How to Create a Personal Development Plan

Learn how to create a personal development plan that can transform your life for success. As the saying goes "if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail". We will discuss how to create a plan for our personal development. It can help you get in touch with your internal feelings, determine exactly who you want to be, and how you want to live your life. 

 A personal development plan is often used by young people who are always pressured by their peers. However, adults like you can benefit greatly by creating your own personal development plan. This single step in drafting your plan can transform your life for good. Below I have expatiated 5 steps you can take to craft a personal development plan.

1. Make a List of What You Admire

It is imperative to first decide exactly what types of qualities you admire in people around you that you would like to internalize on your own. This may be qualities that are easy to measure such as staying physically fit or losing weight. It may also include taking on a better and healthier diet, or living a life full of integrity.

Choosing the right types of traits that you find in other people you admire should be on the top of the list. Again, decide which three qualities you would like to incorporate in your own life, in order to begin the process of transformation. The types of qualities you should focus on are the ones that are outside your personal comfort zone. Besides, they should not be unattainable, so as not to quickly discourage you from achieving that goal.

2. Learn to Set SMART Goals

In order to be successful, you will need to set goals. If the qualities you selected above are tangible, like physical fitness, you will need to understand exactly what the goal looks like. It may include participating in a marathon, simply walking the neighbourhood, or changing bad eating habits to healthier ones.

If the qualities include living a life with high integrity, you will need to detail exactly what that looks like to you. It may mean ending bad behaviours, making better habits, or asking for outside help to achieve the goal. Read more on goal setting here. 

3. Flesh It Out

Once the goals are firmly in place, it is time to flesh them out, to give them substance. It is time to expand the plan to add meat to the bones. It is impossible to skimp during this part of the process. Expanding the plan might include attaching some form of timelines or benchmarks where you need to reach a specific goal at a specific time. Be realistic, and flesh out the goals on a timeline that can be easily achieved.

4. Find the Support

It is much easier to obtain these types of goals in your personal development plan with support. You can solicit the help of a family member, friend, therapist, physician or an exercise buddy that simply wants to take the route with you. With enough support, it is easy to achieve nearly any type of goal as long as it has been set in a realistic time frame.

5. Celebrate your Success

Finally, a personal development plan should include a way to celebrate your success. You can do this by keeping a journal, or checking off a long list of necessary goals. You can also include taking stock of past experiences and activities so you can determine exactly how far you have come on the journey of success. Remember that failures are part of the process, and you will need to forgive yourself if you need to start the process all over again.

In a nutshell, learn to create your personal development plan with these five (5) simple steps and get on the way to become successful in life. It will take time but you will surely be transformed for good. 

You may also want to read these related articles.

1. What does personal development mean to you. 

2. How to set your career goals.

Personal Development, what does It mean to You?

Personal development is a very private matter and what it means to me may not necessarily be the same thing that it means to you. However, there is one aspect of personal development that is the same for each and every one of us - the need to improve.

To be able to improve something, you first need to identify what areas in your life could do with a helping hand. The ability to identify room for improvement lies in a good knowledge of yourself.

The best way to get to know yourself better is to grab a pen and paper and make a list of what you feel your strengths and weaknesses may be. On the reverse side of the paper write down what you feel other people think your strengths and weaknesses may be.

You may find it interesting that two sides of the paper do not exactly correspond. Others may identify a strength in you that you may view as a weakness and vice versa.

Now look at the weaknesses that you identified within yourself and pick one that is not listed on the opposite side of the paper. Think about why you feel that area is a weakness while others don't. Ask yourself whether you lack self-confidence or whether you portray a different picture to the rest of the world?

This could be the first step you can take to personal development. Once you feel you have improved in that area, repeat the exercise and see whether you get the same results.

You also need to pay attention to the strengths that you listed. If you feel you have a strength that other people don't see, why are you hiding it? Remember that strengths are not automatically better than weaknesses and there may be some room for improvement so that everyone will notice a specific strong trait.

Even the strengths that correspond on both sides could always use a bit of work. Most people believe that they need to address their weaknesses in order to become a better person. Starting by building upon and bettering one or more of your strengths can provide you with the foundation you need to address other issues in your weaknesses.

If you are finding it difficult to distinguish between your strengths and weaknesses it may be beneficial to seek some professional help. A life coach or mentor is a great place to start or you could opt for more structured and traditional therapy in the form of counselling.

Professional help is not the only route you can follow and you can also turn to family or friends whom you respect and admire. They already know who you are and can help you more than you think.

Don't be afraid to ask for help along your journey of self development. It is very rare that people achieve any type of personal development or self improvement on their own and the more people you include in your journey the more likely you will be to experience growth.

What to do today

Which area of your life do you want to improve upon, write it down and start to work on it and you will love the results at the end.

Let me know what personal development mean to you. 

How to nurture Excellent Habits for Health

Health is the level of functional and (or) metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person in the mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain (as in “good health” or “healthy”), (from Wikipedia, free online encyclopaedia).  

Your goal should be to live to 100 in superb physical health.  

a) Design and imagine your ideal body. What would your body look like if it was perfect in your own estimation? This is your goal.  

b) The key to health and life can be summarized in five words, “Eat less and exercise more.” 

c)  Develop the discipline of exercising every day, even if all you do is go for a walk. Exercise is best done in the morning, immediately after you get up, before you have time to think about it. If you do this for 21 days, it will become part of your regular routine for the rest of your life.  

d) Eliminate the three white poisons: flour, sugar and salt. 

e) Eat more salads and lighter foods; eat before 6pm and eat half portions.  

f) Get regular medical and dental check-ups. They can add years to your life.  

g)  Use the Michael Jordon method: “Just do it!”  

In a nutshell, just apply these seven (7) steps, set goals for your health and stay fit all the time. You will need to be healthy in order to develop your career and achieve all the other personal goals. 

How to Cultivate the Discipline of Daily Goal-Setting

Today, we will discuss the Discipline of Daily Goal-Setting, a habit that will help us both in our personal, career and in every aspect of our lives. Focus and concentration are the essential qualities for career and personal success. 

a)  Start by asking, “What do I really want to do with my life?” Ask this question over and over again until you get a clear answer.  

b)  Imagine that you had ten million dollars cash, but only ten years to live. What would you immediately do differently in your life? 

c)  Imagine that you have no limitations. That you could wave a magic wand and have all the time and money, all the education and experience, all the contacts you needed to achieve any goal. What would you do then?  

d)  Buy a spiral notebook and write in it every day. Begin by writing out ten goals in the present, positive and personal tense. Begin each goal with the word “I” followed by an action verb. For example, you could write, “I earn $xx,xxx by December 31, 2007.”

e)  Every day before you start off, rewrite your top ten goals in the present tense, as though you had already achieved them and you were reporting on this success to someone else.  

Rewrite your goals without looking back to the previous page. Rewrite them from memory. Watch how they grow, de­velop and change over time as you rewrite them each day. Many people have said that the discipline of daily goal setting has transformed their life and far faster than they had even imagined, courtesy – Brian Tracy.

You are welcome to follow this blog for more tips on how to develop Self-Discipline.

How to develop the Habit of Continuous Learning

“To earn more you must learn more.”Jim Rowan says: “Work at least as hard on yourself as you do on your work.”

a)  Read in your field 30-60 minutes each day. This will translate into one book per week, 50 books per year.  

b) Listen to CD’s in your car as you drive from place to place. This will amount to 500-1000 hours per year.  

c)  Attend seminars and take courses given by experts in your field. One idea from one course can save you years of hard work.  

d) The average income in America increases at 3% per annum. With compound interest, the average person doubles their income every 22 years. 

e) With the additional knowledge and skill you can apply to get better results, you increase your income at 10%, 15% and even 25% per year.

f)  10% per annum increase means that you double your income in 7 years and 2 months.  

g)  25% increase per annum means that you double your income in 2 years and 8 months. (Credit; Brian Tracy) 

Work on yourself as if your future depends on it, because it does. Continuous learning will make us to sacrifice our time for sleeping, leisure and family, however, the long term benefits far overrides the sacrifices we may go through today.  

Go ahead start reading that book, sign up for that online course; start listening to the language audio CD today and see where you get to by the end of this year.  

Do follow this blog, if you have enjoyed reading this post, for more tips and advice on developing self-discipline in your personal and career life.

How to develop the Discipline of Clear Thinking

Developing the discipline of clear thinking helps us to focus on our career and personal goals without wavering or changing our minds. This article will help us to develop the habit of thinking clearly when making career decisions.

Thomas Edison once said, “Thinking is the hardest discipline of all.”  

It has been said that there are three types of people. There are those who think (The small minority); there are those that think they think, then there are those who would rather die than think.

a)   Take time to think though the critical issues and problems in your life. Put aside long, unbroken chunks of time, thirty, sixty and then ninety minutes. 

   Peter Drucker said that, “Fast people decisions are usually wrong people decisions.” In addition, fast decisions with regard to your family, career, money or any other major issue are usually wrong decisions.  

b)  Sit quietly for 30-60 minutes to think. Practice solitude on a regular basis. “Go into the silence.” 

c) Whenever you practice solitude for more than thirty minutes, you activate your super conscious mind and trigger your intuition. You get it right from the “still, small, silent voice within.”  

d)  To think better, take a pad of paper and write down every detail of the problem situation you are facing. Sometimes, the right thing to do emerges as you write down the details.  

e)   Aristotle once said that wisdom (The ability to make good decisions) is a combination of experience plus reflection. The more time that you take to think about your experiences, the more vital lessons you will gain from them.  

f)  Go for a walk or exercise for 30-60 minutes. Very often when you are exercising, you will get insights or ideas that help you to think better and make better decisions. 

g)   Talk your situation over with someone else who you like and trust, and who is not emotionally involved; Very often, a different perspective can totally change your viewpoint.  

h)  Always ask, “What are my assumptions?” What is it that you are assuming to be true about the situation? 

i)  What if your assumptions were wrong? What if you were preceded on the basis of false information?  

Always be open to the possibility that you could be completely wrong in your current course of action. Be open to doing something completely different, courtesy – Brian Tracy. Don't forget to get your copy of the book on Goals!: How to Get Everything You want - Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy.