Anyone that has ever used a magnifying glass to focus the light of the sun understands the power of focus. Clarifying what you want is part of making that focus easier. This focus is called setting goals or a Personal Development Plan.
Hi and welcome back to Barr World were we talking about goals and how to get them out of your head, on to paper and move them to reality.
Today I’d like to talk about focus for your life and setting goals, which will lead to your own Personal Development Plan. Your very own specific written personal roadmap which will define what success is for your life.
Wouldn’t it be great if you were handed at birth a written plan for everything you wanted and were destined to accomplish in our life? We could call it your Personal Development Plan. It would lay out things just like a blueprint for your life based on what’s important to you.
That’s not the way it works and many of us spend a lot of our life working on developing that inner passion, what we want to do with our lives. I hear this in many forms but it usually is stated that “I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up”. This seems kind of funny when the person is in their 50’s and 60’s.
Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific. – Zig Ziglar
A well-written Personal Development Plan will typically reflect your keen sense of personal awareness in terms of what you want to do with your life in the main areas such as financial, social, family, career, spiritual, physical, and intellectual.
Having a Personal Development Plan demonstrates you’re conscious of your own wants, needs, and values and that you’ve thought about where you are going to focus your energies.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time writing about the development of a Personal Development Plan, using goal setting but I think it is worth doing a review. You could look at this as a writing of your own job description for your life.
This is worth spending some time on. Take a blank piece of paper and start looking at how you would feel successful in accomplish in these areas financial, social, family, career, spiritual, physical, and intellectual. What you are looking for things that make you stretch in each of these areas.
Each major item in your Personal Development Plan should be a SMART goal which is:
1. Goals need to be Specific.
2. Goals need to be Measurable
3. Goals must be Attainable
4. Goals must be Relevant
5. Goals must be Time-based
I also suggested that the following points are also important
6. Goals need to be Hand Written.
7. Goals must be Reviewed
8. Goals must generate some Passion.
Your Personal Development Plan should focus on the following areas financial, social, family, career, spiritual, physical, and intellectual.
1. Financial, because we all need finances to make our life function.
2. Social, because we need to help others
3. Family, because we need to look after those who are close and dear to us
4. Career, because professional goals will help with the rest of your goals
5. Spiritual, because we have to have a way for our soul to grow and to be thankful for all that has been done for us.
6. Physical, because we only have one body.
7. Intellectual, because once we stop learning we start dying mentally.
Just some words of caution before you start writing your Personal Development Plan.
1. It will take some time. It could take you a week or two to get this all sorted out.
2. It requires some heavy thinking. You have to really think about what you want.
3. It will not be easy. You may have to give up on one dream to make another possible.
4. It should separate you interests from your passions. You should focus on your passions because in the tough times a passion will keep you moving.
5. It may change. As you achieve your goals and redefine your purpose some goals may not hold your interest any longer.
6. You must have balance. Each of the main areas are like a spook on a wheel, if one is longer or shorter you do not have a round wheel. You will have a flat spot. And as we all know tires with flat spots don’t roll smoothly.
Perhaps it’s time to get your life together by designing Personal Development Plan for yourself.
Take the time and develop the plan and see how the focus of your life changes.
I hope you enjoyed this and if you decided to take the plunge drop me a line at Percy@BarrWorld.com
Chat soon and God bless
Percy