Personal Improvement Plan

Making it work for you…

Are you as good as you'd like to be?

That's a question you dearly need to answer right now. First of all, most people consider themselves honest individuals, and I am just going to assume you are one of them. So with that in mind, you would probably have to admit that there is something in your life that could be better. Now the bigger question is, what are you doing about it? Do you have a personal improvement plan in place already?

The study of personal development or personal improvement is often very misunderstood. Some people see it as hokey-pokey positive affirmations and putting on a transparent, phony happy face. But the unfortunate reality of personal development is that nobody teaches about it in school, and this is partly why it's so misunderstood. Your boss will most likely not teach it to you, it's not widely discussed in most social circles, and if you don't discover personal improvement on your own then you probably never will. This, in part, leads to the great misunderstanding the entire personal development and self help industry.

What can a personal improvement plan do for me?

Why bother with personal development in the first place? What personal development can do for you is all or nothing, and everything in between. However, no matter how much time and effort you put into personal improvement, the rewards are always greater than the investment. One very simple reason for this is that the different areas of our lives are not mutually exclusive, and when you develop better skills in one area they roll over into others and so on and so on.

It should be noted very early that personal development cannot do anything for you, per se. It will always be you who takes the action and ultimately makes life changes. Personal development simply opens your mind to new philosophies of life, business skills, life skills, and interpersonal skills.

Avoid frustration

It doesn't matter what you want to do with personal improvement, because somebody out there was better than you at it and somebody out there already wrote a book on it. Nowadays, it’s also available on audio book or video.

Two of the best pieces of advice I can give you as you go on your personal development journey are: First, just get started. Some famous quote says, if something's worth doing then it's worth doing badly until you get good at it. Let that be your motto as you get better at life. The second tip is make it a long-term plan with short-term goals throughout. Avoid the common frustration that many people suffer from because of books and TV programs that deceive us into thinking that permanent life change is easy and quick.

Develop a personal improvement plan

Find out what you need to change or want to change. Develop a personal improvement plan. On that plan include goals, timelines, people who will hold you accountable, and a nice list of reasons that will push you to do better.

Take it day by day. Get help when you need it, and keep reading self help blogs like this one to ensure you stay in the right direction. And remember the journey to the top of the mountain begins with one step.