What is a personal Development Plan?

A personal development plan is a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to consider and improve upon his personal, educational and professional development. The individual is in control of his own development with the opportunity to monitor and steer his growth. It is simply a tool to encourage and support lifelong learning.

The process involves identifying the areas that need development, planning, executing and reviewing.

We all tend to have a mental block when it comes to addressing our own problems. Many people are afraid about taking time and thinking about their problems and solutions to those problems. A PDP would help them to solve their problems in an easy manner.

You could start developing your PDP anytime. Based on your present situation and role, you could draw a PDP that could help to prioritize the most important areas of your life that need immediate attention and concentration.

Identify areas that need progress - This is the first step towards constructing your PDP.

You need to be in tune with your current situation in life - know who you are, what you want to achieve, what you have and what you lack. You also have to be clear about what is working for you now and what is not. You need to check on what you are ignoring, too.

Many people may delay in this first step if they have problem identifying the areas of their life that needs development. If you are one of them just think about those areas that are important to you – for example, you could consider the following areas: Physical and mental wellbeing, education, spiritual pursuit, finances, recreation, relationships – personal and professional, etc. You do not need to write down everything in detail but just make a list of these areas.

This list would help you to prioritize your areas. After you identify your areas that need improvement, write down what improvements you prefer to make in each of these areas as it relates to your personal growth.

Set a timeline on each goal - Begin with your short-term goals and then proceed to long-term goals

Write down your action plan – how do you plan to go about this process?

Review your plan – is this plan workable? Would you like to make a few changes or draw a new PDP?

Implement your plan – stick to your plan and follow your schedule

Review your progress - are you following the timeline? Are you progressing accordingly?

When you develop your own PDP, follow through with action and achieve your goals you would feel like you are on top of the world. You gain more confidence that your life is in your control. You get a great satisfaction. Take one step at a time and enjoy the process. That is the key to success. 

SelfImprovementBrain.com

Do you always try to please others in order to gain acceptance from them?

Sometimes this may lead you to unhappiness and depression. It is nice to care about other people’s feelings, but you should understand that your needs are just as important.

By giving more importance to others, you tend to ignore yourself as a special being. You could be considerate of others and at the same time you could be just yourself in order to maintain personal balance in your life.

Have you thought about ‘being yourself?’ Being yourself is empowering yourself to improve your life and career. By being yourself you build a strong foundation of your personality and attitude. You could realize or develop your full potential by being yourself. Here are some powerful tips to learn to be you:

Be a unique person. Each one of us is unique in this world. You are different from all others. You have a personality and character. Your personality has its positive and negative sides. You would feel comfortable with yourself if you accept yourself and feel safe to be who you are. Accepting yourself raises your self-confidence. So develop your individuality by accepting the fact that you are unique.

Know yourself. You would know yourself if you get familiar with yourself. You must know yourself physically, psychologically and socially and in fact you should know yourself in all aspects, in all entireties. Do you know how tall you are, how much you weigh, your color of eyes, hair, etc.? You could look in a mirror and familiarize yourself to know yourself physically. How about your disposition? Are you friendly? Are you a person who likes to be alone? What are your habits? What are your strengths and weakness? You would know yourself only by observing yourself.

Assess yourself. Once you get familiarized with yourself try to evaluate yourself. While evaluating yourself it is good to be open and honest. You could take the help of your close friend or relative to help you analyze and evaluate you. You would be your own critic of how you look, the way you walk, dress, speak, behave, etc. Being critical of yourself would help you improve upon areas where you feel you need to change or get better.

Respect Yourself. You need to respect yourself first so that you could learn to respect others. If you have some bad qualities and you are aware of it, you do not need to disrespect yourself or hate yourself. You do not need to condemn yourself of who you are. Learn to understand that no one is perfect. You could on the other hand look at the positive side of yourself and project yourself in positive ways while working on the negative aspects.

Once you understand your uniqueness, get familiar with yourself, assess and respect yourself you would be able to accept yourself. When you accept yourself you become a powerful person. 

SelfImprovementBrain.com