Personal Development Plan - By Kevin Christopher

While most people realize that personal development is a positive step in improving
one’s life, some people may have difficulty in finding ways to accomplish it. This is
where a personal development plan is important. A personal development plan will help
you map out areas in which improvement is desired or necessary. A personal
development plan will also outline short and long term goals that are realistic. A personal
development plan will also identify the means to accomplish the changes that you want to
make in your life. Finally a personal development plan will document the steps you
make on the way so you can continually evaluate the progress that is made.

A personal development plan starts out with identifying the areas in which you want to
improve. Start out by making a list of the areas in your life where you have difficulty.
Then, order those areas so that you have the issue that is most pressing or needs the most
improvement so you can work on that first. It is not necessary to use a personal
development plan as a way to fix everything in your life all at once. Instead, you can
concentrate on one item at a time. This is a more manageable way to affect change in
your life and you will be able to see the results more quickly.

After you have identified the area in which you want to concentrate in your personal
development plan, think about goals that you want to accomplish. It is often easy to
come up with a grand scheme goal that will fix whatever it is you want to improve on.
However, those are generally long term goals. Once the long term goal is identified, try
coming up with smaller, short term goals. The benefit of this is that you will be able to
accomplish tasks in a shorter time period and see changes for the better. This will lead to
a sense of accomplishment and you will feel more motivated to continue.

For example, if you want to create a personal development plan for losing weight, you
may want to make several short term goals. Your long term goal may be that you want to
lose fifty pounds. Start out with short term goals such as exercising at least three times
per week for a half an hour each. Another short term goal can be to cut out or reduce
particular foods from your diet. After each short term goal is accomplished, you can
move on to another short term goal such as exercising five times per week, increasing the
duration, increasing weight training or changing your diet further.

After a goal is accomplished, rewards are a great motivation. Reward yourself positively
for sticking to your personal development plan goals. You can buy a new outfit or treat
yourself to a spa day since you will feel better about yourself. Be careful, though, not to
reward negatively in ways that will work against your personal development plan. For
example, in the weight scenario, do not reward yourself with a chocolate cake. This
could cause you to backslide.

Identify a means of support in your personal development plan. You can contact your
physician, seek counseling, identify support groups geared toward your particular issue or
read books. It is not easy to change without help so don’t try. Get the support you need.
Use your personal development plan to document the changes that are being made and
the progress you are making. This will help you continually evaluate your personal
development plan and allow you to revise it from time to time if necessary.

Kevin Christopher is the creator of Time-Success-Freedom. Your online source for personal development and motivational tips and ideas. For access to personal development and motivational courses online visit Success University to continue your learning and development.