7 Sure Steps to develop Yourself- My Personal Development Plan (PDP)
If you work for most establishments like I know, you will be made to go through a mandatory yearly appraisal. If you are not initially successful, you will be placed on a Development Plan (by your Supervisors).
Imagine that you asked a contractor to build a house for you and he says, “I don’t need a plan, I’ll figure it out as we go.” Would you accept that thinking for a second? Then why do so many of us want to go through life same way?
I have not seen anyone that do notnurse aspirations and dream dreams, yet we rarely stop to think about our future in detail. It is an ERROR!
If I want to give Personal Development Plan a description, I will say it is a road map of the goals and successes you plan to achieve and the skills and habits you will need to achieve them. A personal development plan helps you know where you are headed and how to get there, with specifics.They are that stable rock that helps your dreams and desires stay in sight.
Why do you need a Personal Development Plan?
If you are yet to consider where you want to go or if you’ve ever thought that a three to five-year plan isn’t for you, now is the right time to have a rethink. The time to start thinking about who and where you want to be in your future.It makes it easier than ever to discover what you want for myself with a PDP.
– A good plan provides focus and clarity;
– It helps you map out a path towards your own version of success;
– It allows you to make better decisions (best decisions for yourself);
– A good plan also allows you to strategise–plan ahead and into the future
– Its presence serves as a check to get back on track when things go wrong thereby preventingyou from taking backwards steps; and
– A clear plan is also beneficial for your mental health – when you live with a sense of purposefulness, you are not anxious about life.
Don’t have a Personal Development Plan?Follow these seven steps today.
1. Set Yourself Goals
Search for the things you really want in life.Figuring out what you want is not only the first step in planning, it is also confirmed the toughest. By the way, your life goals should be challenging; they should feel enormous and totally overwhelming.
Once you figure out what you want to do, you will get an emotional anchor; it provides stability and structure in a time of disorder.Take them as your long-term goals or better as your life goals. Write down every single thingyou want to accomplish under each area of your life.You have to start with the end in mind and also choose a timeframe that makes sense for you.
Think about what you want to do years down the road like starting a family, buying a house, setting up businesses, retiring early, etc. You may decide to keep it as simple as possible but try to cover important arrears of your life including Financial, Career, Spiritual and relationships.
A detailed plan will cover more life domains like Intellectual/Learning; Career/Professional; Spiritual; Marital; Family/Home; Social; Financial; Physical & Mental Health; Avocational (hobbies and interests), etc.You can have as many dreams per category/goal as you desire!
Youwillstill need to break them down into tiny baby steps, to make them manageable and achievable.And remember, it is your life you are planning, and you should treat it as a serious matter.
2. Recogniseyour threats and opportunities
You must examine the means of going forward. Just like a SWOT analysis done for an organisation to determine its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, you need to carry out your personality assessment. There are going to be certain things either external or internal to yourself – that, if you let them be, will prevent you from achieving your goals. There are going to be barriers that will create delays and eventual non-achievement of goals/dreams.
These are your threats and weaknesses and must be known. You will design your plan away from them and their impacts. For example, if you have identified your tendency to procrastinate or lose focus easily as a weakness, you can put in place methods that will keep you motivated for your dreams.You can have an accountability partner that serves as a reminder and push towards the goals.
On the positive side, there are also going to be things that you could do better, and networks you could take advantage of that will help you on your way. These are things you should commit to doing as your strengths and opportunities.
Take advantage of an upcoming event to network; update knowledge and even start a project!
3. Prioritise Your Goals
Consider all the little steps that will help you achieve your big goals and prioritise themas short (and immediate) term goals. You cannot do everything at once as trying to do so is a recipe for failure.
As a kind of brainstorming, make a list of skills you need to develop; projects you can start working on; people you can contact and who can help you along the way. They are to move you closer to your goals. Consider the step that needs to happen now, a months’ time, quarterly, the next one year and so on. The mini goals make the big ones happen.
One way I do this is to list all areas for development, then ask myself two questions about each one:
- How important is this to me?
- How crucial is it to develop or work on it now?
Answered on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), I add together the scores for the two questions for each goal. The higher goals become my focus because they are either more important, or they are more time critical.Leave the other areas for a future date: the following year, or even a few years’ time.
Consider linking your personal development plan to your annual goals.
4. Set Deadlines& Timelines
Knowing the exact time, you want to achieve a goal, or anything is crucial and picturing your future is an important source of motivation and inspiration.Set realistic deadlines so you are not discouraged.
When you picture yourself buying your first home or setting up your first business or when you walk up on that graduation stage to get your doctorate, when will that be? You can weigh the likelihood of achieving your dreams by speaking to other people about their experiences and researching the process, so you get a true idea of what to expect.
To develop realistic deadline or timelines, consider:
- What resources you will you need, including people;
- What success will look like;
- What milestones is expected for different parts of the project.
Say you want to build a career in Accountancy and someday be on the Board of your Professional Body. First, you are going to need the Professional Qualification – ACCA in my case to make that happen. So, there’s the big goal, now break it down into steps like:
- Learn about the ACCA Board membership process;
- Enquire about the registration; register as a student member;
- Find a suitable tutorial center, and enroll;
- Sit and pass all your exams to become a professional accountant;
- Fulfil all membership requirement;
- Run for Board membership.
5. Take Action
You have plannedyour what, why and how, next and most importantly, take action. So,develop yourself, take that course, cut down on unnecessary spending, use your support network or figure out a way to make sure you stay motivated.
Use everything you already have going for you.Drop whatever it is that hinders you.Take that first step and do not look back except you need to retrace your steps.
Get help if need be! Remember you have listed the people who can help youwhich could be a Financial Advisor, family, friends, colleagues, mentor, etc. I have learnt and need you to know that people are often so happy to help, more than you might realise.
6. Create Supportive Habits
Habits make up a huge portion of our day. Do you know that your current habits are partly responsible for the results you have in your life right now? It means if you want to change your life, you need to change your habits.
While I am not going to be suggesting particular habits to you, I would advise that you write down a list of every habit you think might be useful in order to reach the various goals you desire for yourself.
Take for an example, if your current goal is to start freelancing on the side (you have a 9 to 5), it would probably be advantageous for you to get into the habit of waking up a few minutes or hours earlier so you can work on the business before going to your full-time job. Common Sense!
If you are working on saving for a big financial goal, you can reduce or stopthe habit of eating-out. You can decide to pack your home-made lunch instead. Develop habits that support your goals!
7. Measure progress
Be it a big or small goal, always take time to reflect on how well you are doing after you have achieved some progress.It is super important to track your progress as you go to make sure you are still on the right course. You have a good chance to fix a misstepearlier than after you have gone far on the wrong path! In fact, it will be highly demotivating to make such a mistake.
On the other hand, recognising what has gone well is a way to bolster your motivation and remain devoted to your goals.
I engage in monthly reflection exercise and will advise you and anyone at all to follow that path.You are able to apply the lessons learned in your next steps because you are able to spend a little time figuring out why things that went wronghappened. Imagine that it was as a result ofa skills or knowledge gap – you just need to recognize it and accommodate it in the updated plan.
Refocus, regain control and get back on track is the way to make progress in your Personal Development Plan.
Bottom Line
The entire point of personal development is that you are continuously developing as an individual! Creating a personal development plan helped me to figure out where to focus my strength and attention. When I built my personal development plan, I felt energized and ready to conquer every challenge. And by doing this, I was able to start attaining my goals.
Please do not reach one goal and then stop (or rest). Once you’ve achieved one goal, refer back to that master list, prioritize them again if necessary, and decide what goal you are working on next.
Remember, consistent and effective personal development across a wide range of skills requires deliberate and focused effort.
