By: Ivan Estrada

https://www.allbusiness.com/personal-development-for-entrepreneurs-can-grow-your-business-203457-1.html

Growing a business is a top priority for entrepreneurs. However, focusing solely on your company is not the most effective way to achieve business growth. I have discovered over the past decade that working on yourself and your personal development makes a difference in every aspect of your life. Without you, your business cannot function, and if you are not striving to meet your best potential self, your business has no chance of reaching its full potential.

Working on personal development to consistently improve who you are will make you more self-aware and teach you to do what works best for you. In turn, you will put yourself in situations where you are the most efficient and effective, which will give you more time and energy to focus on your brand.

This discovery has taught me to set goals that focus on personal development, not on numerical-based achievements that are not 100% in my control. Personal development for entrepreneurs is a process that takes time and effort, not only on the good days, but on the bad days, too. Therefore, I want to share five key things you must do in order to practice and up your personal development game.

5 steps to personal development for entrepreneurs

1. Have the right mindset

First, you must have the right mindset when approaching tasks or opportunities. You need to want to take risks and step outside of your comfort zone, even if there is a possibility of failure. Being in uncomfortable situations will help you learn things about yourself that you wouldn’t have known if you were in a comfortable environment.

Here are a few ways to improve your mindset:

• Meditate
• Exercise
• Eat a good breakfast to start your day
• Be grateful for what you have; consider using a gratitude journal
• Be aware of what information you allow in; i.e., be around positive people and positive information because if you surround yourself with positive energy, you will embody the positivity around you
• Having the right mindset is the most important thing you can do to improve your personal development. If you open yourself up to be in a situation of growth, the growth will happen.

Next, you need to expand your knowledge base and be perpetually curious. My best advice is to read books, ones about your industry and ones that are not. Learn from the experiences of leaders and trailblazers before you. Become inspired to be like the people you read about.

The more knowledge you have, the more power you have to elevate, grow, and generate ideas. If you are not curious, you become stagnant.

3. Locate blind spots and bottlenecks

Locating blind spots and bottlenecks is an important and difficult step in the personal development process. I like to say that there are things you know that you know, things you know that you don’t know, and things you don’t even know that you don’t know.

For example, maybe you’re more extroverted as a leader than you are in daily life. Maybe you have a knack for crisis management, but didn’t find out until you were in a crisis situation. When practicing personal development, you start to become aware of aspects about yourself that you would have never expected to be true. Through this self-awareness, you can make adjustments and begin taking advantage of these skills and characteristics. You can use them to become a better leader, and ultimately, a better person.

4. Overcome your fears

The hardest and most introspective part of personal development is overcoming your fears. We can’t move forward unless we acknowledge our fears. Being aware of what those fears are (whether it’s a fear of failure or not being respected as a leader), can help us move forward. Self-awareness is necessary in order for you to grow as a person—and to grow your business.

You can read about and learn from the struggles of successful people who have overcome their fears and try to follow their example.

5. Understand your “why”

Personal development for entrepreneurs is all about understanding who you truly are and being 100% self-aware in order to grow, not only as a person, but as a leader, too. What is that “why” that keeps you moving forward? What gives you the purpose and motivation to keep trying new things and reaching for success? Your “why” is the driving force behind the decisions that you make.

As business leaders, sometimes we get wrapped up in the day-to-day operations and forget to acknowledge why we started a company in the first place. Your “why” can be anything from wanting to take care of your parents, desiring a legacy to pass on to generations after you, or giving your kids the life experiences that you maybe didn’t have.

Personal development leads to business growth
Practicing these five steps—finding your “why”, overcoming your fears, locating your blind spots, being curious, and having a positive mindset—is essential to personal development for entrepreneurs. Working on yourself is the most effective way to achieve business growth.