Career progression and happiness is intersected with the other elements of your life.
If you want to achieve the type of growth that brings happiness and satisfaction to your whole being, you need to focus on, among other things, your education, physical health, and fitness, spiritual health and personal relationships, in addition to your career path. To achieve better outcomes, you need to put your self-improvement plan in writing and without further ado. Here are seven steps on how to go about it:
1. Brainstorm
First things first, you need to have a foundation on which to build your self-improvement strategy. Hence, sit alone in a quiet room (definitely when the kids are safely tucked in!) and write down every goal, target or achievement that you wish to accomplish in future. While at it, be sure to use your heart and not your head. Write anything, and everything you want in life, however ridiculous or farfetched it looks, time for editing and logical thought will come later. It is through the continuous flow of raw ideas from your mind to the paper that your creative juices, as well as the imaginative side of the brain, will come to life and your plan largely depends on those.
2. Divide Your Goals into Categories
As mentioned earlier, your personal growth needs to involve every aspect of your life for it to be effective. As such, after you write down all that you plan on achieving or acquiring, deconstruct the list and put everything into 4 categories as follows:
• Intellectual – To include spiritual health, personal education, and general knowledge.
• Physical – Overall body health and fitness.
• Professional – Including money and finance, work relations, and any other career goals.
• Social – To include everything in your personal relationships, whether with your kids, romantic partners, family, and friends.
By dividing your goals into categories, you get a clue on which aspects of your life need more attention and most importantly, it helps you track your life progress.
3. Review Your Goals
We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but without a clear and strong “why” on each of your goals, your self-improvement plan won’t achieve much, just like the New Year’s resolutions of more than 91% of Americans that never get accomplished. Do people still do those by the way?
If you are like most women, losing weight is probably one of your priorities but why exactly do you want to do it? To rock your summer body or to be healthier and stronger? If it’s the former, you may end up backtracking at the sight of a chocolate cake. What we are saying is, only include in the plan things that are very important to you, and you will find it easier and more natural to do what’s required.
4. Focus on a Single Goal
Stereotypically and slightly generalizing here, women are great at multitasking and all, but as far as personal development goes, it’s much better, easier and more effective to focus on one thing at a time. Go through your list of goals and objectives, of course in the context of the four categories mentioned above and pick one for each category based on urgency and importance. Focus solely on those and only add more when your progress is satisfactory.
The good thing is, goals and activities in the different categories are mutually exclusive, and you can, for instance, join a gym and regularly attend social events even as you work towards your master’s degree.
5. Find the ‘How’
Now that you know what you will be focusing on sit and reflect on how exactly you will achieve your targets. If you need to, do further research on the Internet or even consult experts, like in the case of improving your fitness level. The most important thing is first to be aware of, and after that put clearly in writing, the roadmap to achieving your goals. For instance, if your objective is to increase your savings, you need to determine how much to save in a day/week, expenses to cut off or even better, how to make more money. As a suggestion, look for activities that you can turn into long-term habits, and that will have the most significant impact on your goals.
6. Take Stock of Your Situation
Depending on what you want to achieve, you will probably need some money, skills, competencies or abilities in the course of your plan. Thus, before you embark on actualization, make a list of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and resources at your disposal as far as your personal development journey goes. You may also have to consult or research on what you need here.
Having an objective look at your circumstances relative to your objectives and ambitions will help you prepare better for the challenge ahead, thereby reducing the possibilities of failure or false starts. It also helps you determine whether the goals you have set for yourself are achievable or beyond your reach.
7. Take Action to Actualize Your Goals
Now that you’ve written all that needs to be written, it’s time to get up and chase your dreams, literally. You already know what you need to do to achieve your goals so restructure your daily routine to include the daily goal-oriented actions and commit yourself to them. Eliminate everything and everyone that might cause you to falter in your journey. For instance, if it’s going to the gym, carry your gym wear to work to avoid going home first and then becoming too lazy to leave the house. It will also do you a lot of good to have a checklist to recap what you do every day towards your goals.
Final Thoughts
There is no conventional way to write a Self-Improvement Plan, and it’s all dependent on your preferences. However, we believe that if you write your plan according to the above steps, you will find it much easier to navigate through it and achieve your goals. Above all, believe in yourself and your goals, and the world is all yours to conquer.
Guest contribution
About the author
Jake Lester is an essay writer that is currently writing for edubirdies.org. The most recurring themes he covers are education, writing and marketing. He has his own writing style and this is why he is appreciated by readers. You may look through Facebook, Twitter & Google+.
