Useful Tips on Creating a Viable Personal Development Plan

Personal-Development-Plan.02

If you don’t feel like coincidence or luck to decide your fate, creating a personal development plan (PDP) is the way of taking control over your own destiny. Not only is this an opportunity to get what you want from life but it’s also the chance to evaluate your personal abilities and improve self-esteem. Realizing where you are now, will inevitably lead to understanding what is needed to get where you want to be. Here are some useful tips for pre-crafting your PDP.

    • Focus on your strong sides.
      If you’re not good at something, there’s no point to write too much about it. Instead, it is better you concentrate on areas you can be successful at. Try to outline the skills and the experience you have as well as provide your vision on how you can actually deploy them in a particular field. Present your strong sides as your resources and come up with ideas on how you can use the efficiently.

  • Be specific.
    Your personal development plan should not be generalized. If you see a specific obstacle on your way to success, be ready to face it as it is. Don’t try to be too smart when outlining the problem. For example, if you know the lack of mutual understanding with your colleagues at work is caused by your poor body language, don’t just write “develop communication skills”. Instead, specify the types of non-verbal behavior you need to improve, such as facial expressions, body posture, gestures, etc.
  • Measure and assign.
    Before you reach your main goal, make sure you have set up some checkpoints to see whether you’re on the right track. Not only should your PDP tell what and when should be done, it should also decide who will have to do it or help during the process.
  • Be realistic.
    It’s always better to set up smaller goals that can be achieved than having ambitions there’s no chance you can seize. Although it’s important to stay optimistic, good sense of realism can hardly be overestimated when creating your personal growth plan.

What Does a Personal Development Plan Include?

 

  • Personal analysis.
    In this part, you state your strength and weaknesses as well as analyze the opportunities derived from your recent experience. Here you have to realize where you are at the moment and identify the areas you’re good in now.
  • Setting goals.
    This part should serve as your personal development action plan. It has to set up your goals as well as provide clear guidance on how to reach them successfully. Your aims should be definable while the ways of their achievement are to be comprehensible and viable.

Personal objectives.
To reinforce the value of your PDP, make sure you set out your personal objectives. Try to show why the success of your personal development plan is important personally for you and how exactly you will benefit from it.