10 Growth Goals Every Woman Should Have

I first started making a list of personal growth goals when I was a senior in high school. However, I just made them in my head. Writing out your goals will solidify your commitment to acting on them. Over the years I got pretty good at making these personal lists. Below are the personal growth examples I used in my quest for self-improvement. Use these when making your own list of personal goals.

1. Learn to Love Yourself. I remember when I first heard the phrase "love yourself". Of course, I love myself, I thought. But did I really? I repeated the words, "I love myself" but every single time I said it, I cringed a little bit. I didn't believe it and my brain knew it. No matter how much I tried to "trick" myself into loving me, it just wasn't working. That negative voice in my head kept having some pretty awful things to say and I just couldn't break free of that voice. It took me several years of medications, therapy, diet, and exercise to finally get to a healthy place of self-love. But you don't have to take several years to master this. The best thing that worked for me was doing the right affirmations. What are those you ask? Well, I'm sure you've heard of affirmations before. Essentially they are phrases you say each and every day (sometimes several times a day) until they are so ingrained in you that you fully and wholeheartedly believe them.

The reason saying "I love myself" as an affirmation didn't work was because it was SO far out there for me, that I literally thought that it was impossible. So I had to break it down a little further. First, I found one thing about myself that I knew I loved. Like my hair for example. For a few days, I said the affirmation "I have beautiful, long hair". After a few days of that (and it helped to actually fix my hair up those days), I added to it. "I have beautiful hair and gorgeous blue eyes". After a few more days, I bumped up my affirmation game to "I have beautiful eyes and I'm a gorgeous and funny person". And so on and so forth.

Cut out negative self-talk. This was NOT easy. I didn't realize how much negative self-talk I actually did until I focused on it. Even joking self-deprecation can be harmful. Like when you make a mistake and say, "Oh my goodness, I'm so stupid". Don't do that. Don't talk to yourself like that. Give yourself a ton of grace and talk to yourself like you would encourage a child that makes mistakes. Say that's ok, figure out how you can learn from it and move on.

2. Create and Maintain Healthy Habits. This can really be a struggle for some people, but let me tell you, it's a game changer, especially when you eat right. Food can either heal you or make you sick. When you are eating the right foods you don't feel bloated, constipated. You don't have headaches or body aches. Your body can heal things like that sore back you have. I could go on and on and on about the benefits of eating truly healthy but we'd be here forever if that is the case. What I've found has worked for me is doing the 131 Plan. It's a way of eating unlike no other. It's based on our biology and backed by science and it just makes sense, for me. Find what's right for you and stick to it. While we're on the topic of health, get into working out regularly. I'm sure you've heard several times over and over the benefits of exercise. Don't just do it for weight loss, do it because of how it makes you feel. Trust that it may take a few weeks to feel the benefits of exercise but it is SO worth it! Also, vary your workouts between cardio and strength training. You won't bulk up by strength training, trust me!! Find something you love and that energizes you.

3. Practice Gratitude. One of the best success tips that I constantly hear is this right here. Practice gratitude. The best way to do this is daily. Which, can obviously be a bit cumbersome, but stick with me here. If you are consistently being grateful for the things you have and that have happened to you, you are way more likely to achieve happiness. This also lets the universe know that you are grateful for what you are getting and to send more of that awesome stuff your way. It's positive energy. And you get what you put out. Need some gratitude ideas? Sign up now to get access to the Gratitude Brainstorm Guide.

4. Learn Something New. I love this one because it can be so much fun! Plus, if you want to grab your hubby or bestie and try something new together. This can be a painting class, guitar lessons, ice skating, or something you've always wanted to try but just haven't yet for some reason. Use this as your excuse to broaden your horizon and work your brain muscles.

5. Become a Master of Your Time. Managing our time can be a tedious daunting task. However, if we don't manage time, time will control us. It's important to be diligent when planning out your day. By mastering your time and your schedule this will set up for success exponentially. Do you have a big long list of things to do? Narrow that down to the top 3 things that you need to do and go from there. Managing time is much easier to do in bitesize chunks.

6. Make Connections. If you are an introvert this will help push you out of your comfort zone. Find a meetup or a local social gathering through Facebook of groups that get together that have similar interests as you do. Meeting new people and making connections can open up so many new opportunities to you. Next time you are in a public place make an effort to meet someone new each time. Open up the conversation and ask an open-ended question like "Is this your favorite coffee place?" (or wherever you are). This will get the conversation going and open up to possibly meet up with this person again. You can also do this online. Go to any groups you are part of and strike up a conversation. It's usually best to start the conversation in the group and then ask if you can private message the person to make a further connection. If you run your own business, these tips can be a huge catalyst for finding new customers.

7. Conquer a Fear. Fear holds people back so much in their lives and they always regret the things they didn't do because of fear. Whether that be meeting new people (see above), petting a snake, holding a spider, or taking a flight. Whatever fear you may have, make it a huge goal to conquer it. Just imagine how confident you'd feel by doing that! The most successful people learn how to conquer those fears that are truly holding them back.

8. Learn the Art of Consistency. So tell me, have you ever started a project or a goal, but only got about halfway through and then gave up? Maybe you bought a program that was going to help you start your business and make thousands within weeks, but you got distracted by a new offer 2 weeks into the old program. Or maybe you started that 90-day workout program and after about 3 weeks just gave up. Yeah, I've been there, done that too. But last year I made it my mission to be more consistent. And by consistent I mean, if I start something, I FINISH it. And I MEAN FINISH IT. No doing it for a few weeks then giving up.

To truly be successful you need to be consistent. When you are making a change in your life, it's hard to be consistent with the new rules you need to follow to make the changes you want to make. But it is vital to the success of your new task to stay the course completely.

9. Find Faith or Renew It. The kind of faith I'm referring to here is to have faith in yourself. All too often we doubt ourselves and our abilities. But just as you may have faith in a God or source energy as I like to refer to it, you should have faith in yourself. Believing in yourself is very important to making that mindset shift you need to make to actually accomplish your big goals.

If you find that you have difficulty in finding faith in yourself, I want you to try this exercise. Write down every success you've ever had in your life. I know you might not remember them all, but try and keep a Success portion of your journal to look back on. Go all the back to childhood. Think of when you first successfully rode a bike without the help of your parents. Think of that huge school play you were in and you were worried you weren't going to remember the lines, but 2 weeks before the first show you got every single line no problemo in dress rehearsal. What about that MVP award you got in your sport or activity? How about that time you overcame your fears and did a speech in public? Your first successful interview? Seriously, do you realize how much you've already succeeded? It's a lot, trust me! Write it all down. And then go back and look and realize that you need to have faith in yourself that you CAN do this!

10. Invest in Yourself by Hiring a Life Coach. One of the best things I did for myself was to invest in a coach. I had heard about coaches before, but never really got into them until I started my blogging business. There are so many different types of coaches out there. Business, life, health, and fitness. I've had all of them. And trust me, they are an investment well worth making.

Trauma-Informed Coaching It was after working with one of my first coaches that I decided to become a coach as well. However, the type of coaching I do is a bit different. My style of coaching is a little more functional or adaptable based on exactly what my client needs. My blog is geared specifically around personal growth on the mental health side of things. And this is where my coaching focuses as well. I decided to focus on mental health having struggled with so many issues myself. I've been through the gamut of trial and error with medication, doctors, therapists, etc. I finally stumbled upon trauma-informed healing. And while there are many therapists that are now starting to adopt these practices, you don't have to go to a therapist to get help.

How MY Coaching Could Help You My coaching focuses on healing from the traumas you've experienced. I understand that sometimes it's not impossible to heal them all (because some of us have a crap ton to work through). However, when you work with me, you'll learn the necessary skills to heal whatever we don't on your own. Plus you'll have these skills to help heal yourself (or others) of any future traumas. If you suffer from depression or anxiety or just know that you have some kind of blockage that is holding you back, then working with someone like me could be exactly what you need. Not only do we work on healing your traumas, but we also work on finding your purpose and I teach you exactly how you can help others too. Like I said earlier tho, depending on your circumstances and needs, what we work on together will be different than the work I've done with others. Because I tailor your coaching to exactly what you need.

Cost of Hiring a Coach Hiring a coach isn't cheap because most coaches (or at least the really good ones) spend a LOT of their time working one-on-one with their clients. This also means that they only work with select few people and hand-pick who they work with. So just because you really like a coach and want to work with them, doesn't necessarily mean you will get to. Different coaches have different criteria when it comes to working with who they want to. The biggest factor for me as a coach when hand-picking clients is knowing that the work I do will actually help. I'm not going to even offer my services to you if I don't believe 100% that I can help you. The price range for hiring a coach can vary so much from one coach to the other. And there are varying factors that set their price as well. Things like the length of the program they are offering, how many 1:1 online or phone sessions you'll have, how accessible a coach is, and experience all factors for how much a coach with cost you. The range can be anywhere from $2,000 to $100,000. So be ready to invest, put in the work and see a major change! Totally worth it. To find out if you'd qualify to work with me go here to fill out an application.

Conclusion After reading all these personal development examples, you'll have a good solid foundation of the areas you can work on. With this awesome knowledge, you can now go make your own personal development goals. If you need some more inspiration, you should read my suggestions for 10 of the Best Personal Development Books. Let us know in the comments what personal development goals you are working on! If you are looking for that guided hand to help you set your goals in a carefully crafted and diligent way you need to get your hands on the Goal Setting Workbook. Go deeper than just setting goals. Get to the root of how to specifically set goals so you don't self-sabotage and give up on them.