January 13, 2025 

Introduction 

“The swiftest way to triple your success is to double your investment in personal development” says the great writer Robin Sharma. Personality Development is a process. In simple words, ‘Personality Development is a process by which the organized thought, behaviour pattern that makes up a person’s unique personality emerges over time. There are many factors that influence personality, including genetics and environment, social variables and so on. Personality involves not only inborn traits, but also the development of cognitive and behavioural patterns that influence how we think and act. 

Personality development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations. It involves formal and informal activities that put people in the role of leaders, guides, teachers and managers for helping them realize their full potential. Thus it can be concluded that the process of improving or transforming the personality is called personality development. 

Significance or Importance of Personality Development:

Most people underestimate the importance of personality development in their lives. Majority people think that personality development means being good looking, acquiring wealth, showing off and so on. Many people have this wrong notion of understanding personality development. But the truth about personality development is that ‘knowing how to behave oneself positively with the people around’. That proves who you really are and what you really want to be in life. 

Some of the important qualities helping you to develop your personality are as follows. 

a) Confidence 

Personality Development increases your confidence towards the people. a person gets confidence when he or she believes in her or his strengths in a positive manner. When you are positive in yourself then you are able to face the people or deal with the people with confidence. Having wide knowledge and knowing right information regarding different things also will increase your confidence. 

b) Other Centeredness 

Being other centered is yet another important quality that helps the person to build up his/her personality development. Being other centered is all about looking out for opportunities or creating opportunities to render service and help to the person who is needed, without any expectations in return. It also builds up one’s personality development. After all other centeredness is making less for oneself and thinking good about others for one’s growth. 

c) Motivating 

Every individual needs motivation in life. Without motivation one cannot develop his/her personality development. In order to motivate someone one needs to get motivated first. Once the person is motivated he/she can motivate and guide others to grow in their personality development. Motivation is a continuous process. 

d) Communication Skills 

Language is one of the important tools that helps a person to grow in personality development. Your understanding and communication matters for your personality development. You cannot win by talent and hard work alone. Most of the people you see as models of great personality have taken a lot of effort in developing their natural features. It all depends on how you relate to the situation. 

e) Leading 

A person can lead better if he /she has good communication skills. Personality development enhances the capacity to lead and to motivate. 

f) Credibility 

Personality development makes people more credible. Despite the saying that you don’t judge a book by its cover, people do tend to judge people by their clothing and how it is worn. This does not mean buying expensive clothes. We all know people who look shabby in expensive clothes also. There are also people who look great even if their attire is inexpensive. Because of this, you must know what to wear and you must be aware of other aspects of enhancing your physical features. 

g) Interaction 

Personality Development encourages people to interact with others. Studies have consistently shown that people communicate more openly with people they are comfortable with. If your hygiene and social graces are unrefined, then expect to have a much harder time connecting with people. 

What makes a person successful? How do we recognize success? 

Many people think that success means wealth. To some people, it means recognition, good health, happiness, satisfaction and peace of mind. By this we come to know that success is subjective. It can mean different things to different people. There are ample definitions of ‘success’ given by great personalities around the world. Earl Nightingale gives one of the best definitions; He says, “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or Ideal”. 

Let’s understand the definition carefully. Here ‘Progressive’ means that success is a journey, not a destination. Once we reach one goal, we go on to the next and the next and the next and we go on. “Realization” means, it is an experience. We experience so many things in our life journey to find success in life. “Worthy” refers to our value system. Which way are we heading? Positive or Negative? Worthiness determines the quality of our journey. That is what gives meaning and fulfillment. Success without fulfillment is empty. “Goals” are important because they give us a sense of direction in life. 

Your key to success is personal development. Personal development is a journey, not a destination. All highly successful people continually search for ways to keep learning, growing and improving. The day you stop growing is the beginning of the end of your success. 

Some of the stages for Success: 

a) Commitment 

Commitment is nothing but committing oneself fully to the given job or responsibility. A person who wants to be someone great may be an Engineer, Doctor, Businessman, Professor, Pilot, Inspector and so on and so forth will always commit oneself to achieve that goal along with your personal development. 

b) Responsibility 

Responsibility comes from one’s own qualities. A responsible person will never blame the other person for his petty mistakes, but he/she accepts to learn from the mistakes and goes forward. Responsible people make right decisions to reach towards their destiny in life. Accepting responsibilities involves taking risks in life. Responsible people don’t wait for things to happen rather they make things happen. 

c) Hard work 

Henry Ford said, “The harder you work, the luckier you get”. Success is achieved only by hard work. There is a lot of difference between working hard for three days and working for three years without any hard work. It all depends on how we think. A person who works hard for three days is a more successful man than a person who works for three years without putting in any effort. No hard work, no success. 

d) Character 

Character is the sum total of a person’s values, beliefs and personality. It is reflected in our behaviour, in our actions. It needs to be preserved more than the richest jewel in the world. If you have a good character, you are a winner. Accepting the Criticisms from the people also helps you to build up your character. After all it is your character that shows who you are and not your degrees. 

e) Positive Believing 

There is a difference between positive believing and positive thinking. Positive thinking helps you to go ahead in life despite criticisms and failure, while positive believing is having confidence and positive attitude towards oneself. It’s about believing oneself and fulfilling one’s dream with full confidence. It is much more important than positive thinking. 

Conclusion 

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to focus on your personality Development. No one has your best interest at heart more than you do for yourself, so committing your life for the better will be the best thing you can do. Success can be achieved only through this. Therefore Personality Development and Success always go hand in hand. Personality development is a preparation for a person to achieve his /her goal in life. This will also help you not only to build a better relationship with yourself but with those around you.