Personal Development Stories

Go to the roar!

Personal Development Stories

Go to the roar!

Reading personal development stories is one of the best ways to add wisdom, wit, vision, colour, and fun to your personal development plan.

Whatever your goal, whether personal growth or formal career development, you’ll benefit from reading these stories. This is just one of our continuous improvement resources.

We’re firm believers in the benefits of story-telling so when you’ve finished reading this page, look at our other collections of:

Motivational stories
Motivational quotes

Personal development stories: go to the ROAR!

Lions love to eat gazelle meat. But it’s very difficult for lions to catch gazelles because the latter run so fast. So instead of trying to catch their quarry, a group of young lions will form a line and try to herd them in a particular direction. The gazelles easily outrun the lions, heading in the opposite direction towards supposed safety.

Except they are unknowingly being steered towards a deep, grassy area where a group of older lions are hiding. The older lions are too old and tired to be part of the chase; many are missing teeth, and would never be able to catch their own meat.

But when the gazelles are driven within close range, the old lions jump up and ROAR loudly. The startled gazelles, responding immediately to a new threat of imminent death, turn and run in the opposite direction. Right back into the mouths of the young lions.

Personal development stories - run towards the roar! “The moral is that running from your fears and not facing them can often lead you into real danger and worse outcomes. In day-to-day life, the lions lying in wait may not be life threatening, but they are often false fears.

Running away may mean we remain stuck and unhappy for a long time or until we face and move through our fear.”

We’re not sure about the accuracy of the lion analogy, especially as it’s well known that in the lion kingdom, it’s the females, the lionesses who do all the work!

Nonetheless, we can’t disagree with the moral. This is still one of our favourite personal development stories. So, what to do next? Remember Jack Canfield’s words in The Success Principles (TM):

If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.

And as Gail Sussman Miller says:

…acknowledging and facing your fear may actually mean a better chance of survival. It is nearly *always* an opportunity to grow, learn, and improve your confidence and success. You increase your tolerance of risk and your ability to move through your fears better the next time.

Instead of acting instinctively, or from habit, think about your fears. Analyse them. Take steps to defeat them. Then go to the roar. Think of your fears as a challenge to be overcome, or a problem to be solved. The key to analysing any problem is to ask the right questions.

Personal development stories and more!

Personal Development e-guide bundle

For more continuous improvement resources look at our great-value guides. These include some excellent tools to help your personal development plan. The best-value approach is to buy our Personal Development bundle, available from the store.

We’ve bundled together these five e-guides at half the normal price! Read the guides in this order, and use the tools in each, and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your personal development plan. (5 guides, 125 pages, 26 tools, for half price!)

Manage Your Own Performance (28 pages, 6 tools)
Managers Make the Difference (27 pages, 5 tools)
Managing from Strength to Strength (22 pages, 5 tools)
Making Change Personal (22 pages, 5 tools)
Re-defining Middle Management (26 pages, 5 tools)



I am designing a new Management Development programme for my company and your Goal Setting guide has really helped.

I like the way you introduced material I haven’t seen before (SHARP action) & the tools to apply the learning. The price represents really good value for money and I will be checking out more of your material over the coming months.

Matthew - UK

...something worth reading about stress...

Thank you, I trawled the net until I found something worth reading about stress and your site ticked all the right boxes for me. Well done.

Linda - UK

Your site is wonderful

I do leadership training and your resources have been helpful. Thank you for your well done site.

Pat - United States

Looking for more personal development resources?

Try our great value e-guides

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn More

Got It