We never stop learning.
"Education is the great engine of personal development" (Nelson Mandela, First democratically elected State President of South Africa (1994), 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace).
Whether or not we have such high leadership aspirations, it’s up to all of us to take control of our own personal growth,if it’s going to be effective.
Where do we start?
Irrespective of whether you’re looking at personal growth in general,your own career development or a review in the light of recent job loss, they all have the same starting point. Before you consider drafting your personal development plan: You need to decide what you want..
When the mind has a defined target it can focus and direct and refocus and redirect until it reaches its intended goal.
Look at the various areas in your life and write down what you really want to happen in each of them. What does success mean to you?
Think about who you really are
Think about what you want to achieve in life. What would your friends consider to be your strengths and weaknesses? What’s your plan for turning the weaknesses into opportunities?
Write them down and work on them systematically – noting your progress as you do.
Here are some more suggestions to help you to take control of your personal development.
If you have enough reasons to do something, you can do anything
Write down your four most important goals for this year. Now write down why you are so certain that you’ll achieve them. Tell yourself why and why it’s so important to you.
Refer to your list at least once a day
Do what you enjoy
If you enjoy what you are doing you’ll be good at it. If you don’t love your work,don't risk burnout ,change jobs. Otherwise the best you can hope for is being just good enough!
Write down a list of the sort of work you enjoy doing the most. What needs to happen for you to be able to do more of it?
Don’t get stuck on a problem
Write it down and define it, then write down a list of all possible solutions - however remote. Eliminate those you decide will not solve your problem. Put the list in a drawer and stop thinking about it. When the solution comes to you, use it!
Get into the habit of redefining problems in terms of ideal solutions.
Never start with a clean sheet of paper
When you are faced with a new task, your first consideration should be to ask how other people have tackled this. Build on what is already working and you’ll enjoy your success that much sooner.
Ask others to ask others!
Visualise your goals
Observe your future achievements as if you were watching yourself in a black and white movie. Transform it into magnificent colour. Magnify the picture and sound. Then step into it yourself. What do you hear? What do you feel? Feeling is believing!
Write down your goals then systematically treat each of them as described above.
Learn to benefit from failure
Accept that mistakes happen. Get into the habit of treating each mistake as a learning experience. Extract the learning, build on it, say thank you to yourself, and move on.
Spend the minimum of time in ‘disappointed mode’, say thank you to yourself and move on.
Take some risks
Approach every new experience as a learning opportunity, rather than an occasion to win or lose. It will open you up to new possibilities and increase your sense of self belief and personal development.
Keep building on the parts that work and stop doing those that don’t.
Stop telling yourself what you don’t want
Identifying problems and focusing on them can easily lead you towards a downward ‘negative’ spiral. Each time you come up with a problem, flip it over and focus on the solution instead.
Repeat to yourself ‘what I want is’ every time you fear the worst happening.
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