7 Powerful Steps to Real Growth: Personal Development Plan
A personal development plan sets workable goals for things you want to improve and adds focus to your efforts. Rather than simply ‘getting better’, with a plan you define what you want to improve, why it is important and how you are going to track your efforts.
This guide dives into the nitty-gritty of the process to identify the mistakes that most plans have despite their good intentions and moves to clearly outline 7 steps that you can get started on today.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Personal Development Plan?
- Why a Written Plan Beats a Mental To-Do List
- 7 Steps to Build a Personal Development Plan
- Common Mistakes That Stall Progress
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
What Is a Personal Development Plan?
A personal development plan is an overview of the improvements you wish to pursue within a given time frame. This includes the habits, skills and, most importantly, the mindset changes you wish to achieve.
A personal development plan is more strategic than a New Year’s Resolution. It defines your objective, a time frame, and a way to measure the success of your objective. It is a methodical approach to fulfilling your personal development goals as opposed to simply thinking about them.
A personal development plan can be built around improving a single area such as mastering the art of public speaking. Conversely, it can be built to address your career goals, physical health goals, and personal relationships.
Why a Written Plan Beats a Mental To-Do List
Goal setting should be more than wishful thinking.
makes perfect sense. Right? Well, deciding to develop a plan on paper tends to yield better results than simply mulling over goals in your head.
Life gets busy and the goals that seemed so important become easier to ignore. People who write things down are more likely to think about the changes they want to make.
A plan also gives you something to return to when motivation is low. No hard decisions to be made on a hard week. You just look at your plan to remind yourself of where you left off.
Effective behavior change is less about goal or plan setting and more about scheduling the changes and breaking them down into a list of individual steps. That’s backed by research published by the NIH.
7 Steps to Build a Personal Development Plan
These steps provide you with a structure – just adjust the order to your liking.
Be honest with yourself about current abilities.
- Pick two or three areas to improve.
- Create SMART goals.
- Break your goals into manageable steps.
- Set a deadline.
- Keep yourself accountable by tracking progress.
- Review your plan and celebrate your progress of improving.
- There’s a reason plans change. They need to. So adjust yours regularly.
As for brain patterning, here’s a good overview of behavior change research. This outlines some key concepts that will help ensure the action steps in your plan remain realistic.
There are a bunch of mistakes that people usually make that hinders their progress. Even with the best of intentions, a well thought out plan can still fail. Here are a few examples of some common mistakes you should look out for:
- Did too much. Trying to achieve too many goals leads to exhaustion and progress in none.
- Did nothing. Without a timeline, there is no sense of urgency.
- Did nothing. Without a means of measurement, no improvement can be determined.
- Did something. Without failure being considered part of the process, the plan become abandoned.
A personal development plan will certainly need adjustments. Working on daily routines? Check out our guide on creating mental clutter to help you focus.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a personal development plan cover?
Most focus best with either 3 months or 12 months as a timeframe. Shorter time periods keep the development goals specific while longer time periods provide opportunities to make more radical changes such as career shifts.
Can I work on more than one area at the same time?
Sure, just be reasonable about the quantity you choose. Instead of touching on five or six areas, keeping focus on two or three is ideal.
What happens if I don’t stay on path?
Don’t quit if you fall behind, adjust your timeline to make up for lost time. Falling behind DOES NOT equal failing a plan.
Do I require a therapist/ coach to make a plan?
Definitely not. Many can and do create their own plans.
Should I let others know this plan?
Accountability? Tell some of your close friends or a trusted mentor. A goal without deadlines will remain only that. Mine needs to be time bound. A personal development plan works best when it’s timely, realistic, and reviewed frequently. Start small, pick a couple of areas that concern you the most this second, and add from there. For more suggestions on how to alter your daily rhythm to run parallel with your goals, see our full blog.
