If you are like me, you want the maximum interest rate on a CD, the greatest appreciation on your real estate, and Bull Market returns on stock investments, right? I took the time to learn about and investigate different CD investment strategies on some money that I needed to have in a liquid investment. I read the real estate section of the paper every Saturday to see comps for my property to see if the value is going up or down. And I started a stock investment group with nine other brainy women to learn the ins and outs of the stock market.

But - - Money is really only a tiny part of my asset portfolio. My greatest asset is - - ME! My intelligence, personal skills, social skills, technical skills, mind set. Ask any millionaire, and they will tell you that if they went broke tomorrow, they would recreate their wealth with the traits that they currently carry within themselves.

If you take the time and serious mindset that you apply to investing your fiscal assets, doesn’t it just follow that you would also be keenly invested in maximizing your own personal assets as backup insurance? What if you were so confident about who you were that you too could say that you too would recreate your current life style if anything untoward should happen?

To make the concept of personal development more concrete, here is a dictionary definition. Personal: relating to a specific person rather than anyone else, and Development: the process of changing and becoming larger, stronger, or more impressive, successful, or advanced, or of causing somebody or something to change in this way.

The field of personal development has become so popular because it’s about making the most of who we are. The personal development field was formed around the concept of cultivating the extraordinary potential of the human personality lying largely untapped in most people. This field, made up of professional trainers, authors, coaches, mentors, the gambit of psychology professionals and consultants and hypnosis practitioners believe that through the development of an individual’s potential, we can experience an exceptional quality of life filled with happiness, creativity, fulfillment, giving back to society and just plain fun!

Besides, the human phenomenon is just so endlessly fascinating. We want to know why we do what we do, why we bond with some people and not others, how two people of seemly same backgrounds end up in such different outcomes. We watch reality TV, take fun personality tests and profiles, talk over our issues with friends, journal, read advice columns, and take quizzes on line and in magazines all in attempt to understand personality and social psychology.

So why not get as serious about the development of your personal assets as you are about your fiscal assets? What personality trait or personality characteristics do you have that is like money in the bank? If you haven’t yet joined the ranks, what is stopping you? Some people may think this is arrogant or selfish. But I love the parable of the talents in the Bible. When the master returns, he expects his servants to have generated more than what he had originally given them. I don’t think this parable was meant just for monetary assets only, but especially for the greatest assets we’ve been given, our very being – our minds and personality, and spiritual essence.

The fact is that you deserve every good thing that you are capable of acquiring as the result of the application of your talents. And I’ll go one step further - - the people around you that you know and love and work with deserve every good thing that you are capable of too! Think of yourself as modeling personal development leadership.

Psychologist William James of Harvard University said that beliefs create the actual fact. A phrase you may have heard lately is "Thoughts are Things". The reason for this is because we always act in a manner consistent with our subconscious beliefs and convictions about our characteristics hidden in our subconscious mind.

If you believe yourself capable of accomplishing good things in your life and career, you will walk and talk and act like it. Your behaviors will actually make your beliefs a reality. Your social and personality development help make up the "soft skills" that make business women and men more effective in their careers. Find out where your strengths are and get a coach to help you maximize them. It takes all kinds of personality traits and personality types to run a business. The same thing applies in your personal life. Find your strengths and maximize them. Everyone benefits.

You can start the process of personal development now. Take a professional personality profile like Myers Briggs. Or a fun personality test online. I recently took the Strength finder personality assessment and it was right on. There are many personal development courses that you can take, either locally, or on line. There are career tests to help whatever next action you should take.

If you really want to take the shortcut to success and personal development a life coach is the way to go. You will want to get your personal development coaching with a good life coach who is specifically trained in personality and social psychology and will help you set your personal development goals. They can help you see how your personality type works for you or against you across the spectrum in life and at work.

It’s so much easier to jump start your journey to personal development with coaching. Coaches help you to see thins you don’t see. On our own, we simply can’t see what we can’t see. Besides, most people simply don’t have the time or money to learn everything a professional coach knows.

I have to use professionals to learn the secrets of maximizing my finances. It’s just being smart to tap people that know the shortcuts to get where I want to be financially. Now, with the services of a life coach, you can shortcut your way to personal development. You will be glad you did!

Light the Fire!

Denise Pederson