Deciding to better yourself is a great goal to set. Personal development – the art of making more out of yourself – can be an enriching, highly rewarding process. It does not require an all-encompassing master plan, either. You can kick off a personal development routine (or improve your existing one) with a few simple ideas like these:

Acknowledge your successes. We are often our own worst critics, making personal development a behemoth task for many individuals. Instead, focus on your successes, no matter how small they may be. Success adds up into greater things, and acknowledging a job well done is an excellent way to boost your self-esteem and motivation.

Analyze everything you do. If you’re practicing a core set of beliefs, identify when you practice them, how you stuck to your convictions and what this action means for both future actions and your core beliefs. This enables you to keep a clear head on your journey to personal development.

Building upon your goals and aspirations to become a better person or even to achieve and conquer new things, you must remain educated and keep your knowledge base expanding. This can be accomplished through tradition formal education or non-conventional methods. By stimulating your mind and body, you can be one step closer to becoming the person you want to be.

Decide whether or not joining a support group is right for you. Joining a support group can be great. Just finding people struggling with the same things you are can be a huge help. On the other hand, if you suffer from something like an eating disorder, a support group probably isn’t the right place for you.

When you’re trying to improve your life, write your goals down. Writing goals down makes them concrete. It also gives you something to visualize every day. Your goals should be clear, concise and contain a time frame. Doing this can make your goals a reality sooner, rather than later.

Focusing on personal development non-stop could burn you out and make it difficult to stay on track. Take the time to relax and recharge to keep your energy and committment levels high. Allow yourself to be an imperfect person! Keeping a balance in your life gives you more energy for those areas you are working to change.

Combine email and your phone to facilitate your day. Use emails to remind yourself of things you have to do. Every night shoot off an email to yourself with the next day’s shopping list, appointment times and whatever other items you must remember. You can retrieve the emails right from your phone, the next day.

While the path to your personal development goals might be long, it need not be arduous. Keeping your eyes peeled for new personal development ideas is always a good idea. You may run into more handy tips like the ones in this article that can get you to your goals faster – or at least keep the journey to them from getting dull.