You’re reading How to Setup Your Personal Development Plan in 3 Simple Steps, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Step #1 Find out where you are
The very first thing you need to do is make an in-depth assessment of all the aspects of your life. Take a really open and honest look at where you are in your life right now. Are you happy with how much money you are making? Are you happy with the direction your career is going? How about your relationship with your friends and family? These are just a few examples of the aspects you want to look at. You might find that you have your own specific things that are important to you which might be different from the ones outlined here. Take a look at those things and see where you are standing. As you are creating this really honest assessment of your life, you will actually become more aware of the things that you might feel like they need some change or a little bit of extra work. Me personally, when I made this assessment for myself I was actually doing pretty badly. I was not happy with my job; I was not happy with my health and definitely not happy with my personal finances. That’s what determined me to quit my full time job and dedicate by life to video editing – one of my biggest passion in life. Now I am doing something I love, I can work whenever I want with whoever I want, and I make more money than I ever did when I was working 9 to 5. Becoming aware of your current situation is the very first step towards achieving success, so don’t rush through this and be totally honest with yourself.
Step #2 Find out where you want to be
Once you have identified the areas you want to improve, set specific goals for each and every one of those areas. Set just one major goal for each area of your life and make it very specific. It should be something that you can easily measure. Then put a deadline on it. I like to set a relatively short deadline on my goals – something like 6 to 12 months. By focusing on the shorter term goals you will be more likely to take action right away. And, on top of that, it will also be much easier for you to actually see measurable progress. It will also be much easier to course correct as you learn new things about yourself and as you evolve into a better person. Setting the right goals might be a little bit tricky to do at first. You will know when you have set a good goal when you will feel both excitement and fear. You will feel excitement because you will be doing something that you love, something that brings you to life. And if the goal is big enough you will also feel a little bit of fear, because you know that achieving that goal is going to be difficult and it will require a lot of work. I remember I was scared to death when I quit my job to start editing videos for a living. But I was also very excited to get started on following my dreams. Another thing I found to be very effective is to write down your goal on a piece of paper. Create a goal card that you carry in your wallet or pocket and that you read a couple of times every day. I know I was reluctant about this method, but reading out loud your goal often enough will keep you focused on achieving that goal. By reading it over and over again, your mind will start to work on achieving it even without you consciously realizing it.
Step #3 Create an action plan
The third and final step is to write down some clear action points. These actions should take you from where you are right now to where it is that you want to be. What does it take to achieve your goal? You might not know every single step but there definitely are a few things that you do know. Most of the times these will be sufficient to get you started. You just need to start somewhere. You don’t need to have the whole plan outlined beforehand. Start with a draft and add new actions to it along the way. Learn as you go, don’t be afraid to try out new things, experiment. Some things will work, some will not. Each failure will just get you one step closer your goal. I remember I made a ton of mistakes when I started my business. But each mistake taught me a new thing and so on and so forth. Just start, don’t wait to have the perfect plan!
Over to you
I challenge you to go over this 3 step process and share with us what is it that you’re committing to do for yourself. Where do you want to be 12 months from now? What are the actions that you know you’re going to need to take in order to move your life forward?
Cristian used the exact same steps outline above to figure out he wants to run a video editing company. Right now he is in charge of the operations of Veedyou Media, a business which is offering video editing services to customers all around the world.
You’ve read How to Setup Your Personal Development Plan in 3 Simple Steps, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
