College Students: You Have Control! It’s Your Personal Growth!
By Allen Kozlica
Spring 2024
It always feels as if there is so much pressure on our shoulders as college students. I’m here to tell you, it will all be ok! Although stress may not seem fun, this is an important discussion to have and a topic to better understand. Transitioning from high school to college is not quite how every student had imagined. As exciting as the college experience is developing new friendships, bonds, and any relationships, there are times where we can all relate as college students. What is it that we all relate to? Stress! Of course, a hard feeling and emotion no one wants to feel, however we all experience our own type of stress. Whether that may be grades, finding the balance between schoolwork and free time, or fighting procrastination.
On top of our own personal stressors we face, most college students have pressure finding internships, meeting expectations, not satisfied with their GPA, and other stressors. Thus, this slows us down and we start to think about deadlines and if we are doing the right thing and if we are on the right path. The truth is… there is never a deadline! Sure ok, there are deadlines to papers and homework, but what I really mean to say is there is no deadline to your personal growth and your personal development! I’m going to help you conquer these small simple battles and help provide tips to grow individually. As we progress along the concept, and better understand what personal development is and truly means for a college student.
What is Personal Development?
Let me first tell you what personal development means to me, personal development is your own growth as an individual to learn, grow, and develop yourself. Personal development is essential and a natural part to growing as an individual no matter who or how old you are. It is during time at college, everyone finds it challenging yet the most fitting time for personal development and focusing on who they are and what they want. To better understand what personal development is, we will refer to U.K. College of Personal Development to further help define this idea. As defined by the U.K. College of Personal Development, “Personal development is a powerful process that can enable deep positive and lasting change to how we see ourselves and the world.” The U.K. College of Personal Development also refers to the “Four Core Areas of Developmental Benefits” being self-awareness, developing direction, motivation, and action, and promoting balance. Personal development is really such a strong and rewarding process to go through and it will help build better confidence, better morale, and better understanding for yourself and your trajectory in life. It sounds simple, although truthfully it takes a lot of time, discipline, and vulnerability. Don’t let the idea of personal development sound intimidating, it is truly an adventurous experience if you think about it. You want to be able to better understand yourself and develop your goals and who you want to be as an individual. One thing I would also like to help us all better understand is that we also define our own personal development.
Define Personal Development for Yourself
I was thankfully able to communicate with two directors at North Central College. I interviewed Marissa Gaigalas, an Associate Director of First Generation Initiatives, and Jette-Mari Stammer an Assistant Director of Center for Career and Professional Development. As they both assist students directly at North Central College, I looked for only a few things: I asked what does personal development mean to them, since you have a huge role for the program how have you seen students grown and show their own personal development, and what tips do you have for any college students? Gaigalas defines personal development as, “To me, personal development is someone taking the time to do something that adds value to any aspect of their life”. As for Stammer, she defines personal development as, “Personal development, for me, is investing in polishing and developing skills that matter to an individual”. The focal point I would again like to share with you all is, we all define what personal development means to us. Defining personal development for yourself is a good way to get started and wanting to better understand yourself.
What Does Personal Development Look Like?
Again, tracing back to the questions I have asked Gaigalas and Stammer, the other questions were how they have seen students grow and show their own personal development, and what tips do they have. Starting off with Gaigalas she said, “Most noticeable thing I see is the belonging…I think another noticeable change is their confidence.”. Now discussing Stammer’s experience and tips, “…what we see from the stories of those who we’ve worked with over the years and who have graduated is that life is almost never linear, and there is o much more that goes into influencing your career outcomes, satisfaction, and exploration than what students imagine”. One of the whole ideas and understanding of personal development is really your own growth! It is all your own understanding, your own interpretation, and your own development! There are always resources for college students like Marissa and Bailey where they can help excel and prepare you for life. Yet above all, you must push yourself and grow! It takes time, as you see, students from their beginning years to their final years make a drastic change as they slowly begin to take time to develop themselves for their life and careers! It has been shown in a research article done by Angela Fink, a researcher from Washington University of St. Louis in cognitive expertise, has shown that growth mindset interventions may offer a low-cost strategy for supporting college students in their academics from any harm to their performance. Part of that is eliminating any avoidable stress and taking pressure off yourself. There are many benefits to obtaining strong practice in your personal development. Let’s start with reasons why having a growth mindset is so beneficial. The Mayo Clinic discusses the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Fixed mindsets have a more negative connotation including:
Negative emotions
Self-doubt
Blaming of others
Quickness to give up
Avoidance of challenges in the future
As for a growth mindset, it values:
Effort to achieve goals
Opportunities to learn from mistakes
New challenges
Constructive feedback
Resilience in the face of setbacks
These both come into play as college students like us, as our personal development doesn’t only impact ourselves, but it may impact our classmates, professors, and learning environments around us. Being able to ignite our growth mindset will only suit us stronger as we build our personal development as college students. You are the sole focus of your personal development. There’s no need to compare to other students who may have higher GPA, higher academic standings and records, and internships! This pressure stunts your growth and takes away your focus from yourself. Creating a pressure-free personal development is only going to expedite your growth!
You are the sole focus of your personal development. There’s no need to compare to other students who may have higher GPA, higher academic standings and records, and internships!
What is Pressure-Free Personal Development?
Pressure-free personal development is achievable. A simple way to begin is removing others from your view. It’s not being egocentric or narcissistic if you are focusing on yourself for the better. That is a common fear when it comes to prioritizing yourself for the first time. It was a genuine fear of mine too. I didn’t want to feel selfish or stop caring for others, yet there is a way to do both at the same time. In an article by Psychology Today it covers simple ways to avoid comparing yourself to others and how to dive in to prioritizing yourself. Here are some helpful tips covered:
Become aware of, and avoid, your triggers
Remind yourself that other people’s “outsides” can’t be compared to your “insides”
Repeat whenever necessary: “Money doesn’t buy happiness, and never will”
Be grateful for the good in your life, and resist any lies that shout, “it’s not enough”
Use comparison as motivation to improve what actually matters
Let’s discuss why these are applicable to our daily lives as college students. Becoming aware of your own triggers helps you from stepping into scenarios you will only imagine and that slow you down. Nothing is said or done until the moment has passed, until then, keep doing the best you can and keep working toward your goals. The second point is discussing how we shouldn’t compare how other people are looking on the outside to how we feel on the inside. We shouldn’t have to compare our feelings to how others may appear, it goes back to never judging a book by its cover. You never know what fellow classmates could be going through just how you are. The best way to help others is to help yourself first. Another point is “Money doesn’t buy happiness, and never will.”
As college students we can all relate to having some ramen on campus in our dorms and watching our budget and looking at how we can work to make money. Eliminating the stressor of money in your mindset and personal development will only focus on your deeper goals and deeper feelings on who you want to be and who you are. Again, another negative thought to get rid of is “it’s not enough”. You shouldn’t set your standards based on others. You are setting your own goals and your own bar, avoid thinking of being enough and say, “how can I learn more.” Changing the thought to learning more will only help be more positive and look for setting your own goals and to pushing yourself to be the best you can be. When you set your own standard for yourself, you challenge yourself to do better and look for ways to improve and meet those goals. Lastly, in times that you do compare, don’t look for it as a plus or a minus to who you are, use it as motivation. Using it as motivation meaning, if someone has set the bar high for themselves in certain objectives like making the deans list, what is a goal for the semester you can set for yourself, that you can accomplish for yourself that you can take your own pride in. Whether that’d be finishing with a higher gpa, finishing all courses with no lower than a B. Being more involved on campus. You set the tone for yourself, use anyone else only as a resource.
What do I do to Make this Happen?
It takes time. Above all it takes time. However, how can we see the progression day by day and make these changes so it seems quick? We can simply start with small simple tasks. A article from Harvard Business Review discusses how viewing the large goal can cause distraught as it doesn’t just happen overnight. The article then proceeds to discuss how taking care of these micro-habits help build into the larger habit. These small gradual steps are the beginning to what we all want to achieve in ourselves. Starting with small goals for yourself, see if you can answer one question about yourself, or start with a few questions that you can repeatedly answer at the end of each day. Building this habit not only builds better understanding in yourself, but builds a strong skill in comprehension events that take place during the day.
Tips and Tricks
Here are some more tips and tricks that will help kickstart your journey onto your personal development. Thanks to Psychology Today, a peer-reviewed article from Tchiki Davis, who has obtained a PhD from Berkeley, has given some important personal development skills I would like to share with you. Start by figuring out which personal development skills you need to build:
Develop entrepreneurial thinking
Develop a growth mindset
Create a personal development plan
Record your progress towards personal development
Keep developing yourself in new ways
After listing these helpful skills and tips, I can share with you how all of these skills have benefited me while in my college standing. Developing skills I need helps me focus on my intentions and how I need to grow to become my best version. Developing entrepreneurial thinking and a growth mindset both helped me in thinking with a innovative mindset and help keep unique goals and standards for myself in what I want to accomplish. As for developing a self-soothing mechanism and resilience, it has the balance of finding peace with yourself and giving yourself credit, as well as building that toughness to staying discipline and pushing through the process. As for the last few set of skills, it all comes down to defining yourself and carving your own path. It is again, understanding that you are setting your own standards, your own goals, and there is no deadline for yourself to accomplish anything you set your mind to as a college student. There are still so many opportunities as a student to improve, to grow, to learn, and to develop, preparing yourself for life and to maintain your progress.
How do I Make Time for Personal Development?
Seek available resources or help. As a student there are many resources for us on campus, whether that would be the academic advisors, any school counselors, professors. Looking for resources is not a problem. Never hesitate to connecting with one of your favorite professors or reaching out to the school’s career development program about how you can take charge of your own personal development. Sure it is only you who are going to make these changes and practice, however having additional help is never too much to ask for. Thanks to Milton Campbell founder of Growth Tactic, having a lot of experience in a leadership role and having seen a lot of professional development, he has shared different outlets of resources.
Professional development courses
Free blogs on personal development
Novelties on professional development
It All Starts With You!
It’s a bold first step, and it is going to take a lot of time, however, there is never a deadline. Remove all the pressure off your shoulders, take a deep breath, and being with small tasks. Your personal development is all about you. You set the tone for yourself. You set the goals for success as a college student and remove the burden of “not being enough” or “not doing enough.” Just remember there is never a deadline to your growth and your personal development.
Allen Kozlica, once a student-athlete and now a full-time student who still enjoys his passion of soccer through work and coaching, has focused on his mental health and personal development now more than ever. Having attended North Central College all three years, he is studying to obtain his bachelor’s in marketing graduating May 2025. As mentioned, Allen has been a student-athlete much of his life and has a passion for helping motivate and supporting people with their mental health. Now finishing his athletic career, he is in pursuit of becoming the best version of himself and preparing for life after college.