How To Be Happier And More Confident With Personal Development Courses
Adulthood is all about investments in terms of both money and time but, while we focus on paying into our careers and our homes, we often forget to invest in ourselves. It’s generally reported that most people report low or medium levels of happiness, and around two-thirds of over-18s stating that they lack self-esteem.
Self-confidence and overall happiness tend to go very much hand in hand and yet both can often seem frustratingly elusive. In this article, we’re looking at how focusing on personal development – including training in the necessary skills – can arm you with the tools you need to gain confidence … and reclaim your happiness.
What are Personal Development Courses?
These are training courses that laser-target aspects of day-to-day life in which you may be lacking and may be corroding your confidence. While there are things you can do yourself in terms of personal development, many people like the expert advice, structure and discipline of a professionally curated course.
What kind of courses are available?
Great question! There are a wide range of courses available to help you tackle your personal achilles’ heels (as well as some that you may not even realise you need…) and we’ll take a look at some of the different types of discreet, affordable and 100% online personal development courses in this article:
Assertiveness
A huge number of people say that they struggle to assert themselves, whether in personal or professional situations. This can often lead to a feeling of powerlessness as well as a sense of missing out or being taken advantage of. Not to be confused with aggression, assertiveness is the art of setting boundaries and expressing yourself clearly and firmly. While some people are naturally assertive, others need a little help and an online course can boost assertiveness and promote confidence.
Our levels of assertiveness are very much linked to our confidence and so, for those who want to focus on this specifically, an Assertiveness course could be a good fit. These can be particularly useful for those who tend to feel that the’re held back by low self-esteem and wish to change this.
Communication
Despite communication being the most basic and yet the most important skill in our lives, some people find it really difficult to get their point across properly. Whether you’re tackling public speaking for work or simply want to be able to express yourself more effectively, a communication skills course is a great way of improving the way you come across in all aspects of your life. A good course won’t aim to teach you what to say, but will show you the most effective way of imparting information as well as how listening to others will up your communication game.
Relationship building
Unless you live on a desert island, relationships will form the building blocks of your adult life. From friendships and romantic partnerships to professional connections, building and maintaining human connections is key to our happiness. When our relationships are harmonious, they enhance our lives and automatically make us feel happier, more content and more confident. An online course for building relationships can help you to identify areas that need work and show you how to strengthen existing relationships as well as nurturing new ones.
Stress and anger management
Stress and anger are a normal and natural part of our life, but if either of these spin out of control it will cause you problems. Anger and stress can damage relationships, harm our careers and, most importantly, impact on our physical and mental health. Although we all feel angry from time to time, when we cross the line into aggression or, it seems that our anger has a hair trigger, this can impact on every aspect of our lives. Learning to manage stress and anger is therefore essential and a course can help you to understand your triggers to better control these downright harmful emotions.
Time management
In our fast-paced world, time is very much an essential factor in our lives – and one that most of us never have enough of. If, however, you find that you’re constantly running late or habitually miss deadlines, this may indicate that your time management needs a bit of work. Our lives are made up of deadlines and micro-deadlines and staying on top of these is vital for our wellbeing and happiness. It should, therefore, go without saying that consistently being short of time will not only stress you out but will also irritate those around you. At best this could result in you being given the cold shoulder when you turn up late for the theatre – at worst, it could have a negative impact on your career. A time-management course is an effective way of improving your time-keeping and reducing the stress caused by constantly running behind schedule.
Getting A Handle On Happiness
Happiness can often be a pretty vague term and one that means different things to different people. Having said that, there are undoubtedly some common threads and one of the most prevalent of these is confidence. When we lack confidence, we tend to allow ourselves to be manipulated and “handled”, leading to feelings of resentment and frustration.
Tackling the parts of our lives that impact on our confidence and happiness can be life-changing for many and the great news is that it’s easier than you think. Online courses offer an affordable and fun way of nurturing your personal development and, better still, they can be completed in your own home and in your own time.
