Level Up with Personal Effectiveness Skills Training

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning.” – Mahatma Gandhi

An interesting perspective that was summarised by Henry Ford with “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right”. What I like to say is:

“Do not confuse ‘cannot’ with ‘don’t know how.’ ”

Many of us can confuse our lack of knowledge on how to do something with an inability to do it. The Wright brothers wanted to fly and didn’t get stuck thinking they cannot fly because they were not birds. They set their minds to working on HOW they can fly. Setting your mind to believing you can do something is part of being personally effective and key to achieving the goals you want in life. Any goal you set your mind to and not necessarily just those that your culture pre-determines for you as examples of success. Are you being personally effective in your life? Do you know what that means?

We can all identify Personal Effectiveness

If we think of being personally effective, we often look to personal role models and famous people that we admire. They appear to be doing something that we consider to be the epitome of success or happiness and that we wish to emulate in some way, right? Think of people like Oprah Winfrey, Mother Teresa or even Richard Branson and they appear to have found their own personal effectiveness. Those people we admire have skills that are working for them or have developed skills ensuring they succeeded. Conversely, bringing to mind an angry ice addict sitting in the street is a prime example of a lack of personal effectiveness skills. That person is unlikely to recognise how their life could be different and may even have an attitude of pessimism. The addiction is certainly suggestive of a lack of resilience and physical self-care. Famous people vs addicts are extreme examples, however, it demonstrates the wide spectrum of how personal effectiveness skills can operate to achieve success or failure.

You can develop your Personal Effectiveness Skills

It’s not about change for change’s sake, but listening to an inner need to grow and adapt to the changing world around us.

The study of personal effectiveness emerged from the self-help movement and was developed using positive thinking and positive psychology. It’s directly linked to your ability to be aware of people and relationships, as well as your flexibility for creative solutions. Personal effectiveness skill development relies on your ability to embrace change and develop self-awareness and becoming more effective in the world maximises potential. Some people say you are born with the skills you have and that’s it, however, research shows that these skills can be learned and/or improved. The skills that emerge from this research to develop over our life’s journey includes resilience, an attitude of determination, persistence and optimism, stress management, emotional regulation, problem-solving, planning and prioritisation, time management, creativity and self-motivation to name but a few.