Two years ago I was invited to a job interview with HSBC Bank, and one of the interview questions I was asked was “What do you do for self-development?”. Up until that point in my life, I always thought that self-development was a natural process that happens to one’s life as they mature and they face various experiences. It never crossed my mind that self-development can be induced or actively led by the individual himself. Naturally, I stumbled on the question, and failed the interview.

The good news is that that interview question kept driving me over the past 2 years towards exploring venues and ideas for self-development. I realised that yes, you can induce self-development in oneself, and you can be active about it instead of being passive. I started reading books about self-development and got hooked on the concept of productivity, the idea of achieving more with less, (later I stumbled upon “islamic productivity” and the many ideas for ProductiveMuslim.com).

So, how can you self-develop? The answer requires a reflection on your weaknesses. There’s no weakness that can’t be tackled, no habit that can’t be either incorporated in our lives or removed. As a quote I read once said, we’re creatures of habits. Habits define us, and self-development is simply getting into the “habit” of doing things that would change your life and improve it.

So firstly, look at areas of weaknesses. What do you find difficult to do? What do you find challenging? What skills you wish you had? Or thought would be nice to have? For example, for myself, I found negotiating (or bargaining) hard, I usually back down from negotiations so not to get confrontational with the other person. So I looked up online for a book on negotiation and came across an excellent book by Roger Dawson on Negotiation, I was amazed at the tips that I learnt from this book and how easy they were to implement them, even better the book advocated negotiation skills that makes the other person feel that they’ve won too (hence avoiding my confrontational dilemma!). 

And there are many more examples, of how one can self-develop. So if you want to get on the self-development roller-coaster ride, here's what you should do:

1) Choose a topic/area that you recognise you need to self-develop on (this could be anything, from how to be a good listener, to how to do amazing presentations)

2) Look up resources that would support your self-development exercise. This could be books, podcasts, websites. My only word of advice regarding resources is to look for the best in the field, find experts in that area, who have got good reviews, and make sure that the advice they provide are practical and easy to implement. 

3) Practice, practice, practice and get into the habit of whatever you’re trying to develop within you. Reading books, and listening to hours of expert advice will not help unless you yourself put in the hours.

Now if you want to move a step further into the self-development world, try to have a focused self-development programme that not only incorporates worldly skills but even your spiritual life. Have a general vision of who you want to be and what you want to do in 10-20 years and make sure that you go through the development process that delivers your vision.

Self-development is an incredible exercise of self-discovery of the untapped potential within you. It keeps you conscious and alert to how you steer your life and the Productive Muslim/a would use this exercise to move closer to their goals/visions.

Share your experiences of self-development in the comments section!