The thing that is most exciting about the possibilities with crafting a personal development plan for yourself is the role that personal development plays in the level of success you can achieve in all areas of your life, physical, cognitive, and social-emotional.
The fact is, anyone who can passionlessly observe where they are compared to where they want to be while identifying steps and assembling a plan that is truly doable to reach (and even exceed) the goals you’ve set for life literally cannot lose. Even if you slightly miss the mark or change your mind as you go – you still succeeded.
You’ll Become More Self Aware
Being self-aware allows you to look to yourself, the only person you have any control over, for the change that is needed to reach the success you desire. For example, if you realize that you are prickly around criticism during your self-study do you just say, “Don’t critique me because I cannot handle it!” No, instead you teach yourself with the help of books, courses, classes, counsellors or coaches (or all the above) to learn to handle criticism better. Here are a list of books and programmes that I highly recommend:
Michael Hyatt – Best Year Ever
Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want
Darren Hardy – The Compound Effect: Multiply Your Success One Simple Step at a Time
Hal Elrod – The Miracle Morning
The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win
You’ll Develop a Better Sense of Direction
When you really know who you are, who you want to be, and you know how to get it you’re going to have a much better idea of where you’re going from here than the average person. Knowing what you want to get out of life is an important aspect of what helps you set your own course. You also learn not to overwhelm yourself trying to do too much at once because you know that when you set your goals right you will achieve them.
You’ll Become More Focused & Effective
One of the things that you want most from personal development is clarity. Developing SMART goals for your life in all areas of your life is one way to develop that clarity. Once you have it you can become more and more focused on doing the right steps to get there that you will also become more effective at realizing each success. You’ll be able to toss away roadblocks, obstacles, and threats because you’re doing it with a plan.
You’ll be Much More Motivated
Motivation can be hard to come by for some people. However, with experience and success, comes motivation. Think about how motivated you feel if you earn a few bucks from an affiliate offer you posted about six months ago. Think about how motivated you feel any time you get good news about an action you took that turned out positive. That’s why you will become more motivated. You’ll have more experience with success due to following your personal development plan.
You’ll Become More Resilient
When you are sure of yourself and where you’re going, something happens along the way. You’ll feel good about the things you’re doing, too. You become a much stronger person. One of the first things you may notice is that you can bounce back faster from issues and roadblocks.
When you know how to plan using actionable steps, to get to where you want to go, there seems to be fewer problems, issues, and roadblocks, simply because you know you’re capable and know what to do. You will have tools, crafted from the development of your personal plan, to help you overcome issues that would ordinarily delay your progress. There is no way to control the negativity around you; however, you will have more control your actions and reactions.
You’ll Be a Better Friend, Spouse, Parent, Etc.
One of the things you will learn very well as you work on your personal development plan is that you have full control over your own actions. It’s true that you cannot control sometimes how you feel but you can control how you react. It can be hard to realize it but once you fully accept it your relationships will improve dramatically.
The role personal develop plays in your level of success in all areas of your life is clear. People who spend time developing themselves tend to experience life more fully, make more money, have better and more fulfilling relationships, and are more satisfied with their place in the world. The reason is that you cannot get to where you want to go without taking small daily actions to get there. Your personal development plan will be the map that guides you to where you want to go.