Personal development or self-improvement consists of activities that develops a person's capabilities and potential, enhance quality of life, and facilitate the realization of dreams and aspirations. Personal development may take place over the course of an individual's entire lifespan and is not limited to one stage of a person's life. It is not restricted to self-help and can include official and informal actions for developing others in roles such as a teacher, guide, counselor, manager, coach, or mentor.
When personal development takes place in the context of institutions, it refers to the methods, programs, tools, techniques, and assessment systems offered to support positive adult development at the individual level in organizations.Bob Aubrey (2010), Managing Your Aspirations: Developing Personal Enterprise in the Global Workplace. McGraw-Hill, , p. 9. More recently, it is recognised that workplaces should be more proactive in promoting personal development. Bob Aubrey (Founder & Chair of the Advisory Board of the ASEAN Human Development Organisation) contends "that human development should be integral to policies and practices in the workplace"
Overview
Among other things, personal development may include the following activities: Social entrepreneurship or civic engagement Participating in festivals, conferences, or conventions Improving self-awareness Improving self-knowledge Improving skills and/or learning new ones Building or renewing identity/self-esteem Developing strengths or talents Improving a career Identifying or improving potential Building employability or (alternatively) human capital Enhancing lifestyle and/or the quality of life and time management calculating the return on time invested. Improving health Improving wealth or social status Fulfilling aspirations Initiating a life enterprise Defining and executing personal development plans (PDPs) Improving social relations or emotional intelligence Spiritual identity development and recognition Character building Developing personal attributes and rewiring the brains neuro-pathways Sustaining growth through habit maintenance and relapse prevention
A distinction can be made between personal development and personal growth. Although similar, both concepts portray different ideas. Personal development specifies the focus of the "what" that is evolving, while personal growth entails a much more holistic view of broader concepts including morals and values being developed.
Recent scholarship has noted parallels between personal-development frameworks and structured therapeutic models used in psychology, which also emphasize goal setting, staged progress, and feedback systems to support sustained change.Norcross, J. C., & Goldfried, M. R. (2019). Handbook of Psychotherapy Integration. Oxford University Press.Lambert, M. J. (Ed.). (2013). Bergin and Garfield's Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change. Wiley.Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2004). Positive Psychology in Practice. Wiley.
Personal development can also include developing other people's skills and personalities. This can happen through roles such as those of a teacher or mentor, either through a personal competency (such as the alleged skill of certain managers in developing the potential of employees) or through a professional service (such as providing training, assessment, or coaching).
Beyond improving oneself and developing others, "personal development" labels a field of practice and research: As a field of practice, personal development includes personal-development methods, learning programs, assessment systems, tools, and techniques. As a field of research, personal-development topics appear in psychology journals, education research, management journals and books, and human-development economics.
Any sort of development—whether economic, political, biological, organizational or personal—requires a framework if one wishes to know whether a change has actually occurred.Bob Aubrey, Measure of Man: leading human development McGraw-Hill 2016 , p. 15 In the case of personal development, an individual often functions as the primary judge of improvement or of regression, but the validation of objective improvement requires assessment using standard criteria.
Personal-Development frameworks may include: Goals or benchmarks that define the end-points Strategies or plans for reaching goals Measurement and assessment of progress, levels or stages that define milestones along a development path A feedback system to provide information on changes
As an industry Personal development as an industrySome sources recognize personal development as an "industry": see, for example: And: And: has several business-relationship formats of operating. The main ways are business-to-consumer and business-to-business. However, there have been two new ways emerge: consumer-to-business and consumer-to-consumer. The personal development market had a global market size of 38.28 billion dollars in 2019.
Business-to-consumer market A wide array of personal development products are available to individuals. Examples include self-help books; education technology, neuroenhancement, and experiential learning (instructor-led training, motivational speeches, seminars, social or spiritual retreats). Domains Higher education, cognitive training Personal finance Weight loss, physical fitness, nutrition, and beauty enhancement Large-group awareness training Sensory deprivation Time-management Yoga Martial arts Initiation ceremonies Meditation Asceticism General methods of personal development also include: Life coaching or counseling Recommendation systems Nootropics, such as caffeinated drinks Brain computer interface Virtual assistant
Business-to-business market Some consulting firms such as DDI and FranklinCovey specialize in personal development, but generalist firms operating in the fields of human resources, recruitment and organizational strategy—such as Hewitt, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Hay Group, McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, and Korn/Ferry—have entered what they perceive as a growing market, not to mention smaller firms and self-employed professionals who provide consulting, training and coaching.
Origins Major religions—such as the age-old Abrahamic and Indian religions—as well as 20th-century New Age philosophies have variously used practices such as prayer, music, dance, singing, chanting, poetry, writing, sports and martial arts.
Michel Foucault describes in Care of the Self Translated from the French Le Souci de Soi editions Gallimard 1984. Part Two of Foucault's book describes the technique of caring for the soul falling in the category of epimeleia from the Greek to the classic Roman period and on into the early stages of the age of Christianity. the techniques of epimelia used in ancient Greece and Rome, which included dieting, exercise, sexual abstinence, contemplation, prayer, and confession—some of which also became practices within different branches of Christianity.
Wushu and tai chi utilize traditional Chinese techniques, including breathing and qi exercises, meditation, martial arts, as well as practices linked to traditional Chinese medicine, such as dieting, massage, and acupuncture.
Two individual ancient philosophical traditions: those of Aristotle (Western tradition) and Confucius (Eastern tradition) stand out and contribute to the worldwide view of "personal development" in the 21st century. Elsewhere anonymous or named founders of schools of self-development appear endemic—note the traditions of the Indian sub-continent in this regard.For example: For example: For example: For example:
South Asian traditions
Some ancient Indians aspired to "beingness, wisdom and happiness".
Paul Oliver suggests that the popularity of Indian traditions for a personal developer may lie in their relative lack of prescriptive doctrine.
Islamic personal development
Khurram Murad describes that personal development in Islam is to work towards eternal life in Jannuh. There are many avenues in the journey to paradise, such as devoted practicing of the laws of the Quran and Sunnah, such as optimized service towards the self and others. Sincere worship of Allah is the foundation for self-discovery and self-development. Allah has provided ways to help those striving towards eternal life, including staying away from things of the world. These worldly things can distract those away from the path to paradise. It does not mean worldly success is inherently disruptive but can become so when spiritual beliefs do not align with the Sunnah. In the end, paradise will bring satisfaction to those working on their personal development because of the pleasure that comes from Allah.
Aristotle and the Western tradition The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BC322 BC) wrote Nicomachean Ethics, in which he defined personal development as a category of phronesis or practical wisdom, where the practice of virtues (arête) leads to eudaimonia,Nicomachean Ethics, translated by W.D.Ross, Basic Works of Aristotle, section 1142. Online in "The Internet Classics Archive of MIT": http://classics.mit.edu//Aristotle/nicomachaen.html commonly translated as "happiness" but more accurately understood as "human flourishing" or "living well".Martha Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness, Cambridge University Press, discusses why the English word happiness does not describe Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia, pp. 1–6. Aristotle continues to influence the Western concept of personal development , particularly in the economics of human developmentNobel Prize winner Amartya Sen identifies economic development with Aristotle's concepts of individual development in his co-authored book written with Aristotle scholar Nussbaum: And in his general book published a year after receiving the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998: and in positive psychology.Daniel Seligman explicitly identifies the goals of positive psychology with Aristotle's idea of the "Good Life" and eudaimonia in Seligman, Martin E.P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment.New York: Free Press. (Paperback ed., Free Press, 2004, ).
Confucius and the East Asian tradition In Chinese tradition, Confucius (around 551 BC479 BC) founded an ongoing philosophy. His ideas continue to influence family values, education and personnel management in China and East Asia. In his Great Learning Confucius wrote:
In contemporary China, personal development remain a salient priority in social life, and is shaped by diverse traditions, including Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, as well as modern influences such as communist ideas of citizenship and capitalist conceptions of human capital.Hizi, Gil. (2024) Self-Development Ethics and Politics in China Today: A keyword approach. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Young adults in particular must navigate different social roles and values as they seek to become socioeconomically competent citizens.
Contexts
Psychology Psychology became linked to personal development in the early 20th century starting with the research efforts of Alfred Adler (1870–1937) and Carl Jung (1875–1961).