Personal development is a constant journey that you have to put effort into working on. But sometimes you can run out of ideas or if you don’t know where to start with self improvement it can be so helpful to look at the personal development goals of others. Which is why I have compiled a helpful list of 33 personal development goal ideas to help inspire you and help you brainstorm!
First, if you prefer to watch/listen to me talk about these goals and explain them more then head over to my YouTube and watch this video on personal development goals here!
If you want help on how to actually set and achieve your personal development goals then go check out my recent post about it! You can read it here: How To Set Personal Development Goals.
That post also discusses the importance of setting personal development goals and why you should focus on personal development. Personal development and self improvement go hand in hand. Which means if you want to improve yourself you need to also work on personal development.
So if you are new to this journey go read that one first and then come back to this list when you are to the brainstorming step!
Keep reading this post if you are ready to think of your next step in your self growth journey by working on this list of personal development ideas.
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33 Personal Development Goals Ideas:
1: Learn to actively listen to others.
If you want to start bettering your relationships and improving your life then you need to learn to actively listen to others. Actively listening means thinking about what they are saying not thinking about how you are going to respond!
2: Improve your body language for self improvement.
Self improvement means improving every part of yourself including how you present yourself. By learning to present yourself clearly and confidently through body language you can really improve yourself.
3: Spend less time on your phone and be more present in the moment.
When you are constantly on your phone it is difficult for you to live in the moment and be present with those around you. So this is a great personal development goal that will help with your personal relationships. I have a post that can help with this too: How To Unplug From Your Phone Every Day.
4: Create a work-life balance you are happy with.
Work life balance is something everyone (or at least should) strive for. But what it looks like is different for everyone! So for this self growth goal you should think about what the perfect work life balance looks like for you and how you can achieve it.
5: Start talking to yourself positively.
Positive self talk is essential for improving your mental wellness. So set goals for talking to yourself positively, you can start with something as simple as saying 5 nice things to yourself every morning!
6: Learn a stress coping mechanism that works for you.
Finding a way that works for you to handle stress is a very helpful self growth idea as well as good for your mental wellness. I have a post on 30 ways to relax when you’re stressed and the habits of less stressed people that could help you with this goal!
7: Work on discovering or improving your leadership skills.
Leadership is important for your career and for so many other parts of your life. So set a self improvement goal for either discovering your leadership style or to work on improving your leadership skills.
8: Read a new book every month.
Reading is so important for personal development and just generally for your life! I recommend getting a Kindle so you can easily get a new book every month. Or you can read more often of course but one book a month is a great personal development goal.
9: Improve your time management abilities.
Time management is something we talk about a lot on here but it is an awesome personal development goal to work on improving your time management! If you are skeptical about the importance of time management then read this.
And if you want some tips on improving time management read this: 8 Steps To Better Time Management.
10: Learn how to resolve conflicts.
Resolving conflicts is a crazy helpful skill to learn both for your professional life and personal life. This is a self improvement goal I wish I had worked on a lot earlier in my life!
11: Get out of your comfort zone every month.
Escaping your comfort zone is an essential part of self growth. It’s so important that I have a full guide on it here! But I recommend trying to do at least one thing to get out of your comfort zone every month.
12: Learn to practice regular gratitude.
The next of the personal development goals is to practice regular and consistent gratitude. My best tip for doing this goal successfully is to get a daily gratitude journal.
13: Work on not questioning your decisions.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t ever have doubts but setting a goal to not think about or change your decision is a great way to grow in your confidence and start to really improve yourself.
14: Pick a bad habit and work on eliminating it.
Eliminating bad habits is a common self growth goal and it’s common for a reason- because it is so important! I recommend doing this goal by working on one bad habit at at time. I have a post on this that might be able to help you out: How To Break a Bad Habit in One Month.
15: Put effort into becoming a better friend.
This is a large and kind of vague goal but improving personal relationships is absolutely a part of improving yourself. So putting work and effort into becoming a better friend is a great goal to set!
16: Practice daily optimism for self growth.
The next goal is all about self growth- practicing daily optimism. Becoming more optimistic can be a large task by but focusing every day on talking about or writing things you are optimistic about can really help improve your mindset.
17: Work towards a self confidence level you desire.
Becoming more confident will vary by person because everyone has different confidence level goals but it is one of my favorite personal development goals. That is because I love seeing people become a more confident version of themselves!
18: Form new positive habits that help you achieve dreams.
Breaking bad habits is hard but so is forming new positive habits! It is so important for your personal development journey to work on adding new and positive habits to your life. I recommend adding one every few months.
19: Practice learning to forgive (yourself and others).
Forgiveness is something that doesn’t come easy to a lot of people. But if you want to improve yourself it is so important to learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others. This is important because if you want to move forward you can’t be stuck in the past!
20: Learn to stop procrastinating on tasks to improve yourself.
Procrastination is a hard but manageable thing to overcome! But there is a lot of steps to this goal so if you are choosing this as one of your personal development goals then I recommend checking out this post: Pushing Past Procrastination.
21: Find a communication style that is the best for you.
We know that everyone communicates differently but if you want to hone in on your ideal communication style so you can communicate better than make it s self improvement goal!
22: Learn how to avoid drama and negative situations.
Avoiding drama and negative situations isn’t always an easy choice but it is such an important goal for self growth. And for improving and prioritizing your mental wellness!
23: Remove self doubt and better your self esteem.
Removing self doubt and bettering your self esteem absolutely go hand in hand! The best way in my experience to work on this self growth goal is to practice consistent self esteem activities.
24: Learn how to correctly make decisions.
We already talked about not second guessing your decisions but efficiently and correctly actually making the decisions is another of the personal development goals you could work on.
The main benefit of this goal is it can help eliminate your decision fatigue!
25: Start practicing consistent self reflection.
I talk a lot on here about re-evaluating and reflecting because it is so important for personal growth. Doing monthly or quarterly self reflection is an incredible way to start improving yourself.
26: Start waking up earlier every day.
This is actually not too hard of a self improvement goal! I break down the steps for waking up earlier here but it is totally manageable with some effort and commitment to start waking up earlier so you can do more every day.
27: Find the self care items that are the best for you.
Self care is so important for helping you unwind and practice self love. But you have probably seen lists of hundreds of self care item ideas! So it’s helpful to set this goal to find the self care items that work the best for you.
28: Find the things that motivate you the most.
Finding what motivates and drives you is one of the best personal development goals you can set. Taking the time to learn what really pushes you means you can use that to achieve more and work towards your dreams!
29: Practice taking ownership of your actions.
Learning to get rid of a blaming mentality and taking ownership for your actions and decisions is a great self growth goal. It really helps you improve yourself and can have the result of helping your professional and personal relationships.
30: Find a hobby that you truly enjoy.
Finding a hobby that you really enjoy if you don’t have one is probably the most fun of these personal development goals! Trying a new hobby every few months till you find the right one can be so much fun.
31: Make time for the things that you love.
So you found your hobby- awesome! But if you find yourself struggling to have time for it then this is a great self improvement goal to set. I have a whole guide on this here: How To Make More Time For The Things You Love.
32: Learn to be productive in your down time.
Being productive during your down time isn’t always something people want to hear about but it is an important part of working towards your dreams. It isn’t the most fun self improvement goal but it is definitely one that will help improve you in the long run!
33: Work on becoming a life long learner for true self improvement.
The final of this lists personal development goals is to work on becoming a life long learner. Set a self improvement goal every few months to work on learning something new. Improving yourself through learning is something you will never regret doing!
Self improvement is totally possible if you start creating your personal development goals and making a personal development plan! Stay tuned for additional tips and advice!
Korra-Shay
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If you liked this post you will probably (hopefully!) like these too:
- 27 Questions To Ask Yourself For Personal Growth
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- How To Plan Your Day For Improved Productivity
- How To Make More Time For The Things You Love
- 50 Ideas For Self Improvement
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#3 resonates so much with me because I think I’m just spending too much time on the internet. I think it’s time to slow down and be present. Thanks for this awesome list and a great reminder for me!