The Process of Self Development The process of self-development begins prior to any actual steps in the development of skills, talents, or competencies. It begins with self-awareness and self-discovery. You first must find out where you are in order to move on from there. Self-discovery gives you insightful understanding of your personality, values, tendencies, and beliefs. It also gives you insight into what you want to do or the person you want to become.
After you discover who you are and where you are headed, you begin the actual steps in the improvement process by assessing your current skills, talents, and competencies.
Self-assessment is the process of gathering information about one’s own aptitude, skills, competencies, and talents and critically reviewing the quality of his or her performance and abilities. Self-Assessment is different from self-awareness and self-discovery in that awareness and discovery is simply a recognition of something or knowing something exists. Assessment, on the other hand, is determining or measuring an amount, value, importance, extent, or rate of something.
After the completion of a self-assessment, you are better able to set and reach your goals. Self-assessment gives you the information needed to create an effective development plan. A development plan involves the making of goals or benchmarks that help define the path that you intend to follow. By knowing what specific skills you need to develop or work on, you are able to focus your attention on those skills and making yourself more proficient at them. You force yourself to focus on the acquisition of knowledge and to organize your resources, thus allowing you to become more organized and effective. As you become more effective, you can improve both your abilities and ultimately your performance.
As your performance increases, you achieve more and your self-confidence increases. An increased self-confidence leads to being happier and feeling more fulfilled in life. You ultimately reach self-actualization and realization of your full potential.