Prosper Ikiriko

Introduction

Why is it that we think we don have to continue our self-development once we have finished our education? Maybe it is because we equate learning and development with the educational institutions that we have spent so much time in during our early years. Of course, we continue to develop throughout our lives, and continue to gain new skills and attributes throughout our working lives and our lives as partners, parents, grandparents, and our involvement with our communities.The desire to improve is paramount here. If we get to the point of thinking that we no longer need to improve, we are showing how closed our minds are, and how entrenched our attitudes are. This approach to life doesn allow for change and doesn allow for development. To be a fully rounded and healthy person, it is necessary to be able to respond to changes in our lives, in our environments, and our hearts and minds.Rigidity in life will impact not only on ourselves, but on others, and will make our lives difficult when change is necessary or forced upon us. No one is perfect, and no one knows everything there is to know. Thankfully we generally don need to know everything, but we do need to know when we need to learn something, and when we need to develop new skills and abilities.Generally speaking, it helps to have a goal or two in mind to guide our self-development program and to have the right sort of attitude. For example, its best not to get too worried about what it is you can do or need to improve. Rather, we should take the knowledge of our shortcomings and examine ways in which we can improve. Worrying will do no good at all.Our energy should be directed to working out exactly what it is we need to do better and how.Confidence is everything really, and confidence in your ability to learn and improve will make an amazing difference to your success. If you are convinced that you can learn something, then you have already lost the battle. If you can tell yourself that if other people can do it, then so can you, this is a sign that you are on the way to success. Making the most of yourself means treating others as you would like to be treated yourself. Treat people with respect and you are showing that you are worthy of respect too. So don mess people about, do make sure you are on time if you have arranged to meet someone and do be courteous and pleasant. If you patronize someone or treat them dismissively, they will remember this about you, and this will not be helpful to you should you need at some point to ask them a favor, or if you find that you are employing them. Once you have permitted yourself to be confident about your abilities and to hold your head high with others, you can work on the aspirations for improvement. Make sure you aim high enough. Low-level goals are too easy and don test your abilities sufficiently. Aiming too high means you are less likely to meet your target – so maybe you need to set goals that divide up the big task and deal with them one at a time. It is important to make a realistic assessment about how you are going to achieve your goals.Once you know what you are aiming for, you need to make a sensible plan of how you are going to get there. Plans are essential. Plans allocate time for certain tasks and break tasks down into manageable proportions. Plans enable you to make the best use of your time and to develop the skills required to get things done.It is important to be goal-oriented. It is all very well reading up on something, but you need to put theory into practice. For many people, its a matter of lots of talks, but not so much action. With everything you do, try and ensure there is a measurable outcome that you can identify as a target, and can be seen to be done.Don let obstacles get in your way. When things get difficult, its important that you don give up. If we never have to overcome problems on our way, we would find life to be an easy ride. The test is how you overcome problems on the road to achievement and success.If you consider some of the most successful people in the world today, you will find many of them have had more than one career, and many of them have experienced failure in the first degree and continued to great future success. This reflects their self-belief and determination. So when things go wrong, learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others. Never think you know best all the time, and acknowledge that sometimes you do. You should always think it possible to