This post is all about 4 beginner friendly personal development activities you need to try.

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Are you new to self improvement? Wondering how to start with my personal development journey?

When you start reading about self improvement, there is so much information out there, so many techniques, tips, books, podcasts, resources, talks… that it can become extremely overwhelming.

It´s what I like to call “paralysis by analysis”. You learn and analyze so much information that you don’t know where to start, you become paralyzed.

Well you don’t have to worry about that anymore my friend, because in this post you will discover these 4 fun and beginner friendly personal development activities to help you start your self improvement journey and become a better person!

Let´s begin!

Personal development books are your best friends

When it comes to the best personal development activities, you cannot forget about books.

Yes reading self improvement blogs (like this one!), listening to podcasts, etc. is great. But there is something magical about books.

It´s the way it takes you onto a journey when reading it, how you immerse yourself in this new world that gives you the exact keys and steps you need to follow you become a better person.

That is why books will always be my top one favorite personal growth tool.

Even if it’s just 10 minutes a day, reading a self development book proves to be as inspiring as that first sip of coffee in the mornings.

If you don´t know where to start, here are my top 3 personal development book recs.:

• Man’s Search for Meaning. Viktor Frankl
• Make your bed. Admiral William H. McRaven
• The four agreements. Don Miguel Ruiz 

But if you are not a great fan of personal growth books, then I highly recommend any book written by Paulo Coelho. 

What I love about his books is how we create the perfect mixture of a “fictional story” combined with eye-opening personal growth lessons that encourage you to look at life from a different perspective.

This is the case with The Alchemist or Veronika Decides To Dies (check for trigger warnings), two of my favorite books written by him.

Best Personal Growth Activities. Spend time alone

Being afraid of spending time alone is so dangerous and unhealthy. Because when you fear the idea of being lonely you are ready to accept any relationship that comes your way, even if it’s not good for you.

Think of it as being incredibly thirsty in a desert with no access to water. When someone magically appears to offer you a drink, you would take it without a second of hesitation, even if it’s poison.

But aside from this creating solitude moments is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

And before we continue I do want to clarify that solitude and being lonely are two very different things.  Solitude is the choice of creating a situation where you are alone. 

It´s the ultimate “me time.”

Think about it, when you are constantly giving to others and pouring into their cup, the more empty and hollow you feel. But that’s where this self-improvement comes in. Creating solitude moments will help you recharge and refill your cup.

So I want you to ask yourself: where can you create solitude breaks for at least 10 minutes?

Choose one or two activities to create solitude moments.

It could be even the smallest of things, like waking up before the rest of the house to make a cup of coffee and watch the sunrise or taking a walk around the park at the end of the day. 

Or even getting out of the house earlier to enjoy breakfast at a cafe.

You could even plan solo dates as a way to, first reconnect with yourself and second improve your self-love and self-esteem.

It may seem awkward and embarrassing at first. But I promise you, the more you do it the better relationship you´ll have with yourself. You will even start to crave those solitude moments!

Write a letter to your future self

Writing a letter to your future self is a great beginner’s friendly activity to intentionally think about your future and the things you want to achieve.

This activity will also help you process your emotions, thoughts, and attitudes as well as step out of your comfort zone and use your imagination.

Here are a couple of questions to help you start writing yours:

• A brief description of who you are now and what you do
• Why you are writing the letter 
• Your outlook on the future, e.g. are you optimistic or pessimistic?
• What do you want your life to look like in five years 
• What your beliefs and values are at the moment
• Any challenges you currently face
• What you had for breakfast this morning (just for fun!)
• What brings you the most joy in life right now 
• One of the biggest lessons you have learned up to that point
• Something that you would like your future self to remember during the course of her life

In this letter you can also include questions for your future self like:

• Who are your friends? 
• Are you happy? 
• What did you have for breakfast this morning?
• Have you made progress on / achieved your goals? 
• Are you still dealing with the same challenges? If so, has your approach to them changed? 
• What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far?
• What brings you the most joy in life right now? 

When writing this letter don’t be afraid to open up, give details and be vulnerable, after all it’s for your future eyes only!

Once you are done writing it, put it in an envelope and mark it with an open date (maybe 5 years from now?). And hide it somewhere in your house for example. 

(But do remember to set a reminder in your digital calendar and write where you hid it, you definitely don’t want to lose it!)

Beginner Friendly Personal Development Activities. Track Your Habits

Your habits are such an important part of your life. More than we realize actually. But how is that?

Because our lives (and our success) are not built on big, inconsistent actions. It´s not about the things you do occasionally, it´s built on the actions you constantly show up to, even if they are bad.

And those constant actions are basically your habits and your routine.

There is a quote that I love and that perfectly illustrates this: “You cannot choose your future. But can choose your habits and they ultimately create your future”.

What determines who are you going to be in life and how it will play out, is the small actions you fill your day with.

It´s the food you choose in the supermarket week after week. It´s the people you surround yourself with. It´s the way you choose to spend your free time. It´s the books your read, the movies you watch, the hobbies you have.

We think success is something unmanageable, something that only happens to select people, because they were “special”.

It´s actually not. It depends more on us than we realize. Except that is scary, thinking that our future and life depend on us, on our actions and our choices. So we ignore this truth.

But you have at your hand the beginning of a beautiful life, the one you imagine at night right before you go to sleep.

And it starts with you intentionally choosing your habits.

The habits you have is up to you. And you can learn more about how to create positive habits with this article right here, or with this incredibly practical book right here.

But what I want to share with you right now is a way to track your habits, so that you can take control of your life.

Most habits tracker (whether digital or on paper) are pretty black and white. You either completed that habit or you didn’t.

But life is not black and white, it’s a scale of greys and browns. And so is this planner.

Essentially you choose a habit and create three different variations of it, according to a certain level of difficulty: easy, medium, and hard. This technique is called habit sizing.

Now each level has a point value:

• Easy= 1 point

• Medium= 3 points

• Hard= 5 points

Each day your goal is to hit one of these target goals and track it by writing down the point value associated with the habits.

To set the three habit variation try to establish it from hardest to easiest, creating a smaller version of the goals as you go down the scale.

Have in mind that your “easy” habit should be almost impossible to say no to. This level is your safety net when external habits get in the way of your motivation, which will help you to get the habit streak and consistency going.

At the end of the month, you add up all the scores from each day resulting in your total monthly score.

After that, all you need to focus on is beating your previous monthly score.

Why this strategy is great?

You get a win every day. Even on the days, you don’t feel like pushing yourself, you still get a win every day that helps solidify your habit streak and believe in yourself.

Improves motivation and helps you stay disciplined. One thing you should know is that growth is not linear. You will have setbacks and fallouts. But that is no reason to quit altogether.

Keeping this log will help you see the progress you are making every day, even if it´s small improving your motivation and discipline to keep showing up.

And that is all for today, my friend! 

When you are first starting out on your personal growth journey everything can seem overwhelming and confusing.

But getting started is the hardest part, and you´ll find that as you start advancing the path in front of you will start to clear.

 I hope these personal development activities will help you start this beautiful journey you are about to begin (or maybe have already begun!) to become a better person!

Here is a list of clear steps based on this article you can start taking right away to start your personal growth journey. You can choose to do one, two, or all activities mentioned here. But whatever you decide make sure to commit to it!

1. Choose a personal growth book about a topic you are interested in and set the goal to read it during the next month.

Here are the books mentioned in this post if you don’t know where to start:

• The four agreements
• The Alchemist
• Veronika Decides To Die (check for trigger warnings)
• Make Your Bed
• Man In Search Of Meaning
• Atomic Habits

2. Research and choose one weekly solitude moment (my personal favorite is having a self care afternoon with my favorite music!)

3. Write your future self a letter using the prompts previously mentioned

4. Choose one habit you have tried to build for a long time and use the habit tracking technique we saw to stick to it.

Related posts:

• How to create a personal growth plan
• 5 Self improvement tips you need to try
• 44 Personal growth goals to become the best of yourself this 2023

Now I´d love to hear about you! What personal development activity do you want to try first? I´d love to read you in the comments!