There’s no better time to start your personal development program than right now. Any day of the year can be your personal New Year’s Day. I read about a man who was always happy, because he was convinced that all his troubles would be over in the spring. If he was ill, the spring would cure his illness. If he couldn’t afford some special purchase, no problem – he’d buy it in the spring sales.
Spring came and went, often without the benefits he’d anticipated, but he was certain the next spring would be better. Nor did he give up on spring until the middle of summer – it could just be that things were delayed. When it was clear that things simply weren’t going to happen this spring, not to worry, next spring was on its way, bringing with it all he hoped for.
When I suggest that you start your personal development program, I should add that you need that man’s store of optimism, but yours must be based upon self-motivation and commitment to hard work, rather than hope and faith. I’ll keep on saying this: You can achieve whatever you want through hard work, by following a plan, focused on the right goals.
I outlined, in an earlier post, the areas I associate with personal development. These are:
- Occupational
- Recreational
- Creative
- Mental
- Physical
- Social
- Spiritual
They don’t have to be in this particular order. Previously, I showed them as a fully connected mesh network, from the thought process perspective. It makes sense to put Occupational considerations first, since, for most of us, our plans and ambitions will be focused upon our occupation. The activities that provide our source(s) of income are crucial to everything else we do.
Without money, life is miserable. No-one has yet persuaded me that less money is better than more money. Times when I’ve been well off, I’ve been very happy, compared to times when I’ve been poor.
So, start with your Occupational goals as the first step in your personal development program.
Think carefully about your present occupation and about the occupation you’d like to be engaged in, five years from now. Five years is a magic number in personal development. Always have your five year plan uppermost in your mind. You must ask yourself what you would like to be doing then. This will take you a while to mull over, and as you refine your ideas, it will take more and more research. Much of this will be online, but there are many other sources too. If you have a role model, see if you can get to interview them, by email, phone, Skype or letter. This is the sort of activity you must aim for, in setting your occupational goals.
You will make changes – many changes – starting as soon as you begin to set your goals.
To help you with the kinds of questions you should ask yourself, I’ve written a short list below. You must come up with many more than this, before making your final occupational plan.
Personal Development Program – Some Occupational Questions
- Do you want a new career that offers you a higher status in your community?
- Do you want a better job to earn more respect from friends and family?
- Do you want a new business that gives you greater potential for growth in your life?
- Do you want a different boss who can recognize and value your true worth?
- Do you want to work in a new location that gives a better quality of life for your family?
- Do you want a new vocation in life that allows you to feel more fulfilled and appreciated?
- Do you want to work to help disadvantaged people in a way you find rewarding?
- Do you want a business partner who shares your passion and motivation for your work?
- Do you want a new set of colleagues who value your vision for the business?
- Do you want a role that enables you to improve your work associates’ lives?
- Do you want a higher income to lift yourself out of the lifestyle you’re stuck in?
- Do you want a better standard of living to improve your loved ones’ opportunities in life?
- Do you want a more ethical line of employment that will demonstrate your integrity?
- Do you want to be an entrepreneur and create new jobs in your community?
- Do you want different working hours to give you more time with your loved ones?
- Do you want a more challenging position in order to show off your capabilities?
- Do you want a less challenging position to give you time to study for higher qualifications?
- Do you want to be your own boss so that your success depends on your own hard work?
- Do you want a more creative role so that you can build a reputation for innovation?
- Do you want a more manual, hands-on role so that you can lead from the front?
- Do you want a job where you interact with people and can motivate them?
- Do you want a job where you work alone so that you can build your prestige in your niche?
- Do you want to be able to work at home in the interests of efficiency and family unity?
- Do you want a job that involves mundane work that could give you time to plan your goals?
For a personal development program, the usual wisdom is to write down your strengths and weaknesses, your present knowledge and skills, your likes and dislikes… and so on.
I don’t advise that. You’re about to start a personal development plan that involves, at the very least, making big changes to your life. If you’re not prepared to make big changes, you shouldn’t embark on this program.
Suppose you’re a teacher and your dream is to become a farmer (or vice versa), then your view of the world is going to have to change dramatically. Your prejudices and false assumptions will have to be abandoned. Of course, you have to recognize them first!
To start your personal development program, then, you must ask yourself questions. Rather than state what you already know and what you are capable of doing, ask yourself what you dream of doing in the future. You can think of this as a kind of individual, inverted brainstorming. Instead of writing down all kinds of suggestions, write down all kinds of questions. The similarity to brainstorming is that you “defer judgement”, and you “reach for quantity” in your questions.
Look at the questions I listed above. You’ll see that they’re mostly of the form, “Do you want change X to occur in your life, in order to produce benefit Y?”
Your questions should generally follow this format.
In his classic book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, Dale Carnegie tells us that American philosopher Dr. John Dewey asserted that the deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important.
This applies to all of us, and the benefits in the questions are intended to feed this desire in some way.
When writing down your questions, try to ensure that your desire to be important is the main incentive that will motivate you to take action.
A useful exercise, before you write down your Occupational questions, is to make a list of things that could make you feel important.
Soon, I’ll talk about the Physical aspect of your personal development plan, which includes the way you dress, your modes of transport, what you eat, and so on.
Terry