How to Create Your Personal Development Plan
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”Do you know where you’re going? Where do you see yourself in a year, five years – and perhaps ten years down the road? In the years where I have planned out what I wanted to accomplish, I invariably achieved what I set out to do – and it has consistently been more than in the years when I didn’t plan.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where –” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
So from my personal experience, it’s true – if you don’t know where you want to get to, it doesn’t matter which way you go.
Do you have hopes and dreams you’re chasing? If you do, but aren’t sure which way to go – perhaps a personal development plan will help you figure that out, and help you get there.
Why Put Together a Personal Development Plan?
“He who fails to plan is planning to fail.”You may have previously read this discussion on writing down your goals, where I point to research showing that it has a measurable effect, increasing the likelihood of success. In addition to the research, three big reasons I like having a personal development plan include:
– Winston Churchill
- Clarity. Knowing what I am trying to accomplish gives me a clear idea of what I’m working on.
- Define The Why. Oftentimes, along the way I’ll come across tasks and situation that I simply don’t enjoy doing. Having a personal development plan shows me why I’m doing what I’m doing.
- My Compass. I’m a very driven, ambitious person – but if I don’t have a plan of what I’m trying to accomplish, I end up expending energy in many different directions. A personal development plan keeps me headed towards consistent goals.
What Do I Put In A Personal Development Plan?
“Success requires a wel-articulated goal. It is not a product of wishful thinking.”The answers to this question are varied. For me, the broad answer is this: I write down what I want, and I write down how I plan to get there.
– 7 Simple Steps by Jonathan Wells
That’s the overarching purpose, but I’ll give you some specific examples of what to include in your personal development plan as well. Some of these items I added after recommendations from my mentors. One thing to note though is there are no hard and fast rules – your personal development plan is all about you, and what you want to accomplish.
Personal Development Plan Example Sections
- Your Life Purpose. What were you born to do? What is the meaning of your life? Unsurprisingly, this is the first module in my free course, Personal Development 101.
- Your Dreams. Those far reaching thoughts and hopes that inspire you to action.
- Short, Medium and Long Term Goals. Some people like weekly, monthly, others like yearly and beyond. I like to have a mix of them, but at any given time I like to have at least some goals I can accomplish in the span of a few months. This lets me see that I have measurable progress towards my goals.
- Your Beliefs and Values. What do you stand for? And perhaps, what do you wish your actions showed you stand for?
- Your Ideal Self. I like to write down “Ideal Sid.” I have a description of the type of person I want to be – the way I act around people, the way I spend my days, and I have some specific things such as how ideal Sid responds to criticism, how ideal Sid deals with negative people, and how ideal Sid deals with failure. I don’t always act the way I idealize I should, but it gives me something to shoot for – and most often, this section is not accomplishment or achievement driven. It’s mostly about my interactions with people.
- Mistakes and Lessons. Very often I’ll make mistakes along the way. I don’t write them down to beat myself up over them – I write them down because we learn so much from our mistakes.
- Success and Milestones. Just as I note my mistakes, I also celebrate my successes.
Personal Development Plan Template for Goals
One of the areas many people struggle with is setting goals. That is a whole other article in and of itself on how to effectively set goals, but lets talk specifically in the context of a personal development plan. How can you get a good overview of the direction you want your life to head? Once you’ve settled on your life purpose and your big dreams, you should sketch out some goals in the most important areas in your life, at regular intervals. I like to go ten years out, but three or gives years is great too. A very simple personal development plan template for goals might look like this:| Goal Area | One Year | Three Year | Five Year | Ten Year |
| Career | ||||
| Finances | ||||
| Physical/Body | ||||
| Social | ||||
| Personal |
- What specifically do I want to accomplish?
- Why?
- Who can help me?
- How do I get there? (What actions do I need to take?)
Personal Development Planning Tools
In addition to the information above, consider other tools to help you with your personal development- Events. Especially for career and education goals, are there seminars you can attend? Conferences? Meetups where people similar to you gather?
- Classes/Books/Educational material. Sometimes the first step is finding the resources we need. You may want to start by checking out some of my personal development product reviews.
- Mentors and Supporters. Who can you reach out to that can help you with your goals? For many of my personal goals, I’ve formed individual mastermind groups towards a specific purpose. I also have a lot of favorite blogs I read that inspire me. In addition to this one, you might enjoy:
Free Personal Development Planning Course
If you’re looking to dip your toes in, and want a pre-laid out set of exercises to help you with your personal development plan, I recommend signing up for my free personal development course, personal development 101. It includes a series of instructions, exercises and worksheets, most of which take less than 15 minutes each to do. You’ll learn a lot about yourself, your life purpose, your dreams – and can immediately start seeing results in your life.See more information about personal development 101 here.
For a very thorough treatment of a step by step plan for personal development, you can check out my review of 7 Simple Steps – A Life Transformation Guide. It approaches personal development from the perspective of who you are, your internal values, and leads you step by step forward to create a plan for the outcomes and success you desire.
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