PersDev.com - Neal's Personal Development

A pattern I’ve noticed recently is that the happiest people I see disregard the aspect of trying to be normal. Many times these individuals dress differently, talk about unpopular subjects, act from their morals, disregard social pressure, and are usually successful.

Instead of trying to live up to your perception of what the world views as “normal,” I challenge you to embrace your weirdness.
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Short post this week and the next couple of weeks, it’s crunch time at school.

In my experience, it’s been pretty clear on what I need to improve on next. You can usually tell what you’re lacking on skill-wise, and you should chip away at that. For instance, I’ve been getting a bit overwhelmed lately because of school, but I realize that I’m not using my time as effectively as I should. Therefore, I should work on time management and productivity.

However, sometimes you don’t always realize what you can do now that will develop yourself as well as potentially ease the difficulty of some of the other tasks that you are working on.

For instance, lets say that you’re having a hard time finding a date. You may realize that you’re shy, and that you really need to talk to more people, but you’re having a hard time creating meaningful conversations. Something that may help this that you haven’t realized is learning how to speak publicly. By boosting your public speaking stat, you also boost your creating relationships stat.

Here are some of the habits that you can form that can help you grow as an individual:
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If “I’ll do it later” is a commonly uttered phrase, then you’re suffering from the worst productivity problems – procrastination. In order to overcome this debilitating disorder, procrastination must be tackled head on. There are several reasons why you might procrastinate, and the key to overcome these obstacles is to face them.
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Creating a productive workspace is one of the most important actions that can improve your output. By creating a harmonious and organized workspace, you can improve your efficiency, which can lower stress, help you finish projects quicker, and get you noticed by your boss. If you’re self-employed or going to school, a productive workspace will allow you to study or work faster, which will free up more time for yourself. Follow these important steps to create a more productive workspace for yourself. More »

This is a short post testing my new twitterfeed account that links up this blog to my twitter account. Follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/sidecoder

One of the biggest problems facing students is stress.  Between deadlines for school, working with groups, applying for scholarships, doing homework, and many others, stress creeps in and never really goes away till the semester’s over.

Stress destroys your productivity, is a leading cause of disease, and kills your test scores.  However, with a little proper planning and time management, you can virtually eliminate stress from your life during the semester.
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One of the biggest blocks I had on my path to becoming self-actualized  was that I never really experienced life.  What I mean by this is that I never lived the dreams.  Ever since I was 8 years old, I’ve always wanted to become rich by building a business.  I did have a little bit of experience in this, but not enough to count.  For instance, one day, I had a lemonade stand.  It was only open for three hours or so, and I don’t remember making any money.  Because of that, I never stuck with it, and I never truly got the experience of creating a business.  Can you imagine a new business owner only being open for three hours, then shutting the doors, saying that since they’re not earning a profit, they’re going out of business?  I had one more experience of business as a kid:  I sold candy door-to-door.  I lasted a whole day that time, but gave up because I didn’t want to sell in the Arizona heat.

While this shows an example through my desire to be a business owner, it can be applied to many aspects of life.  When I first entered college, I immediately chose to get my associates in business degree.  I thought that I would go on to build my own businesses, after learning all about general business practices.  Well, that’s not really how life works.  I originally planned on getting a marketing degree, since ‘marketing is the most important part of running a business’.  So my last semester at the community college, I took a marketing class as an elective.  I hated it!  My teacher was great, but my left-oriented brain couldn’t stand analyzing pretend business markets, or trying to determine ideal color schemes for different types of businesses based upon how color affects demand (such as fast food places use red because it increases hunger).  Thank god I ended up taking that class /experiencing life/ or else I couldn’t have graduated on time, because I would have ended up switching majors.
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Hi,

My name is Neal.  I’m quite interested in personal development and I’ve created this site for two reasons:

1. To track my progress through my own personal development
2. To inspire and help others grow

Lets help each other grow!

Neal