subject: How To Kick Off Your Personal Development Process [print this page] The topic of personal development is huge enough to cover anything and everything-from time management, to relating to other people, to learning how to be more effective at work. Loosely defined, personal development is a process whose aim or end goal is to transform a person into a better one, by identifying certain areas for improvement. As a result of this change, the changed person can expect her life and circumstances to improve as well. Personal development greatly involves internal assessment coupled with external change.
The fact that the term, "personal development" encompasses a lot of things makes getting started with your personal development process a challenging task. In fact, you can expect to get lost somewhere between deciding to change and making that change happen if you don't have a clear idea of the steps that you want to do to achieve it. It is thus important to have a plan.
Your personal development aims to place your initiative within a structure, detailing your goal, your steps in achieving this goal, your backup plans in case of any roadblocks, and your benchmarks for assessing your progress. Your plan should of course be goal-driven. You have to set your eyes on the prize, so to speak. Aside from these, it also helps to identify early on the means that you intend to use in order to achieve this goal, as well as the time line for executing these. Plan B's, of course come in handy when things don't turn out the way you expect them to. It is always good to know that you are safe from getting side-tracked because you have alternative plans. Finally, you need to have a way of knowing if you are proceeding according to target, so you would also know if you need to speed up, or if you can afford to slow down.
