Over the years, I have accumulated quite a collection of audiobooks and courses. I make sure that whenever I get into my vehicle for a drive that will last over 20 minutes, that I have an audiobook CD ready to play. Just think about it. In one daily commute, you can have the equivalent education of a university lecture right there in your car, without doing anything extra.

People are often surprised that I can speak in both Portuguese and Spanish and they ask me where I learned how to speak those languages. I tell them, “Inside my car.” I simply listen to those foreign language courses everyday to and from work and having not added any extra things on my already busy schedule, I have self-taught myself two new languages.

Audiobooks will never replace the written word, but think of them as a time-efficiency tool. We all know that our value as employees and as people is often weighed heavily by the knowledge and skills we possess and therefore it becomes important for us to always increase our value by continuing to educate ourselves on subject matter that is applicable to our own lives. Audiobooks and courses provide a medium for you to accomplish this with little to no direct impact on your existing schedule. Now that i-pods are widespread, the ability to learn while on the go has never been simpler.

The audiobook industry publishes a lot of great titles out there for personal and professional development and I highly recommend that you convert those commuting hours into hours of significant value for your overall self-improvement. If you dedicate your commuting hours to learning something of value, then in a 30 year career, you can get the equivalent education of seven or eight PhDs without changing anything in your life. Take action on this today and go out and get your first audiobook and make it a regular commuting ritual.

Many people who have joined an MLM or started their own business started with very little money and some had a lack of confidence.  As they continued to work at their business and achieve small goals that led a path to their larger goals, they began to develop a stronger sense  of confidence in themselves that did not just help them financially, but also on a personal growth level as well. 

If you have not reached a goal that you have set already now or in the past, then it requires you to grow and get out of your comfort zone. If you have never made any real money in the past with your Network Marketing business, then you must achieve some major growth before you can attain the financial goal that you desire. Personal growth helps us improve ourselves and at the same time improve our Network Marketing business. When we do this, we not just help ourselves, but we make a profound impact on the other people around us who are looking for leadership. Personal growth helps us tap into that hidden genius that we all have inside of us.Personal growth is not something that can be rushed. It is not a technique or tool to make a quick fix. Personal growth is the attitude you have that you are constantly improving your life. Personal growth is driven by your desire to improve yourself and becoming the leader that you are searching for. It is a life long pursuit because the game of life is a work in progress!

Personal growth is not just about achieving confidence, although that is a big part of this process.  The new freedom and confidence are like a snowball that keeps growing as you continue to roll it.  You will start to see personal development  in other areas of your life.  You will begin to appreciate yourself and as a result, others will appreciate you. The personal growth that you receive from building a successful MLM business will not only help you get financial freedom, but will also help you in all aspects of your life.  This includes your personal life as well as your relationships with friends and family.  As you continue to grow, you will start to see a difference in the way that you view life as well as the way that others view you. 

You will also be reaching out to form relationships with people you do not know.  This, in itself, is personal growth as you begin to see others who may come from different backgrounds or cultures as who they are as people.  Having a successful business with a huge downline forces you to develop relationships with those in your network as well as others who are also in the same boat as you.  It changes you for the better as you are able to open up your eyes to a whole new world that is out there waiting for you.  As you continue to grow both personally and professionally, you will continue to build a successful business. 

If you think that building a successful MLM business is all about the money, think again.  Most of those who have succeeded in this business find that they gain more from learning new skills and meeting new people than anything else.  Personal growth will make you a better and more confident person who feels comfortable with yourself. Once you feel comfortable with who you are then you will start to attract those leaders that will help you build your business.  You will no longer look at life the same way again as you continue to reach out to others, learn from others and grow as a person with your MLM business. 

 If you would like more information on resources to help you start on your personal development please visit my blog and review my personal growth section. 

Self confidence begins with trust. It is trusting in your own abilities, strengths and attributes. It is the ability to take action and succeed. It is also the ability to take action and fail without allowing the failure to reflect badly on your own internal self of identity.

The true essence of self confidence lies in faith and belief. The belief in your own abilities. It is having a sense of self worth and feeling no less than anyone else. Self confidence means that no matter what happens you know that can deal with it. It is really having a sense of Self. Knowing that you are OK just as you are, and knowing that your imperfections are part of what makes up “you”.

So what leads to a lack of confidence?

Well, each of us have a self-protection mechanism built into us, and although this is much needed, it can cause untold damage in other areas of our lives. There is a self protection program that is hot-wired into the brain and energy system of every living thing. Its role is to protect us. It protects us from dangerous situations by accessing memories and reminding us of the previous discomfort!

Let me explain with an example. If you touch a hot coal you get burned and you know not to touch it again – your self-protection mechanism kicks in. If you encounter a red-hot coal in the future you keep your hands and body far enough away so you don’t feel the burning sensation and the pain associated with it. Your subconscious mind programs into your brain the fear of getting too close to hot coals. This memory, or just the fear and pain connected to it, is immediately evoked and sent to the conscious mind by the subconscious when it feels you are in danger of getting burnt. This mechanism, for self-preservation, has protected you from an infant. However, as we will see, it can work against in a myriad of ways.

Let’s look at one. For example at some previous point in your life you may have tried your hand at something that was completely new and alien to you. You tried and you failed! Perhaps your peers, family, parents friends or even complete strangers ridculed you and laughed at yur efforts. This may have embarrassed you and made you feel inadequate. Your subconscious mind stored and filed this information in exactly the same way a computer does and can access it in the same way. These are neural networks in the brain that fire in sequence and send electrical impulses to the body telling it to release certain chemicals (which produce emotional responses). A neural connection is made between the memory of the event and the emotion you felt at the time. When faced with a similar circumstance in the future you will have problems. The subconscious mind immediately activates the schema and the neural network begins to fire. Thus the subconscious mind replays the memory and the original emotions are evoked in order to protect you! This is done purely so that you do not feel belittled again.

For example, you may have tried to paint a picture. Your friends around you laughed and ridiculed your efforts. This caused you embarrassment and the feeling of being ostracized like the “odd man out”. You lacked the approval of your peers. The subconscious mind immediately stored this information in its memory banks ready to be replayed in the future. 20 years later you still have a desire to paint but won’t even go to a night class to learn because the thought of painting brings forth the emotions of disapproval, embarrassment and fear. The subconscious mind replays the emotions associated with the old memory even if you can’t recall the actual event ever having happened. Your subconscious mind is, in effect, saying “don’t paint or you’ll feel like this again!”.

Usually such emotional memories stem back to childhood from the time when you were most impressionable but not always. You can just as easily encounter such problems when you are an adult and the key to protecting yourself from such negative influences is to develop a better sense of yourself and build your confidence. This is at the very core of all personal development and self improvement techniques!

In reality you have no idea what the outcome will be when you start something new . As an adult, you should be able to try new things without the fear of what ridicule, or condemnation from others, would do to your confidence.

Self confidence is having the ability to feel the fear and do it anyway. In reality you have no idea what the outcome will be when you perform a task that is new to you. By developing your confidence however you are much more likely to expect a positive outcome. Should you not have the outcome you desire you are then capable of looking at the situation realistically, determining what you need to learn and develop in order to succeed at it or at least be able to accept the fact that your are not suited to the activity without “freaking out” about it.

Many people believe that you are either born with confidence or you are not. The truth is we are all born confident! You cried when you wanted something and believed you were so important that you would get it. You tried to walk several times while falling knowing that eventually you would get it. This is confidence. Unfortunately this kind of confidence is usually programmed out of us but it is your NATURAL sate. It’s time to get it back.

Firstly, you should be kind to yourself. Don’t expect perfection. Do you think Tiger Woods got a hole in one the first time he played golf? Although he may have been born with an innate ability at this sport chances are that the first time he played he was terrible at it!

The thing that builds your confidence is trying things that you haven’t done before. Try to do something that scares you. Those people who have self confidence are willing and often eager to try new challenges not becuase they are certain of success but becuase they have enough belief in themselves to give it a try. They refuse to give into their own fears. If there was no fear or uncertainty then there would only be knowing! Confidence is not knowing but trying anyway.

The good news is that there are strategies and approaches you can learn to build your confidence level to a new all-time high. Once you learn these and begin to apply them you will feel better able to try new things and enter new situations. Then as you begin to succeed and realise that the world didn’t stop spinning because you faced your fear, you will gain more and more confidence.

I would seriously advise you to seek out some tools to help accelerate your confidence building. Hypnosis and emotional releasing techniques can be invaluable. The personal development industry has a myriad of products and you should pick one that resonates with you. However, you have all the power within that you need to change yourself from the inside out. Make the decision now to face one fear a week and do it. You will build your self confidence to a level that you can not even now imagine.

A good employer should ask, “What is the company doing to identify and address the needs of the staff?” With the current economic hardships, which have greatly affected the social life of people, it would be a mistake not to find ways of easing your workers needs. In addition, the present fluctuation of market forces and working tools has affected the performance of workers. It is therefore prudent that an employer find ways of encouraging and motivating his/her workforce.

Business owners need to strive in whatever way possible to support the progression of skills of their workforce. This will help develop the individual growth of your workers in relation to the relevant market development and also improve your general business performance.

All said and done, employees should see to it that they also seek to work towards employees self development. Personal growth is about assessing yourself and working hard towards achieving success in your career and social life. The staff should not just relax and wait on their employers to assist them in career development.

In fact, I personally think that everyone should endeavor to eventually start their own small business and create employment. Rather than always depending on employment, use your personally skills to build wealth hence realize financial freedom.