Here are three personal development habits so simple a cursory glance can rule them out, just as it might rule out sleeping, eating, and breathing. However, like sleeping, eating and breathing, the most necessary things in life are the most common. Think of air, water, sunlight. It is true, as they say; the best things in life are free.
The three most basic personal development practices I have found to keep me inspired and on track are:
1. Listen
2. Diary
3. Reading
1. Listen endlessly to words that feed you.
I’m always listening to a good audiobook on my iPhone. I use Audible. I use iTunes. On iTunes, I listen to audiobooks, seminars, interviews, and the Sermon on the Mount on loop.
It also doesn’t have to always be Scripture or a self-help book. Anything that feeds your spirit. I am currently listening to Billy Crystal’s memoir and find it very enriching (and fun). The key is to listen over and over and over again.
Neurologically, it takes time, impact, and repetition for a learned response to become an automatic habit. Take driving a car, for example. When you first learned, it was complex. Exhausting. After a while, it became automatic and you’re probably not even paying as much attention to the road as you should.
Saint Paul said: “Then faith comes from hearingand hear by the word of Christ.” To build faith and trust in something, you need to listen to it over and over again until it becomes second nature.
2. Journaling completes the cycle of disclosure.
The things I hear, think, and experience bounce around unanchored in my mind until I put pen to paper. Or finger to the keyboard.
When I journal, it becomes real in my understanding. When I write a diary, I speak to myself, to God, to no one and to everyone. Keeping a journal organizes my thoughts and puts them in their place. Which is often under the feet of revelation and intuition.
The root of the word diary means “day”; journaling is something you do every day or a few times a day. Every time you feel adrift, directionless, or anchorless, write a few lines or a few dozen; as many as you want
“Reading makes a complete man, lecturing makes a ready man, and writing makes an exact man.” -Sir Francis Bacon
My diary is a text file in my Dropbox, which resides in my Google Drive, which is behind passwords on every device I use; my Mac, iPhone, Chromebook, and any web browser.
3. Reading keeps you growing.
Since its invention, reading has been the best way for human beings to transfer knowledge. Imagine, the thoughts of someone on the other side of the world and a millennium ago can be transferred to your mind through the magic of reading. It’s time travel, teleportation, and telepathy all rolled into one. No wonder people like books.
I keep mine in the Readmill app on my phone. Readmill works with ePub and PDF eBooks, so that’s it, as eBooks and MOBI text files can be converted to ePub format. (Just google it).
I juggle the books I read, usually reading multiple books at once, chapter by chapter. I try to let my spirit guide me to books relevant to my present moment. (The Greek concept of kairos.) So I’ll read a chapter from book A, then a chapter from book B, then a chapter from book C, and so on.
Loneliness makes everything work.
I once attended a preaching class given by an elderly pastor and missionary. He advised us not to feel guilty about spending all those hours preparing a sermon. When you close the door on the world to prepare your message, you have your entire congregation in the room with you, he noted. It is actually a very selfless time, when loneliness is well spent.
Only in solitude do I fully connect with myself, with the divine, and with my tribe. My time is power time.
I know that this principle applies to all kinds of performance artists, teachers and trainers and, I suppose, to any kind of leader. Even parents of young children. (Especially parents of young children!)
Three personal development habits so simple anyone can practice them to stay inspired and on track:
1. Listen
2. Diary
3. Reading
Very simple, but do them regularly, often and in the right solitude and they will keep you going.
