Finding Time for Personal Development

by Brian Schwarze | Feb 2, 2017 | Personal Development

Personal development is a huge passion of mine. If you look at any wildly successful person, they’ll all say the same thing: “If you want to become successful, you must always be growing, learning and working on yourself”.

So now you might be saying to yourself, “Okay, I get it, personal development is important.. but how can I possibly find the time for it with work, my family, and other responsibilities?”.

And then I ask: How can you afford NOT to find the time? Remember, personal development can bring you an abundance of success and wealth.

If you want to be successful in life, you MUST work on finding time for personal development.

There are plenty of opportunities throughout your day where you can “find the time” to work on yourself. Let’s take a look and see, shall we?

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During Your Commute

Most of you reading this post spend at minimum 30 minutes in your car per day. Whether that time is spent going to your job, running errands or even picking up the kids – this is time that can be used for your personal development. Cut out those morning radio talk shows. Stop listening to the news every morning on the way to work. Don’t keep listening to the same songs you’ve heard thousands of times already. Take that time and put it towards improving yourself and growing your mind by listening to audiobooks, motivational podcasts or even lectures on a particular topic. I want you to turn your car into a mobile classroom! I’ve been doing this now for years and it is one of the best things I have ever decided to do.

Get Less Sleep

I might lose some of you here, but stay with me. This is another important step to finding the time for personal development and one that has also greatly improved my way of life. Most people are probably sleeping more than the recommended hours for their age. Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t give your body what it needs, I’m simply stating that waking up a half hour earlier so that you can read, meditate or get a quick workout in before you start your day is a great technique to kick the day off. This will begin to get you in the right mindset and get your brain juices flowing earlier. Once you adjust to this change, you’ll instantly see the positive impact it can have for you long term. You’ll start accomplishing more day to day, you’ll be happier, and you’ll have “found” that extra time for your personal development. One quote that has always stuck with me in regards to this topic of sleep was by 50 Cent. He was working on a production and was asked when he found time to sleep and he said “Sleep? Sleep is for those people who are broke”.

2 Birds 1 Stone

I talk a lot about personal development of the mind but I want to state that every area of your life can be worked on and developed to get to new heights. For example, most people work on themselves physically by working out. How many times have you been to a gym and seen people wearing headphones? I would bet 95/100 people wearing headphones while working out are listening to music. Do you know where I’m going? This is the perfect time to work on 2 areas at once – physical and mental growth! Replace those “workout mixes”, with audiobooks (Audible free trial with 2 free books!). I can now get through a full audiobook in a week just by listening while at the gym!

Entertainment

This may seem obvious, but it has to be said. Get rid of that nasty habit of watching 3-4 hours of mind numbing television a day! The average American literally wastes more than 33 hours a week watching television. And that number only seems to be growing with the handful of on demand services such as Netflix and Hulu! You don’t have to go cold turkey and cut it out completely, but I highly suggest limiting yourself to no more than 7 hours per week! You will be shocked to learn how much time you have when you stop watching pointless reality TV or the latest hit dramas. Those shows aren’t going to help you get where you want to be… Personal developement will.

These are just a few examples of every day opportunities we have in our lives to find the time for personal development. All you must do is take control of your life, set aside that time for growth and eventually you will find the success you’re looking for.