What A Great Personal Development Plan Consists Of (And How You Can Create Your Own)

There are many different types of personal development plans, including those specific to your field, gender, life stage, and personality type. This post will help you create your plan so that you can go from where you are now to where you want to be in life. We’ll start with what makes a great personal development plan and then move on to how to create one and then how to maintain it over time. Let’s get started!

Think about where you want to be

The first step to writing a good personal development plan is to figure out what you want to achieve. Think about where you want to be in five years, ten years, fifteen years—what are your goals? And then break those down into yearly milestones and short-term tasks that will help you get there. Then pick one or two important things for yourself in each category. If you’re not sure where you want to be, that’s fine—but if you do have an idea of what direction you want to move in, take some time thinking about how it might look and set up some concrete steps toward getting there.

Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize

Unless you’re incredibly lucky, you won’t be able to execute every single thing you have planned. Start by prioritizing. First, consider what’s necessary and what can be moved to a later date. Then, create a timeline so that each item has an expiration date attached to it. Lastly, decide how much time you’ll devote to executing your plan. This is where self-discipline comes into play: It will take determination and grit to stick with your schedule even when life gets in the way. But if you want success, there’s no other way around it—you need to make yourself a priority.

Make a plan for how you'll get there

It doesn’t matter how lofty your goal is or how simple your plan is—if you want to achieve anything meaningful, you need a plan. Writing down what you want and where you’re headed will help clarify your goals and keep you motivated as you progress.

Schedule in your daily plan

To ensure you work on personal development, it’s important to make time for it in your daily schedule. Decide how much time you can spare each day for self-development and write it down. Stick to your plan as best you can, then, if possible. For example, if your self-development is writing every day, find a way to write at least 300 words every day.

Pay attention to what's important and leave the rest alone

To have a great personal development plan, you need to know what’s important in your life. Make a list of your most important values and goals and use them as guidelines for your development plan. If other things are crowding your schedule, drop them and focus on what matters! When it comes to time management, one of my favorite quotes is: Do not try to do everything at once; rather do one thing at a time and succeed with that before taking on another task. It makes sense that if you want to get better at something, you should practice it regularly instead of just occasionally—so find ways to practice your top priorities every day or every week.

Have an accountability partner or team

Someone to check in with you regularly is key to keeping your goal in mind. Accountability partners can be beneficial at any stage of goal achievement, but they’re especially helpful during these early stages when you’re trying to form new habits and break old ones. Make sure that your accountability partner knows what it is you want to achieve, and for how long, so that he or she can help keep you motivated over time. Just remember that an accountability partner should be able to offer more than just Awww, come on! Don’t be lazy... Do it already! kind of encouragement; he or she should also provide advice and reminders about how much work still needs to be done.

Look after your physical health and well-being

If you’re going to take your success seriously, make sure you’re taking care of yourself, too. Getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and eating well can go a long way toward improving your performance at work. When it comes to sleep, especially, make sure you carve out time for rest each night—it will help refresh you when you need it most and reduce stress levels that could otherwise prevent focus during a busy day. Also, be careful not to overindulge in food or drink—not only can it trigger weight gain but excess calories put extra pressure on your body and mind. And lastly: Avoid alcohol!

Every day, set aside time to focus on your objectives

Setting aside a set amount of time each day to think about your goals is a great way to make sure you take steps forward in achieving them. If you don’t have time in your daily schedule, try scheduling 15 minutes of dedicated goal-setting time each morning or evening. The book Getting Things Done has some good tips for setting aside dedicated time for planning your day and reaching your goals; Chapter 9: Capturing, Processing, Organizing offers some good ideas. To help you stay focused on what you need to do during that period, make sure you clear it from your calendar first!