“Let him who would move the world first move himself.”
― Socrates
Personal development or self-development is the process of developing one’s own capabilities, awareness, potentials and identity. Self-development teaches you to grow, as long as you live. Every individual, irrespective of their profession, needs to get into self-development, if they do not want to be stuck at one place for the rest of their lives.
Writers are people who often do get stuck at one place. Writing is a tedious job. Often the words don’t match the emotions, or they just simply refuse to show themselves. Writer’s block is not a myth. It is a dangerous form of mental block that prohibits a writer from using his/her full potential and abilities.
Self-development is important in the profession of writing. Every writer needs to constantly grow, as a person and as a writer. Do not assume that self-development is only for business or marketing professionals. Here are five good reasons why even writers like you should indulge in self-development.
1. It will help you to know yourself
A writer creates people, as characters in a story. But before that, as a writer, you need to understand yourself as much as you can. You need to explore all the possible corners of the conscious and unconscious parts of your mind. Unless you understand yourself as a person, with all your intricacies and problems, you will not be able to understand and recreate the emotions of others. Self-development is an important tool in understanding one’s own self.
2. It defines your purpose
A writer needs to be clear on his/her purpose. It is that one thing that will pull you through phases of unproductiveness and block. You can say, what is the big deal in that? A writer’s purpose is to write. But let me ask you a few questions; who are you writing for? Why are you writing? What message do you want to send out to the world? Writing is not just about scribbling away to glory. It needs to have its own purpose. Self-development activities can help you locate your specific purpose and find answers to all the above questions and more.
3. It will teach you time management
Let us confess it; we writers are dreamers and we often just pass away precious time, dreaming. We waste time, we run behind schedules, we miss deadlines. It is henceforth crucial for a writer to know how to effectively manage the time available. Self-development, by helping you understand your purpose and goal, and also by spotting out your distractions, will teach you to manage time more efficiently.
4. It will teach you to believe in yourself
Self-development helps you know and understand yourself, and also understand your potential and capabilities. This in turn helps you believe in what you can do and how much you can achieve. That again helps you set realistic goals, which you can fulfil and hence grow a sense of confidence. This is important for you as a writer. We writers often aim too big. And then we crumble when failure happens. Self-development will make sure that your goals are achievable. It will make you confident.
5. It will help you learn new things
Self-development broadens your horizon by opening up your mind to possibilities. It triggers ideas in your brain. You get to learn and know a lot more. This helps your writing a lot; because as a writer you need to come up with new things constantly – New characters, new plots, new names, new tragedies, new catharsis and so on. Self-development opens that creative part of yourself.
Image credit: Dimitar Nikolov on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0
Abhinanda Banerjee is a full-time freelance writer and stage actor. She’s an avid reader, culinary enthusiast, and lover of everything about the sixties.