7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Self Improvement by Stephen Covey
To understand the difference between personal development and self improvement, it may be good to find the common definition of each word used.
According to english dictionaries, like Cambridge, Collins and Merriam Webster,
Development is the process in which someone or something grows or changes and becomes more advanced.
Improvement is an improvement in something, it becomes better.
Personal is of, relating to, or affecting a particular person : private, individual.
Self is an individual's typical character or behavior.
From the above, by putting two separate words together, it signifies a significant difference in perspective.
Personal development is about taking the time and, making the commitment, to invest in your greatest resource – you to become relevant to the world. It is about being a useful and valuable member to the society you are in. It involves building character traits or skills that will help you advance socially or professionally. The outcome of your effort is visible to the outside world.
Self-improvement is all about your motivations and goals, and your desire to live the best life that you can be. If you want to see yourself becoming better, you need to do something to grow yourself. Self-improvement is not a one-off or overnight activity or event. Instead, it is a lifelong process where the goal is to keep improving yourself each day and be a better version of yourself today than you were of yesterday, or one year ago, or five years ago etc. Your improvements will not be easily recognizable by people around you. Even your closed ones, with a closer look will have a hard time to know the positive change in you if they have not known your former self before.
Mr. Earl Shoaff, a mentor of Jim Rohn, once said to him, “Jim, if you want to be wealthy and happy, learn this lesson well: Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
In a nutshell, personal development starts with self, wanting to become a better version of oneself. The big or small outcome of actual efforts put in will be recognized by the people impacted by his/her contribution to their world.
