In the realm of personal development, there is one goal that overrides all others: personal fulfillment. You were designed to feel fulfilled and experience a fulfilling life; that is, a life in which you strongly sense that you are making a positive difference using both the gifts and talents with which you were born, and the skills which you have learned and become proficient at.
How do you grow into this kind of life? I wish I could tell you simply to follow these five or seven or ten steps, and boom! you will have arrived. But it doesn’t happen by following a step-by-step process. It happens, instead, by consistently applying five principles to your life. These principles will not only lead to personal development, but also ultimately to personal fulfillment.
Principle #1: Chaos often precedes great, positive change.
Nature’s way of pruning trees is windstorms. It’s way of cleansing the land? Floods and blizzards. How do babies come? Usually with a lot of pain and strain.
The same is true of the storms that show up in your life. While they may be hard to endure and bring a lot of chaos, if you persevere through them you will find that the other side brings more peace, more wisdom, more order, even more success than you had previously.
Principle #2: Being happy does not equal being fulfilled.
I have heard people say that you know you’re on the right track when you are happy.
I disagree. Happiness is a temporary state based on current conditions. I am happy one moment because my son is playing a silly game; the next moment, I am unhappy because he has just spit on the cat and thrown a block at me.
You are happy for the first few days after you become engaged to be married; the next few days you are unhappy because you realize how much the kind of wedding you want is going to cost.
When you are living a fulfilling life, one of the indicators is that you have constant joy. Joy is not happiness. It is a deep state of being that continues regardless of outward circumstances, allowing you to stand strong in the face of adversity and know that first of all, you are still on the right track, and second, that you will get through anything.
Principle #3: Personal fulfillment involves helping other people.
You do not live in a vacuum. And people were designed to live in community. If personal development is all about you, and you only, failure is sure to come your way.
It is the same with personal fulfilment: your gifts, talents and skills are mostly for other people, not for you, and if you are not using them to help the world around you, you will struggle all your life to feel fulfilled.
True fulfillment means helping other people.
Principle #4: Consistent, positive action keeps you going in the right direction.
Have you ever doubted you were doing the right thing? Or making the right decisions? Everyone experiences these doubts at times – at least, everyone who really cares about fulfiling their calling or leading a fulfilled life.
And sometimes, despite our best intentions, we do get off on a path that is not ultimately in our best interest.
However, as long as you are taking consistent, positive action on your dreams, ideas and talents, you will be led in the right direction. And if you get off course, you will be gently nudged back on course.
In other words, don’t worry about whether you are “in God’s will” or doing what you need to do in order to live the life you were designed for. Keep your heart right and your feet moving, and you will end up at your destination.
Principle #5: Your sense of value is proportionate to your level of fulfillment.
When you are living a fulfilling life, your sense of value and worth as a human being goes up proportionately. If you suffer from self-esteem problems, your life may be off track and you owe it to yourself to figure out how to get back on.
Whatever activities you do or choices you make to grow in your personal development should always lead to greater personal fulfillment. Put these principles into action, and you will soon find life richer and more exciting than you ever thought possible!
Want more information and support to experience success in every area of life? Then don’t miss Brian Klemmer’s Personal Mastery Course.
