You have to improve and learn new skills if you wish to have a happy and successful life. It doesn't matter if it is for work, your own business or your personal life. If you don't grow, you are getting worse. That's why a personal development plan is important.
In this article, I try to cover the main points of why personal development plan is important.
What is Personal Development?
Keeping it short and simple - personal development is a continuous process of self-improvement, and this process can last an entire lifespan of the person. When we grow up, we usually go to school, and the plan for us is designed according to government programs and school education centres.
Sometimes we add stuff to it, like extra sports activities or additional skills like piano lessons(I am not sure why I picked this one as an example; I am sure I cannot play the piano).
But hopefully, you get an idea.
When we grow older, and our future is in our hands, we need to decide: What do we want in our life? Are we want to achieve something great? And the majority of people will get to the point when they realize their future is in their hands and nobody is going to do the work for them.
If you improve just 1% a day, you will be 37 times better within the year. (Atomic Habits)
Some people get it earlier and some later.
What is the aim of a personal development plan?
There are many areas we can improve, and the most common things we are working on are:
- Developing strengths
- Improving health
- Improving self-awareness
- Improving a career
- Improving social relation
- Improving self-knowledge
These are just a few examples of personal development activities.
5 main steps of personal development planning
- Identifying an area of development
- Planning what to develop
- Taking actions
- Recording achievements
- Receiving what has been learned
How to set personal development goals
A great way to set personal development goals is by using the SMART goals technique.
Specific - the goal should be clear, easily described, and you know exactly what you need to do.
Measurable - it should be measurable; need to identify measures or steps of progress and reevaluate when necessary.
Achievable - make sure it's an attainable, realistic timeframe.
Relevant - your goal should align with your long term objectives.
Time-based - realistic timeframe needs to be identified for task prioritization and motivation.
Personal Development Plan for work
Most workplaces practise regular Personal Development Plan (PDP) meetings with their employees. It's a great way to increase team morale and motivation, and it makes it easier to identify individual needs.
In larger organizations with many employees and different types of work, having PDP meetings can speed up a promotion and usually, it's perfect for the company. It can identify talent and improve it by focusing on specific areas they need to improve.
It reminds me of diamonds for some reason.
Benefits of a personal development plan in the workplace
Lots of benefits of doing a personal development plan at the workplace.
I have mentioned team motivation earlier; this is very important for staff turnover numbers. Nobody wants to spend time training a new team all the time, its time consuming, can be draining and involve extra cost. Some companies have bonus systems based on team turnover percentage.
Productivity increases at the workplace if PDP is set correctly with the company vision in mind.
Personal development plan for your self-improvement
Time is the most valuable asset we have, and we need to be careful how we spend it. At some point in our life, we all will realize that we are wasting so much time on useless activities without even realizing why we are doing it.
It is all about priorities. And how important my goals are to me. If someone tells me I will receive $100 million for the next six months, I follow these rules:
- No TV
- Exercise everyday
- 1-hour morning routine without a phone
- Read a book for 30 minutes a day
- Spend 1 hour a day learning a new skill
- Journal daily / Visualize goals
- Next day plan every evening
Let us think about it for a minute? All of them are not challenging tasks to do.
$100 million is your goal - let us visualize it. You will never have to work for your entire life, and all you have to do is have some discipline to follow the simple tasks every day for 180 days.
What do you think will be in my mind every day?
1. Thinking about the goal.
2 How I am going to achieve it?
Every day will be the same for 180 days.
I would be planning my day, and I would eliminate any distractions.
There is no way I would miss any of the tasks.
Some people might say: Nobody will pay me $100 million to do this. And it might be accurate, but what if they will? What if you have a bank account with the total amount and receive a secret password 180 letters long? Each day one character reveal after the successful completion of all tasks.
Would you miss a day?
It is all about a vision, goal and precise plan.
If the why is clear, the how is easy.
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action
Personal Development Plan example
- Develop Growth Mindset
- Improve Time Management skills
- Grow a Network
- Be Proactive
- Get rid of Toxic People
- Accept your Reality
- Let go of Your Limiting Beliefs
- Consistent morning routine
- Plan your Day
- No Excuses
There are many more ways to improve yourself or your work-related skills.
Conclusion
In this article, I talked about why personal development plan is essential. I felt a bit motivated.
I heard many times before that if we focus on something 100%, we will achieve it; it's just a matter of time. It's hard to keep yourself motivated every day, but that's why we need to develop the self-discipline to fight the urge to take it easy.
Start with the end in mind.
Have a clear goal.
Have a plan
And go for it.
Nobody is going to come ad do it for you. Your life is your responsibility, and your future is in your daily habits.
Change your habits, and you will change your future.
Thank you for your time, and I hope you found this article helpful; if you have any questions about it, please leave a comment below or feel free to reach out to me on the contact us! Page.
Have a great day.
Gaining knowledge and experience throughout life is very important. This is an on-going process and self-improvement should be a worthwhile goal to pursue. This might be going to school and government work programs but it would also include things in your personal life. Your hobbies and interests can be broadened and enlarged so that your life has more fulfillment. You may even be able to show others how they can succeed and move forward in their own lives. Promotions are given to those who have updated their skills and will benefit their employer.
I 100% agree. Personal development is a lifelong process. Thank you for your comment, Toplink.
Self-improvement is an important part of your daily life. Your personal development plan allows you to grow as a person and achieve new goals or increase what you already know. The process of learning something new and the opportunity to share this knowledge with others is also valuable. Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action as learned recommended the first step after reading this blog.
Thank you, John.
Personal development is a process of becoming more aware of your own self and what you want from life. It also includes self-knowledge, personal growth, and personal transformation.
Smart Goal Techniques that you wrote are very useful for beginners and experienced fitness professionals alike who often have trouble sticking to their goals. This is because it’s hard for people to make an action plan for the future. But smart goal technique can help you stay motivated and get your goals accomplished.
Personal development can be done in a number of ways including but not limited to:
1. Personal growth – This can include any type of change that you make to yourself such as learning new skills or changing your perspective on something.
2. Personal transformation – This is the process of changing your external appearance or personality through things such as bodybuilding, dieting, or wearing certain clothes.
Thanks for this fantastic article you wrote. I really enjoyed reading it!
Thank you very much, Prashant
Omg I love this. You see personal development is extremely important. It helps you learn, grow, and gain new knowledge of things within your life. It is a daily process and doesn’t just happen over night. If that’s what one is expecting then you need to study more on the concept. So thanks for sharing
Thanks, Kiersti. I 100% agree that it doesn’t happen overnight and, in my opinion, needs to be done daily and should be done for a period of a whole lifespan. If we don’t improve, we cannot stay on the same level; we will decline, and it’s essential to work on yourself continuously. Thank you for your feedback, and have a lovely day.
I think this is a great topic, and something more people should focus on. We tend to get lost in the inertia of our lives and forget to step back and remember that there should be an end goal.
To often the speed of life sneaks up on us and we realize we wasted a lot of time. Formulating and sticking to a plan takes discipline, and determination to reach your personal goal.
The article was good and set forth a nice template for people to establish a life goal.
Good job. Keep expanding on your topic and this article. I would be interested to see more.
Thank you for your encouragement, Disco619.
Personal development is a lifelong journey. We never stop learning and improving ourselves, to become a better version of yourself. Knowing your “why” is so important if you want to achieve something. If you do not know your “why”, then the “how” becomes irrelevant.
And for that we need a goal or have a vision of the end. Without a goal, we are just drifting. It is like getting in the car and driving, without knowing where we want to end up. So establish your why, set your goals, and go for it.
100% true. Thank you!