10 Powerful Personal Development Tools to Transform Your Life

ByMetaphysical Mama September 28, 2021July 5, 2023

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The other day someone asked me what I do for my own personal growth. Do I read personal development books, listen to podcasts or audio books? What is my personal development plan? What personal growth activities and tools do I work with?

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I had never really thought of it that way. What tools do I use for my own growth? How do I continue to grow and improve?

What is Personal Development?

Personal Development is basically any activity that helps you improve yourself. It is a way to transform your life and grow as a person, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. A personal development plan helps you become a better person and achieve your goals. It is a way of expanding your limits and becoming more.

Practicing personal development is important because otherwise we become stagnant. We need to grow and expand in order to reach our true potential. We also get to know ourselves on a much deeper level and are given the opportunity to heal past wounds and step more fully into our present.

So, without further adieu, here our my top 10 personal development tools.

1. Personal Development Books

Probably my favourite personal development tool.

Ever since I was very young I’ve loved reading personal development books. I always had a stack sitting on my nightstand ready to go. In fact, I still do.

For me, I find I am able to absorb more information through reading than any other medium. I can reread a line, a paragraph or the entire chapter if I need to. This helps me take in the information and hang on to it much better than if I was to listen to an audio book or podcast.

Here are a couple of personal development books that have had a major impact in my life:

2. Podcasts

I have to admit, podcasts are a new medium for me. I’ve only started regularly listening to them in the last couple weeks. Since my son has started school and I have the house to myself during the day, I have finally been able to actually start enjoying podcasts.

What’s great about podcasts is, you can listen while you’re doing other things, like housework, writing blog posts or going for a walk. I think this is why they have become so popular. You can listen anywhere.

Being pretty new to podcasts I don’t have any favourites yet. Please help me out and let me know your favourites in the comments. Here are some that have caught my attention and I want to give a listen to:

Happier – Gretchen Rubin

The Life Coach School Podcast – Brooke Castillo

The Marie Forleo Podcast

The Lively Show – Jess Lively

Aligned & Unstoppable Podcast – Emily Aarons

3. Meditation

I make an effort to meditate every single day, even if it’s only for ten minutes. Somedays my meditations are profound and other days my monkey brain does not shut up.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter. Every meditation is a good meditation. It’s a moment you give to yourself, and an opportunity for personal growth. It’s so important knowing ourselves on a deeper level.

If you’d like to know more about meditation read my post on How to Meditate.

You can also follow along and do my Loving Kindness Meditation.

woman siting in meditation personal development

4. Personal Development Courses

Another one of my favourite tools for growth is personal development courses.

I have always loved learning. When I was younger however, it was so much more difficult to find courses for personal growth. You would look in the classified ads, find a flyer, or hear from a friend about a class taking place in the backroom of the local bookstore.

I remember meeting a meditation teacher a coffee shop. I ended up talking the guy into letting me paint the studio as payment to take his class. That was the first meditation class I ever took and I was hooked.

It’s much easier to find classes now. My Facebook feed is jam packed with personal development courses.

There are so many different online platforms that I can’t possibly share them all. So here are a couple by one of my favourite teachers, Graham Nicholls:

The Priority Academy Self Hypnosis Practitioner

77 stress busting tools and strategies

The Priority Academy Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Practitioner Accreditation

The Priority Academy Law of Attraction Coach Practitioner Accreditation

5. Affirmations

I have been using affirmations since I was a child. They are a powerful transformational tool that can be used to boost confidence, create new habits, conquer negative thinking and overcome limiting beliefs.

So what are positive affirmations?

The Law of Attraction tells us that what we focus on is what we will attract. Positive affirmations are a way to direct that focus. They use repetition to affect change.

When we repeat a positive statement over and over again, our subconscious mind will work towards making that statement our reality. They shift our thinking so that we will start to change the unwanted behaviour. Then we begin to recognize opportunities as they present themselves, rather than focusing on what’s wrong.

However, the opposite can be true as well. When we tell ourselves we aren’t good enough, that we can’t do something, that becomes our reality. Our brains look for evidence to prove that we are not good enough.

This is why it’s so important to keep our thoughts as positive as we can. They literally create our reality.

A couple things to remember about positive affirmation:

1. Always use positive language.

👎I will not be negative

👍I am positive

👎I will quit being stressed all the time

👍I am calm and relaxed

2. Use the present tense.

👎I am going to stop worrying

👍I trust that everything happening as it’s meant to

👎I will start getting up earlier

👍I wake up early feeling refreshed and energized

3. Keep them simple

👎I don’t feel guilty but instead I feel worthy of all the love and abundance and joy and happiness that the Universe has available for me.

👍I am worthy

👎I deserve to be loved and cared for by my significant other without feeling like I have to work for it

👍I deserve unconditional love

6. Setting Goals

Setting goals helps us know where we want to go and how we plan on getting there.

There are a few things to remember when setting goals. Make them SMART.

S – Specific M – Measurable ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
A – Achievable ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
R – Relevant ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
T – Time-bound⠀

Specific

– be as specific as you can when you create your goals. Where is your dream house, how many bedrooms, what does it look like?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Measurable

– your goals need to be measurable then you can track your progress. How much weight do you want to loose? Keep track of how you’re doing. How wealthy is independently wealthy? Is it millions, billions? Find the number.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Achievable

– If you want to be independently wealthy, but work part time in a retail store with no other plans. Your goal is probably not achievable. However, if you work in retail, but are taking business classes and have a plan to start your own company, you’re more likely to accomplish it. You have to make plans and take steps that make your goal achievable.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Relevant

– Is this goal important to you and aligned with your beliefs? Is it a goal that is going to make you feel good? If it’s not something you believe in, it will be extremely difficult to accomplish it. You heart has to be in it.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Time-bound

– is exactly what it sounds like; implementing a time period. When are you going to loose the weight by, when will you buy your dream home? What steps are you going to take each day to achieve the goal? Time constraints help you to establish what you need to do, by when.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Once you have your Smart Goals, break them down further into daily, weekly, monthly & yearly goals. Breaking them down into actionable steps gives you a starting point & makes them less daunting.

It is also a good idea to write your goals down and refer back to them often. This helps remind you of where you want to go and gives you the opportunity to readjust as needed.

7. Vision Boards

Vision boards are a great tool for manifesting!

They are collages, whether physical or digital, representing our goals and our dreams. Each image symbolizes our objective or the reward for achieving that objective. However, some of the images are steps we need to take to reach our end goal. Vision boards usually have motivational phrases peppered in as well. Phrases to encourage us to follow our dreams and accomplish goals.

To work with a vision board you need to look at it all the time. The subconscious mind loves symbols and images, because they are the language of the inner mind. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then using images conveys a much more complete story that your subconscious is able to interpret.

If you’d like to learn how to make a vision board read my post on How to Create a Vision Board on Pinterest.

Learn more about the Law of Attraction in this post How to Make The Law of Attraction Work; The 12 Universal Laws

woman feet on a bed with books and magazines spread out

8. Personal Development through Coaching or Therapy

One of the most powerful tools for Personal Growth is to find a mentor. This can be in the form of a therapist, counsellor, coach or teacher.

How do you know when it’s time to reach out for some support? Here are a couple guidelines:

You’ve hit a block on your personally growth journey and can’t find a way to move ahead.
You’re feeling depressed or angry
You don’t know how to move forward in your life and are just feeling stuck.
You’re looking for more clarity in your life
You need help setting and/or achieving your goals
You’re preparing for a major life change

If you think you are ready for some support, you can book a free session with my to see if we’re a good fit. Book your free coffee chat now!

9. Personal Development Journalling

Now if I’m being perfectly honest, this is one tool I do not utilize nearly enough. However, when I do practice journalling I always have major breakthroughs. We can achieve so much clarity through journalling. It helps us access our subconscious mind and discover our own internal wisdom.

There are many ways to use journalling for self growth.

A brain dump. Which is basically writing down everything that comes to you without censoring it.

You can journal about your goals and aspirations. Using it as a tool to plan your goals and future.

A journal can also be used to record your day to day activity, a diary.

You can journal about a problem or a difficult decision to help you gain some clarity.

Another way to journal is to use prompts. Your journal prompts can be about anything and are helpful when you are feeling stuck on a particular subject.

10. Gratitude

Possibly the most powerful mindset tool is gratitude. Gratitude has the power to completely shift your perspective.

Gratitude raises your vibration and helps you attract more good into your life.

There are many ways to practice gratitude.

Gratitude Journal
Verbalizing your gratitude
Gratitude Jar
Meditating on what you’re grateful for
Write a letter
Prayers of gratitude

You can learn more about gratitude in my blog post What’s There to be Grateful For? Using Gratitude to Make Life Better.

So there you have it, my favourite personal development tools. Let me know down in the comments, what your favourites are.

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