just doesn’t cut it anymore because you’re hungry for truth, and the search for it continues unraveling your consciousness, allowing you to step deeper into it.
Although it’s not always the case, if you’re truly committed to your growth, this path will probably lead you into a spiritual path, because in my eyes it’s inevitable. Realize that the path of personal development is an ever-lasting, ever-evolving path that will transform every aspect of your life in the long run, which is why it’s such a big milestone in your life.