Rounding Out Your Personal Development

Learning can be a lifelong process. A person might be faced with a particular problem or situation, and seize it as an opportunity for growth. Another perspective is that learning is not reactive but proactive. This perspective promotes learning as an ongoing part of the developmental process of improvement. In personal development, a holistic perspective would make the individual the center of a life enriched by options. Whatever you decide is central to well being is grist for tuning into different aspects of individual growth. Mind, body, spirit and career may be a part of your framework.

Pivotal life events include childbirth, bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah, graduation, engagement, marriage, promotion, anniversaries, divorce, retirement, or death of loved ones. Such rites of passage may encourage you in personal growth. The meanings of moments to someone can be an enriching experience. Reviewing meanings of rites of passage may open doors to consider whether any changes are necessary to progress to developmental objectives.

Other than defining moments according to social norms, individuals can define which events matter most in their own lives. Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly events allow people to assess aspects of their own lives. Meditation, as well as yoga, for example, can help people tune into their mind and body.

People can create change as well as respond to change, with the net effect of growth. You can deepen connections in your life, or reach out for new opportunities. Formal courses or life coaches can be instrumental in your growth strategies. Change is also produced when venturing into new territory, doing something differently, or relinquishing the old.

Some people may seek community, while others pursue deeper connections with themselves. Others may target growth with self and community. Analyzing the existing health status of relationships, including those with self and others, is critical to chart progress. Organizations that strive to promote civic, social or self awareness can help you reach objectives.

Questions you might ask your self may include whether you are feeling nourished or depleted in a given relationship. You might then go forward with either an improvement or a problem solving approach. If a given relationship is healthy, you might analyze what aspects make it healthy for you. You would then apply these variables to those relationships that are less than what enriches your life.

The quality of life can be measured to include emotional, physical, and psychological well being. Society has established that persons who are married tend to live longer than those who are single. People who are not well tend to become healthier faster or live longer when ill, when they have a social support network. People beset by illness tend to become healthier and live longer with companions, even pet companions. Reviewing the quality of your life might include deciding where you are on the community spectrum. You can consider strategies to become a part of a particular community, or enriching your existing bonds within a community.

Your own quality of life can be enriched when you contribute to the lives of others. Community members learn from each other. Communities become more than the sum of its individual members. Personal development can become greatly enhanced on physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions. Your life journey depends on many factors. Where you begin the journey towards your vision is as open as your mind is to defining how to move moments forward.

Learn more about Personal Development. Stop by Sharon Taylor’s site where you can find out all about Personal Development and what it can do for you.

Atlassian: Fulfilling Need for Cloud-Based Tools

As cloud computing becomes an increasingly important issue, the need for cloud-based tools increases as well. Atlassian, a software development and collaboration tools company, released JIRA Studio 2.0 late last year to help fill the need for cloud-based tools.

WebProNews recently spoke with Jay Simons, the Vice President of Marketing at Atlassian, about the tool suite. JIRA Studio 2.0 is integrated with the Google Apps Marketplace. The tool suite includes an activity bar that incorporates Google Talk on every page. This allows developers to ask questions, make suggestions, and more without ever leaving the tools.

Simons also offers a few tips for selling cloud apps on the Google Apps Marketplace. He says since very little information can be put on the list page, it is very important that it is descriptive.

Additionally, he suggests thinking about where you take the user from the list page. According to Simons, testimonials and reviews are both effective. He says Atlassian would like to develop a way in which users could easily add reviews to the marketplace.

For more information on Atlassian and their products, visit their site.

PayPal’s New Toolkit for Google App Engine

PayPal made some cloud computing advancements at Google I/O by announcing its X Toolkit for Google App Engine (GAE). WebProNews spoke with PayPal’s Evangelist Rasesh Shah, who explains how the toolkit makes it easier for Google App Engine developers to take PayPal APIs and further develop on top of them.

Developers can simply download the toolkit and take advantage of all the APIs available. In addition, this platform allows developers create and run Web applications and services on Google’s cloud. Since it is on Google’s cloud, developers do not need any other hosting.

According to PayPal, the platform will enable many new payments in various marketplaces. The company is encouraging developers to utilize this platform to continue innovation.

“We want to make it as open as possible… so now, you don’t have to think about payment as a problem,” says Shah.

To learn more about this announcement, visit PayPal’s Developer Network.

Twilk: Create a Twitter Background of Your Friends

While at SXSW, WebProNews caught up with Kyle Mulka of Congo Labs. Mulka is currently working on a Twitter application called Twilk that is quickly gaining popularity.

Twilk is a Twitter background generator that takes a user’s followers on Twitter to create a photo collage out of their icons. The application sorts followers based on how much the user tweets about them and gives prominent placement to the people tweeted about the most.

Many people are using Twilk as a way to reward their followers for following them. Others just like seeing their friends’ faces on their background. For businesses that use the application, Twilk allows them to exclude certain people such as competitors and other people that they do not want to show up.

Mulka told WPN that they would like to develop the background to the point that it is clickable. For more information on Twilk, visit their site.

OneForty: Encouraging Twitter Developers

When WebProNews spoke with Laura Fitton back in October, she had just launched her Twitter app directory called OneForty. We caught up with her again in Austin for SXSW to find out more about the marketplace.

OneForty has 2,500 apps in its current database and knows of at least 7,500 more. Due to this large number of applications, it is nearly impossible for users to know and understand what each one does. According to Fitton, OneForty was created for this reason.

As she explains, users can write reviews for each app and also cluster apps together for specific occupations, lifestyles, and more. For example, a user might create a “toolkit” that includes apps helpful to moms or florists.

In regards to the future of OneForty, Fitton told WPN reporter Abby Johnson that it wants to enable developers to build actual businesses. Some apps are meant only as hobbies and some are meant only for business, but there is also a space in the middle that produces some exciting innovations.

Fitton says, “We’re looking to play that kind of ambassador role between the broader Twitter community and these innovators and give the innovators the tools they need, whether it is collecting donations to keep the service up or whether going full-fledged selling subscriptions [and] building a business out of their hard work and innovation.”

She also offers advice to developers by encouraging them to find their target audience and serve it really well with specific tools.

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