LESSON 2 DEVELOPING THE WHOLE PERSON

Lesson Objectives
1. Explain the meaning of whole-person development.
2. Discuss the benefits of whole person development.

Our life consists of many different areas and it takes place in diverse situations
with various tasks, environment and social interrelationships. The different areas of our
lives consists of home life, social life, work life, spiritual life and others. All of these
areas are interrelated and affect our whole person. The development of a person is a
practice where the different areas of our lives are linked with each other so we will be
able to balance our lives. All these areas have to viewed as a whole to improve
ourselves to make our lives meaningful.

Lesson 2.1 The Six Areas of Whole Person Development and Benefits of Whole
Person Development

Whole Person Development

Development of a whole person refers to the holistic development of a person’s

actions and behavior not just merely gaining specific contents. This is an approach
which emphasize the person’s improvement personally, emotionally and professionally.
Person development is the process of motivating a person to know himself, know the
process how to improve himself, know other people and know the process on how to
help other people improve (Gloveworx, 2020).
The Six Areas of Whole Person Development

People develop as we become more advanced in all the elements in human life.
Like when you feel that you have increase weight, you opt to go the gym so you can
lose weight to be fit again. Another example is when you had gained more working
experiences in different companies and had improved your professional life, you aim to
become promoted in your job.

The development of the whole person is not only focused on developing a

specific area in our lives. It involves developing all the six areas to become a whole
person. These areas are Emotional, Physical, Social, Spiritual, Psychological and
Professional. Once these six areas are developed in a person to make him a whole
person, their lives will be more balanced and meaningful.

1. Emotional

Our emotions give us feelings on how to react to specific situations. This usually
shape us and used to connect with other people, adapt to different changes and
situations. Emotions also will give us the strength to handle difficult situations that we
encounter in our lives. Once we develop emotional maturity and when our emotional
intelligence is high, it will give us some option to know more about ourselves and to
know about others.

The emotional intelligence of a person helps them recognize their emotions and
how emotionally mature they are in making some important decisions in their lives. It
also contributes to a person’s success since it leads to better leadership skills. More so,
the social skills and personal skills may be developed once the emotional intelligence is
high. This skill is one of the important skills of a person which may cause him to be
successful in the workplace. Managing emotional aspect of a person may help him to
become more productive in all areas of one’s life.
2. Physical

The physical aspect of a person involves being physically healthy which involves
eating the right foods, getting good sleep, doing some physical exercises and at the
same time managing stress.

People have to be more concern on their physical health by maintaining

appropriate body weight which will make us feel better. In other words, we have to be
physically fit so we can do the things which will make our lives meaningful. Once we
are physically fit, we have also clear minds and energy to do our activities everyday. It
makes us energetic and confident that will motivate us to do other household chores
and professional development.

3. Social

This area of a person involves interacting with other people in almost everything
that we do. It is important that we know and understand how to build good and
harmonious relationship with other people and to behave properly on the different social
environment where we are. For example, the way you interact with officemates or with
your supervisor is different from the way you socialize with your close friends. To be
successful in this area, it is relevant to understand how we will able to handle ourselves
in front of different people in different places.

4. Spiritual

One very important area of the whole person is his spiritual life. This is reflecting
deeply our purpose in life and connect with ourselves and with other people.
Spiritualism may be different among people. Some may regard this with their being
prayerful, having a religion, faith in God and doing good to other people.

Our spirituality will help a person reflect his sense of purpose and may fulfill our
deeper needs and aspirations. It promotes positive relationship with others, a sense of
life’s purpose, optimism and inner peace. These deep feelings of contentment in
ourselves through our strong relationship with God will make up a very important part of
the whole person.

5. Psychological

This area depicts our self image to other people. People may see you and know
u through personal interactions and even in social media. This aspect tells us about our
true deep inner self to enhance self acceptance and self-esteem. Knowing and
understanding yourself better is the most important driver of success. We must believe
in our abilities so others will do so. Once we believe in ourselves, this will create
motivation, drive, optimism and future success.

6. Professional

Our professional life affects our personal lives and vice versa. These two areas
of a person’s life are interconnected because they are all important that will make him a
whole person. If you are employed in a company and the job is very stressful that you
have to work overtime everyday; is likely that your work stress level will be high and it
will affect your home life since you will have less time for your family. This will affect
your mood to start your everyday life. All kinds of job have stressors but if you know
how to manage it, you will be happier because you know how to handle the situation
and once you accomplish this, other areas of your life will also be fine ( Gloveworx,
2020).

Benefits of Whole Person Development

Whole person development is a process where a person knows how to manage

his/her strengths as well as knowing his weaknesses and later turn these to be his
areas for improvement. A precise awareness and analysis of oneself will give an
individual room for improvement. Therefore, you have to be totally honest accepting
yourself including your strengths and flaws in order to improve on some of your
weaknesses.
 Here are some ways on how and individual may benefit from person
development:

1. Self -esteem

Development of the whole person does not only include improving your work life
but it can also help in developing your personal life. Once you have a good work life,
your personal relationship will improve as well as your home life. This will help in
achieving work life balance and later will boost your confidence. The positive and
negative attitudes of a person have to be tracked so you can manage them better so
that you can prevent negative behaviors and encourage positive behaviors. Through
this, this will help you to develop the whole person that you aim to be. Your self
confidence will lead you to high job performance at the same time developing your self-
esteem.

2. Productivity

When a person is aware of his strengths and weaknesses, he is likely to have a

chance of producing high quality work. Once you see yourself developing, you can
boost your confidence and motivation level will be higher. Self awareness is linked to
whole person development since this will give one person a guide to turn his
weaknesses into opportunities to become his strengths. The poor attitude of a person
can be turned into positive attitude although it is a difficult process. When you recognize
the impact of your bad attitude and some of its consequences, you may realize that your
behavior will not contribute to improving yourself personally and even in the workplace.
Becoming aware of these will make you realize to turn your poor attitude into positive
one that will motivate you to become more productive part of the workforce.

3. Improves Skills

When the areas of development have improved, it follows that your skills also
have improved which will contribute to the whole person development. For example,
you are trying to improve your computer skills by attending special training in Computer.
You can use this professional skills in your present task to become a more competent
employee. Your co-employees will notice your self improvement that makes you an
improved employee. You can use this skill in your future promotion (The benefits of
investing in personal development - Discovery, 2020).