FREE Trial with Benzinga Pro happening right now!
A personal development course is a great way to improve — what else? — yourself. But where’s the best place to start?
Why not tackle a personal development course? It can inspire you to improve your social skills, confidence, productivity and more. There are numerous options to choose from, most of which are delivered straight to your laptop. Use a personal development course as a foundation for any development courses you may take in the future.
Best Personal Development Courses
- Complete Personal Development Personal Transformation Course by Udemy
- Manifesting Your Best Life with Ray Maor by Udemy
- Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learn and Discover Your Hidden Potential by Udemy
- Performance Under Pressure — The Full Course by Udemy
- Double Your Confidence and Self Esteem — Complete Blueprint by Udemy
- Neuroplasticity: How to Rewire Your Brain by Udemy
- Critical Thinking for Better Judgement and Decision-Making by LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda)
- Life Mastery – Happiness, Health and Success by Udemy
- The Science of Well-Being by Yale University
What Makes a Personal Development Course Great?
Not sure what traits to look for as you scope out your options? The best personal development courses feature the following attributes.
Covers the Basics
Personal development isn’t as easy as it sounds, so you need a course that covers basic personal development concepts. A solid foundation means you’ll be better prepared to handle more advanced techniques and concepts. Even if you’re an experienced life coach or motivational speaker, a refresher course could motivate you in a new way.
Concise
Personal development is a broad concept, so make sure you take a course that’s comprehensive but straightforward. Go through the course outline to make sure it focuses on the area you’re interested in. A concise course is also easy to understand.
Self-Paced
Schedules can be tight and deadlines can be pressing, so you need a course that lets you work at your own pace. This gives you a better shot at mastering the material, even if you spend 2 hours a day on the course.
Our Top Picks
Our top picks for personal development courses are listed below. The courses are from Udemy, LinkedIn Learning and Coursera. They are grouped by skill level — beginners, intermediate learners and advanced learners. We’ve included a brief description and the enrollment fee for each course to help you better understand your options.
Personal Development Courses for Beginners
Here are beginner favorites you may want to tap into to master personal development basics.
1. Complete Personal Development Personal Transformation Course by Udemy
- Who it’s for: Beginners
- Price: On sale
This is the longest, most detailed and thorough personal development course available on Udemy’s platform. You’ll receive full lifetime access to 27 hours of on-demand video, 3 articles and 14 downloadable resources. The course begins with a primer on personal development, followed by lessons on creativity, time management, lifestyle design, goal setting and more. You will learn how to aggressively take back control of your mind, creativity and habits by counter-programming your brain with your dreams, wipes and goals.
T.J. Walker, the course author, has been conducting personal development seminars and workshops across the globe for more than 3 decades. His distinctive approach to becoming a fulfilled and creative human being takes the best of the traditional self-development world and merges it with 21st-century realities.
Enroll in this course if you’re ready to develop your own creative projects, live a healthier, more active and meaningful life.
2. Manifesting Your Best Life with Ray Maor by Udemy
- Who it’s for: Beginners
- Price: On sale
Are you looking for simple tools and techniques that will help you achieve your highest human potential? This course is for you. It comes with 3 hours of on-demand videos, 3 downloadable resources, assignments and a certificate of completion once you meet all the requirements.
You’ll learn how to know yourself better (your personal, relationship and business goals), discover your limiting beliefs and understand how to let go of unnecessary control over your life to realize a higher state of acceptance.
Ray Maor, the instructor, is a global spiritual mentor committed to delivering simple personal development and self-empowering knowledge to those who want a better understanding of their reality and divine selves.
3. Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learn and Discover Your Hidden Potential by McMaster University
- Who it’s for: Beginners
- Price: Free
Mindshift is designed for individuals who want to boost their career and life in today’s fast-paced environment. It teaches you essentials like how to seek help and work with mentors, uncovers the secrets to avoiding career catastrophes and provides practical insights from science about learning and changing effectively even in maturity.
This course is divided into 4 modules, each of which ends with a practice exercise to ensure you’re ready to take up the next lesson. This course is 100% online, requires approximately 11 hours to complete and allows you to reset deadlines to fit in your schedule. You must take the final 50-minute examination to receive your course completion certificate.
Intermediate Personal Development Courses
Are you looking for ways to effectively manage your attitude, your relationships and actions? These courses will guide your journey.
4. Performance Under Pressure — The Full Course
- Who it’s for: Intermediate learners
- Price: On sale
Have you mastered the basics of personal development and want to learn how you can manage your attitude so that you’re in control and maintain a success-oriented mentality? This is the course for you. Packed with 4 hours of on-demand videos, 4 articles and 95 downloadable resources, this course prepares you for high-pressure environments that could affect your professional relationship and interaction with others.
It details a step-by-step process of refining your skills to identify your personal reaction to pressure as well as consciously control your reactions when under pressure. The course is suitable for professionals seeking to develop abilities to manage the stress that comes with being in a high-pressure environment.
You’ll get a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the course.
5. Double Your Confidence and Self Esteem — Complete Blueprint by Udemy
- Who it’s for: Intermediate learners
- Price: On sale
Confidence, self-esteem and social skills are all key ingredients for personal growth, and that’s what this easy-to-learn course promises to refine. This course helps you overcome self-doubt and replaces it with social confidence, a powerful and overall positive mindset. Featuring 5 hours of on-demand videos, 1.5 hours of on-demand audio and 7 downloadable resources, this course can improve your self-esteem and confidence across the board.
Enrollees who complete the course will not only receive a certificate of completion but also be mentally prepared to feel more confident and filled with self-esteem.
Jimmy Naraine, the course creator, is an entrepreneur who helps business executives become powerful presenters. He goes out of his way to offer real-life exercises and examples.
6. Neuroplasticity: How to Rewire Your Brain by Udemy
- Who it’s for: Intermediate learners
- Price: On sale
Do you have a keen interest in how the brain works? The brain continuously creates new neurons throughout your lifetime, and this course helps you understand that it’s never too late to change, whoever you are or whatever you’ve become. You can learn new skills, change your old habits and create new ones.
This course focuses on empowerment with its hands-on approach. It teaches you how to reconnect with your dreams and start making changes towards achieving the dream life.
This little gem is packed with an array of concrete tools including:
- A comprehensive blueprint to change existing habits or form new ones
- 30+ exercises to stimulate brain activity
- A step-by-step approach to neutralize your painful memories
- How you can overcome procrastination
Advanced Personal Development Courses
Ready for the next step? Take a course from those who have worked as life coaches or hold leadership positions.
7. Critical Thinking for Better Judgement and Decision-Making by LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda)
- Who it’s for: Advanced learners
- Price: Included in the monthly premium membership
Are you a leader who wants to leverage critical thinking to illuminate the wisest conclusions yet? This course prepares you to tune into the critical thinking skills of your organization. You’ll learn how to upgrade your critical thinking to craft better arguments, pinpoint misleading cognitive biases, avoid deceiving fallacies and improve decision-making.
Instructor Becki Saltzman is trained in applied psychology and behavioral science at Washington University. She imparts skills that will improve how your team or company responds to change, tackles challenges and innovates.
8. Life Mastery – Happiness, Health and Success by Udemy
- Who it’s for: Advanced learners
- Price: On sale
This course is for you if you’re looking for practical techniques to help you successfully master goal setting, work-life balance and happiness. Whether you feel things aren’t going as you’ve always dreamed or want to make quicker progress in life, this course is a game-changer. This course covers pretty much everything you need, from managing your time, keeping fit, choosing a career, overcoming guilt or fear, getting promotions, self-talk and much more. It explores numerous real-life examples and gives practical tools you can use to get instant results.
This course comes in 3 hours of on-demand videos, offers 9 downloadable resources and is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Instructor Chris Croft is a widely published author and international speaker who teaches time management, assertiveness and happiness to companies for more than 20 years.
9. The Science of Well-Being by Yale University
- Who it’s for: Advanced learners
- Price: Free
This course comprises a series of challenges meant to build more productive habits and increase your happiness. The course begins with an introduction and then goes on to cover the following topics:
- Misconceptions about happiness
- Why our expectations are so bad
- How can we overcome our own biases
- Stuff that makes us happy
- Putting strategies into practice
Each module ends with a practical assignment. The class takes approximately 20 hours to complete. You’ll need to submit a final assignment to receive your completion certificate.
Professor Laurie Santos uses a conversational teaching approach to help you understand the empirical science behind real well being. This course is a great addition to your personal growth arsenal.
Enroll in the Right Personal Development Course
Personal development is a lifetime process. From career development, personal transformation, productivity, personal finance, creativity and leadership, there may be something you want to refine in yourself. Personal development classes are a great way to nurture your life skills, whether you’re a professional or a student.
Consider Benzinga’s top picks to unlock your inner potential.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best personal development courses for beginners?
Complete Personal Development, Mindshift and Manifesting Your Best Life are good courses for novices.
What are the main parts of personal development?
Personal development focuses on several areas, including tangible, spiritual, emotional, societal and psychological factors.
Southern New Hampshire University Online
SNHU Online Offers:
- Flexible schedules
- Affordable tuition
- Online tutoring
- Access to electronic research materials
- Specialized academic advising
- Supportive online community