How to manage your personal and professional development

When it comes to improving our lives, the first step is always professional development. It’s important to hone our skills and abilities through software design, leadership and management, or other aspects of personal growth that help us develop new talents or try out different roles. When we become more proficient in a specific skill set, it’s easy for us to dismiss the importance of continuing personal development — which can lead to a downward spiral of stagnation.
To keep us from taking this path, it’s important to recognize that professional growth isn’t enough. We must also consider our personal growth — which is as important as professional development. In fact, professional and personal growth are inseparable pieces of a puzzle that makes up a healthy, vibrant life.
If we focus on personal development alongside professional development, not only will our lives improve, but we’ll also be able to contribute more effectively to the areas in which we work or volunteer.
For me personally, this approach has been essential to my success. If I hadn’t made time for my own interests and passions in addition to my software development projects and responsibilities at work, I would be a burnt-out husk by now.

What is the difference between personal and professional growth?

This is a common misunderstanding. The two concepts are closely related, but they’re not the same.
Personal growth is about improving our lives as whole people, not just our professional lives or even just our careers. For example, one of my hobbies is writing and publishing fiction. This personal passion contributes to my personality and my emotional well-being — just as designing software or leading teams contributes to those things.
Professional growth applies to most careers (if not all).

What is personal growth and professional development?

Personal growth is an ongoing process of improving our lives, emotional well-being and interpersonal relationships. It can include developing new skills or interests, getting involved in organizations that improve our communities and contributing to projects that advance the arts or sciences.
Professional development is a similar process of improving our professional lives. It can include honing or acquiring technical skills through software design, advancing into management positions or tackling leadership roles through which we can help others grow.

Understanding how these two pieces fit together

Personal growth and professional development are two sides of the same coin when it comes to improving the quality of our lives. The two processes are not mutually exclusive, but rather different pathways for improving our lives. We can choose one path to focus on, or we can use both in combination!
This isn’t a new concept. In fact, I believe that most people who practice personal growth understand that their skills and interests are important for professional development. For example, a designer may be interested in gaining technical skills through his or her work, without seeing those skills as mutually exclusive from personal growth goals.
The importance of seeing these two pieces of the puzzle together is distinct from reinventing the wheel by choosing a different career path — which is what many people make the mistake of doing when they don’t understand that personal growth goes hand-in-hand with professional development.

How will you reach your personal and professional growth?

Track progress

Not what you were making before, but how much progress you’ve made in your new skills or areas of study. Sometimes this can be just as hard as tracking what you’re actually achieving, since it’s easy to forget that time flies when you’re having a blast! Perhaps remember the old trick of writing down your dreams and goals on Post-its and hang them in view throughout the day to keep yourself accountable.

Celebrate accomplishments

There’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re the only person that sees your achievements. So make it a personal goal to celebrate these and feel proud of them (and your success). You really did something good, you deserve some recognition!
Handwritten note or email to friends or family are nice, but don’t underestimate the power of positive feedback from others. Don’t be afraid to ask for this either, sometimes we need to hear it ourselves or choose not to ask in order to spare ones feelings.
Contrast this with: slacking off and feeling bad. Learning is supposed to be fun, so it’s important we keep that in mind when times get tough. What might be fun to some people is just plain hard work to others.
If you’re still struggling to see the point in learning new things, keep this in mind as a reminder of why: Learning will make you a better person!

Make learning fun and rewarding for yourself

Don’t feel like it’s your ‘responsibility’ to learn something new. Talk about these feelings with someone close to you who would know best (i.e., an adult who has been through the same process). Build your confidence by taking these steps:
Talk with someone who knows more than you about the subject and ask how they got from point A to B at their level of experience and skill . Ask them what they think they need to know in order to improve. Be specific and ask them how you can improve your own skills .

Get the most out of the most important learning support

If you struggle with a subject, consider finding a tutor or mentor who has been there before (both in terms of their knowledge, experience and skill ). The benefit of having someone like this is that you can get the most out of their knowledge, experience and skill whilst they can also help you be more effective at learning on your own. As an added bonus, this will help you learn better in all areas! Compare this to: taking a subject which needs a lot of practice by yourself.

Develop a Support System

You can’t do it all by yourself. So don’t try! However, it’s important that you be honest about your limits and the things you need help with. If you’re confused about how to approach something, allow others to assist you . This could be in-person or online through forums or communities, or even chat software (e.g., Slack). I highly recommend checking out what the W3C community has to offer in terms of learning resources before asking questions though!
You’ll never know everything and more importantly: you shouldn’t always have to know everything! In fact, even when we do know something, this is not always enough to fix a problem on its own.

Expect Imposter Syndrome

This is a pretty common phenomenon in many areas. Don’t let it overwhelm you or cause you stress, but do be aware of the symptoms: You often feel like you’re not good enough.
Finding it hard to believe that others think highly of your skills or achievements, even when they say so.
It’s okay to struggle with this feeling and it doesn’t go away by itself. However, it’s important that you tell someone about your feelings and ask for help if needed! This could be a family member, friend, teacher or mentor as they could give you advice on how to overcome these challenges and get back on track.

Set realistic goals

It’s easy to set lofty goals when you think you’re ready. However, this can lead to disappointment and make you more likely to give up in the end! It’s better to aim for a specific goal that you realistically know how to achieve over time (and allow yourself some time to get there!).
Start with very small steps and build upon those steps. Shoot for these:
Reading a chapter of a book before going to bed every night .
Reading an article on the subject of your interest before going this week.  (Some websites where I find interesting articles include: toptal and thoughtbot . Bonus points if it comes with a video or other resources .

Set up a learning environment that works for you

A lot of people wrongly assume this means having the latest gadgets, tools and toys to learn with. This is only a small part of it (in fact, it’s probably a very small part of it). Instead, here are some steps that have worked better for me and my friends:
Find out what learning resources (e.g., books, tutorials) and software documentation/tutorials are available on your subject or technology prior to buying/downloading anything . This avoids disappointment in the future if what you bought isn’t good for you. Check before spending any money! Don’t be afraid to ask someone who has been there before .
Find out where the people are that you want to learn from and/or hang out with in order to feel confident enough to reach out and ask questions when needed (just make sure you’re asking the right questions!).
Keep track of what you read, heard, saw or experimented on and keep these somewhere handy so you can find it again (e.g., using Zotero , Pocket or any other way). For example, if working through a tutorial online, I’d mark it with a tag in Zotero of ‘tutorial’ and use a bookmarklet from Pocket to save it for later.
This may seem more complicated than necessary, but it allows you to be more effective in terms of how you can find things again when you need them and will help you save more time over time.
Learn the most important information first. This should enable your mind to better digest the rest of what you’re learning by building up a basic understanding of the topic that then helps you ask better questions when discussing or working through any problems.

Follow the ‘Baby Steps’ strategy

This is a great trick I learned from my parents that I use to keep on track and make me feel less overwhelmed in general. The idea is simple and can be used for almost anything:
Break down your goals into very small steps . These will be easier to do, which will make you feel accomplished more often when doing so.
Giving yourself a mini goal to achieve every day (or week) will also help you stay on track. It could be as simple as watching just one video or reading one chapter of a book.
Giving yourself rewards for completing these steps will make you more likely to stay on track and get to your bigger goal.

Stop fooling yourself and don’t be afraid to ask for help

I’ve seen people who are in denial about their lack of knowledge, skill or experience on a particular subject. It’s often easier said than done, but avoiding this leaves you feeling frustrated and disappointed in the end.
Do yourself a favor and accept the fact that you do not know everything . This will help you better identify where your weaknesses are and seek to either fill in the holes or simply avoid them.
This is not to say that you should be afraid of asking questions and admitting if you don’t know something. Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if this means reaching out online or asking someone else directly in person (e.g., in a workshop setting).

I hope that you don’t feel overwhelmed after reading this post, but rather inspired to take action on whatever level works best for you. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to reach out to others! This will help you grow as a learner and also make relationships stronger with the people around you.