Creating a Personal Development Plan

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

If you are trying to improve yourself, either in business or your personal life, the first step is the same as any other major undertaking. You need to create a personal development plan. A personal development plan is a plan that focuses on your strengths and weaknesses, develops goals for those areas, and most importantly, shows how to reach those goals.

When creating a personal development plan, you actually need to start at the end.

1. Make a list. What are your goals for your career and your life? Where do you want to be in 5 years? Be as specific as possible when making this list. If you want to own your own home, pick out your dream home. If you want to move up in your career, know the exact title of the job you want and how possible it is to get there.

2. Now add a column to your list and start writing down the skills you already have that will help you. Are you motivated or extremely ambitions? Then write those skills down. Do you have the right connections? If so, write the names of those connections down. Again, be as specific as possible. Don’t just write down the skill set. Instead, write down why this skill set will make you more likely to reach your goal.

3. Now, make a list of your shortcomings or things that might hinder your from reaching that goal. If you spend money too freely, write it down. If you don’t have the education you need to reach your goal, write that down as well.

4. Next, make a list of solutions for those shortcomings. Use your skills and abilities to find solutions. If you don’t have the right education, how will your skills and abilities help you to gain that education? Do you have a mentor on the list of plusses that might be able to help you reach your goals? The trick is to be as specific as possible. Don’t just leave these solutions vague. Come up with step by step plans to remove the roadblocks.

5. Be flexible. People change and needs and wants change. Maybe a few months down the road, you might decide the job your wanted or the home you wanted isn’t for you. If so, feel free to cross it out and move onto the next goal. You’re goals don’t have to be set in stone. In fact, they can change quite frequently. However, as long as you’re working on improving yourself, you should be able to readjust your self improvement to find ways to meet your new goals.

Personal development doesn’t have to be complicated. Instead, approach it from a practical point of view so you can find the way to get there. Having your goals down in black and white is a sure fire way to make sure you are constantly working on attaining them. As you reach those goals, add new ones to the list. Just remember while you’re doing this, no goal is too big and the sky is the limit.

To Your Success,
Andrew Shin

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