Have you been thinking about personality growth, but you’re not sure what it involves? Allow us to help. We’ve compiled 15 life-changing tips to help you become the best version of yourself.
But first, let’s clarify what personality growth actually is. Personality growth is the process of developing different aspects of personality in order to reach your potential. It involves understanding oneself, strengthening personality traits, and intentionally shaping your behavior.
The end goal of personality growth is to become a well-rounded, self-aware, fulfilled, and competent individual. Competence is subjective, which means the outcomes that define personality growth are unique to each individual.
While there are some personality growth tips that you can apply straight away, personality growth is a process. It’s a journey rather than a quick fix. On the journey, you must navigate unfamiliar paths, overcome obstacles, and unlock hidden treasures. It’s an adventure that can take you down exciting avenues and potentially to dark places as well.
But the destination is worth it. Ultimately, personality growth brings with it a whole host of rewards, including self-acceptance, increased confidence, more fulfillment, better relationships, and a greater ability to show up how you want to. Not only does this benefit you, but it also enables you to positively influence the people around you, such as your family, friends, and colleagues.
15 life-changing tips for personality growth
Personality isn’t just something that psych majors should aim towards. It’s a valuable journey for anyone looking to be the best version of themselves. Ready? Let’s jump in.
1. Discover your personality type.
The first step to improving anything is to understand it. But personality is so complex that it’s difficult to analyze without guidance or a framework. This is where personality tests come in. Essentially, they are tools you can use to identify, define, and name certain personality traits.
Our favorite personality test is our very own 16 personalities quiz. It’s free, it takes five minutes, and it’s incredibly accurate. Essentially, using a personality framework can help you understand yourself better by providing a structured way to look at different aspects of your personality. It can give you insight into why you think and act the way you do. You don’t just wake up one day and magically understand everything about yourself. It’s s process, and personality tests can guide you.
2. Develop your intrapersonal intelligence.
Intrapersonal intelligence is the ability to understand yourself, including your emotions, values, strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, and motivations. It is having an awareness of your core personality and using this understanding as a guide in making decisions, managing emotions, and creating a life that aligns with who you are.
Intrapersonal intelligence is an important aspect of personality growth and personal growth. The more you understand yourself, the better equipped you are to make decisions that will help foster your development as an individual and your happiness. There are ways to develop intrapersonal intelligence, such as journaling and meditating. We include more ideas in our full guide to intrapersonal intelligence.
3. Establish goals.
If you want to make personality growth a part of your life, it helps to have clear goals. Goals prompt you to move forward in the direction you want to go. They also give you something to work towards, which helps you stay motivated, and they enable you to track your progress.
Your goals don’t have to be directly related to personality growth. In fact, it’s usually better to break it down into small steps and set goals that support the big-picture personality growth objective. For example, if you want to be more confident meeting new people, set the goal of talking to two new people every week for a month. This smaller, attainable goal is more likely to help you achieve the larger personality goal.
4. Take time to reflect.
Self-reflection is essential for personal growth because it can help you make sense of your experiences, assess your progress, and identify areas for development. When reflecting on our actions and beliefs, we have an opportunity to gain a better understanding of ourselves and what steps we need to take for personality growth.
By taking time to reflect on our thoughts and feelings, we can become more aware of how our reactions to certain events or behaviors may be impacting our lives on a daily basis. Additionally, self-reflection can help to bring clarity to difficult situations by allowing us to consider multiple perspectives objectively instead of rushing into decisions without reflection or consideration. Essentially, self-reflection enables us to introspect and gain valuable insights.
5. Be open-minded.
Being open-minded is essential for personality growth because it allows you to explore new ideas, challenge yourself, and gain insight into different ways of thinking. By opening up to different perspectives, you can broaden your understanding of the world and learn to look at things in new ways.
By definition, personality growth requires you to make changes to the way you approach or react to certain situations. To do this successfully, you must be open to letting go of old beliefs and practices that are no longer serving you. This helps you to embrace new possibilities that may help you reach your personality growth goals.
6. Stay curious.
Constant learning is essential for developing your personality because it means you are always taking in new information, which you can use to expand your knowledge and understanding of the world. It can also help you gain a heightened awareness of new things that can aid in personality growth. For example, reading a book on presentation styles can highlight that you need to work on your communication skills.
Essentially, the more we learn, the more we know, and the more we become aware of the potential paths we can go down on our personality growth journeys. When we engage in new challenges or experiences, we expand our understanding of the world, learn to think more critically, and gain valuable insights into areas that we might need to work on.
7. Pursue your passions.
Pursuing your passions helps you develop your personality because it enables you to tap into your creativity and embrace activities that bring you joy. By taking the time to focus on things that you are passionate about, such as sports, music, or writing, you can find fulfillment and build confidence.
While parts of your personality growth journey might be challenging, not all of it needs to be. At the end of the day, it’s important to enjoy life. Ultimately, one of the main objectives of personality growth is to bring peace and happiness into your life. So, it’s important to incorporate activities that bring you joy now—not just when you reach your personality growth goals. This can help you to stay motivated, too.
8. Build deep connections.
Deep connections are essential for personality growth because your interactions with other people give you another perspective on how you interact with the world. Did you react positively or negatively in a certain situation? How did people react to you? Your social connections can provide valuable feedback on how you could have handled situations differently.
Additionally, when you build strong relationships, you deal with more nuanced situations that require you to make decisions that are both emotionally intelligent and logical. From learning how to manage difficult conversations to building trust with others, the skills you gain from these interactions are essential for personality growth. Additionally, when we connect with like-minded people, we can learn from their experiences and build a support network that can help us as we continue to grow.
9. Challenge yourself.
As the saying goes, growth begins at the end of your comfort zone. When you step outside of your comfort zone, you open yourself up to new experiences and, in turn, more opportunities for personality growth. Of course, it’s important to challenge yourself in a safe way that still allows you to learn without putting your health and well-being at risk.
In addition, it’s important to challenge yourself in the right ways when it comes to personality growth. It isn’t necessary to push yourself out of your comfort zone just for the sake of it. For example, if you’re looking at building your self-esteem, it wouldn’t make sense to challenge yourself to bungee jump. Instead, a more relevant challenge might be to take a public speaking course or do a presentation to your peers.
10. Learn from your mistakes.
One of the best ways to grow in any way, not only in terms of your personality, is to learn from your mistakes. Reflecting on our errors allows us to examine what we could have done differently and, in turn, develop strategies for the future. For example, if you are looking to become a better listener, thinking back on conversations where you could have paid more attention can help you understand what actionable changes you can make going forward.
At the same time, it’s important to be kind to yourself—mistakes are part of life. It’s how we react to them that defines us. If we can learn to look at our mistakes objectively, without self-judgment, then personality growth becomes a lot easier. It’s all about turning failures into valuable lessons that we can use to become better versions of ourselves.
11. Practice critical thinking.
Practicing critical thinking is an invaluable skill for personality growth. Being able to think objectively, without being influenced by our biases, allows us to make decisions that have clear reasoning behind them. That’s not to say that we should be immune to emotions. In fact, personality growth is all about embracing them. However, being able to think critically means that we can balance those emotions with logical, mindful decision-making.
An important part of critical thinking is questioning the status quo and information we assume to be correct. This can be especially helpful when it comes to personality growth, as it allows us to challenge our beliefs and look at situations from different angles. In addition, it helps us to objectively identify areas of improvement and come up with innovative, relevant solutions.
12. Take risks.
When embarking on a personality growth journey, you’ll need to take risks. This doesn’t necessarily mean skydiving or physically putting yourself in danger. It can mean taking a risk emotionally, such as trying to make amends with someone you had a disagreement with or asking someone out on a date.
Taking risks allows us to foster our courage and resilience, two skills that are essential for personality growth. It helps us to overcome the fear of failure and get back up again when life doesn’t go as planned. This doesn’t mean we should take risks blindly, though—it’s important to weigh the potential rewards and consequences.
13. Accept yourself.
This might sound counterintuitive, but personality growth starts with accepting who you are. When we accept ourselves, we don’t need to seek validation from others or worry about how we measure up compared to our peers. This allows us to focus on the areas we want to improve without feeling inadequate.
It’s important to remember that personality growth doesn’t mean completely changing who you are—it’s about enhancing the personality traits that already exist. Personality growth should come from a place of security and self-love, not self-criticism. It’s important to find a balance between loving yourself and striving to be the best version of yourself—it’s not always easy!
14. Do what works for you.
At the end of the day, personality growth is highly individual. What works for one person might not work for another, so it’s important to listen to your intuition and take the time to experiment. Be wary of anyone who tells you there is only one route to achieve a goal. Or that just because something worked for them, it will work for you, too.
It can be easy to make assumptions from articles or books. You might read about someone who ate one meal a day for 100 days straight or gave all their belongings to charity. While these stories can be inspiring, remember that personality growth is not a one-size-fits-all process. Don’t feel pressured to use a certain approach because it’s what others are doing. Find a path that resonates with you and makes sense for your personality, values, and lifestyle.
15. Seek feedback.
Asking for feedback can be a valuable tool in understanding how we come across to others and can help us identify areas of personality growth. Your perspective is only one out of many, and it’s always beneficial to hear other people’s opinions. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to view yourself objectively. So, having an external perspective can be extremely helpful.
This doesn’t mean only seeking compliments—it’s important to be open to constructive criticism, too. This can be difficult to hear, but it can also provide us with valuable insight into how others perceive us and what we still need to work on. Try to find people who are both honest and supportive, and take the time to really listen to what they have to say.
Final thoughts on personality growth
Nobody is perfect, and personality growth isn’t about trying to be. It’s about making the most out of life and showing up as your best self for people in your life, particularly your loved ones.
It’s not a race—it requires patience, hard work, and perseverance. There will be times when you feel like giving up, but take a step back and remind yourself why personality growth is important to you. Focus on the small wins and celebrate your progress. And most importantly, remember to be kind to yourself along the way.
