Self-Improvement and Personal Development Rapidly Becoming a Global Trend

From the world’s business and community leaders to stay-at-home moms and dads, living a fulfilling lifestyle today means more than dieting or exercise.  While eating sensibly and daily fitness routines can help people from all walks of life maintain their “competitive edge,” there is no question that the events of the last 2.5 years have levied such a heavy psychological impact on our global community that it has caused many people to take stock of themselves for the first time in their lives.  Across the globe, people are asking themselves if they’ve truly done all they could to achieve their full potential, both professionally and as a person.  It’s a question that’s driving an explosive amount of interest in self-improvement and personal development programs.  

Across the globe, people are realizing that the more they invest in themselves, the better equipped they’ll be to handle whatever it is that life might throw at them.  That’s a phenomenon that has the global personal development market on a projected growth trajectory of more than $67 billion by 2030.

Self-Improvement and Personal Development Defined

Simply defined, self-improvement and personal development are strategies for people who want to better themselves, and who want to be more confident in acting as an agent of change in their professional and personal lives.  

Business owners and entrepreneurs in particular are growing more keenly aware of the advantages that come from adopting personal development strategies in their lives.  Today’s entrepreneurs have a sense of pride in working longer hours and ushering a business to success. But with all the stress of running a business, more of them are discovering that making time for personal development gives them precisely the edge they need to compete at the highest level.  

A Paradigm Shift

According to a 2020 survey from the Pew Research Center, more than 80% of the adults in the U.S. believe that there is a lesson to be learned from the pandemic.  COVID undoubtedly thrust mental health into an entirely new light. As a response, people across the globe have been incentivised to double down on strengthening their own mental acuity in order to better handle life’s many unexpected challenges through modern self-help techniques. Those same people are reflecting more on whether they’re investing the appropriate amount of energy into what’s truly important in their lives.

Self-Help Gone Global

A recent survey indicates that over 75% of consumers in America believe that wellness is more important than ever, and half have planned to spend more of their income on self-care activities and treatments.  We also know that personal development is a trend that’s expanding well beyond our own borders.  While North America is expected to be the mecca of the personal development movement throughout the decade, the market is also expected to see significant growth in the Asia Pacific region–a part of the world where digital learning is becoming more widely embraced, and the population is becoming more aware of the professional skills training that’s now available to them.   South America and the Middle East are also ripening regions for personal development; regions where communication skills are growing increasingly more important for professional development. 

Morning Routines

In a practical sense, those who aspire to live up to their full potential often see their self-help journeys begin by establishing a productive morning routine.  Our harried lifestyles begin the moment our alarm clocks wake us, and what we do with that first hour often determines how productive and effective we will be throughout our day.  Like a chain reaction, the more our morning routines accelerate our productivity, the greater the likelihood of achieving our professional and personal goals.

Much has been written about modern entrepreneurs and business leaders who attribute much of their success to the rock-solid morning routines they’ve cultivated over time.  The techniques they use range anywhere from drinking a full glass of lemon water in the first 30 minutes to journaling; but the fact remains that our mornings are a tremendous opportunity to set ourselves up to be more successful.   

Key Statistics

Here are the most interesting self-help and personal development statistics we’ve discovered:

• In a recent survey of 16,000 people spread out across the UK, US, China and Brazil, more than one out of four said that “setting a goal for myself” was something they were recently inspired to do.

• Women between the ages of 40 and 50 make up the profile of the average customer in the self-help industry.

• More than 9 out of 10 millennials are willing to spend as much as $300 of their monthly income on strategies that can help them improve themselves.

• Approximately 75% of self-help book readers are female.

• Millennials make up the majority of our global workforce, and 60% want leadership training.

Conclusion

Self-help and personal development techniques are quite varied, but technical innovations are making these programs widely accessible irrespective of geographical boundaries.  That’s making personal development and self-help a worldwide effort as people across the globe realize that personal development can include any skills that they want to develop in themselves, whether professional or personal.  It matters little what particular skills people want to develop–the crucial thing is that there is a worldwide effort to improve ourselves.  Frankly, it has the potential to make the world a better place for everyone.