The Sure Route to Personal Development and Enhancement (Part 1)

Today, we will meditate on a Bible-based strategy on how to achieve personal development and enhancement…

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up…

– Acts 20:32

The late Jim Rohn once wrote: ‘if you want to be wealthy and happy…learn to work harder on yourself than on your job…What you become is far more important than what you get. The important question to ask on the job is not, “What am I getting?” Instead, you should ask, “What am I becoming? “ Getting and becoming are like Siamese twins: what you have today you have attracted by becoming the person you are today….Income rarely exceeds personal development. Sometimes income takes a lucky jump, but unless you learn to handle the responsibilities that come with it, it will usually shrink back to the amount you can handle….It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal development.’

This underlines the importance of developing oneself in the process of becoming a high flyer. The truth about birth is that it is two-fold: the one that happens through a biological process in the labour ward, and the one that each individual does to his/herself through a process of re-creation, not necessarily physically, but in the covert realm of the mind, in the way of reasoning or looking at things, in a change in attitude and behavioural patterns.

The second birth process is usually done consciously and with as equal, if not physical, pain as the first one. In the first mode, the woman in labour bears the pain physically; in the second, the person undergoing a process of rebirth experiences the inner pain of tearing off old habits and modes of doing things.

But the fact remains to be all that you can be in life, you have to take the painful decision of pursuing self-development. It is to the extent that you master the self and steer it in noble directions that your greatness is manifested. It is all in the knowledge, analysis and management of the self.

From the passage above, the Bible is a blueprint you need to achieve self-development. Following its various instructions, albeit how inconvenient they may seem, is a big step in disciplining yourself to make a better choice contrary to the dictates of your flesh, societal or peer pressures. Virtually all the self-help books around are expositions of Biblical tenets. Why not make it your own companion henceforth, so that it can build you up and make your life a worthy testimony for people to read?

You will succeed in Jesus Name!