8 years ago · Stuart Downing · 0 comments

Personal Development: The Importance of Setting Goals

A personal development plan offers a great way to ensure that each job role and experience feels more meaningful, offers you a purpose and gives you an amazing insight into the future and is excellent for developing an efficient long-term perspective within your career.

 

Firstly, the definition of a personal development planning is “the process of creating an action plan based on awareness, values, reflection, goal-setting, and planning for personal development within the context of a career, education, relationship or for self-improvement.” In the terms we’re looking at within this article will be focused on improving your career and employability, but there are of course many other ways a personal development plan can be crucial.

A lot of people have a clear plan in their head where they’d like to be, though putting that into a plan that is actionable, has targets and drives you towards a goal? That can be enlightening.

Suddenly you may find that, rather than a fussy idea and the wish to be something you have yet to start working towards (having no clear aims, goal, nor plan), your life becomes so much more fulfilled when you’re working towards a structured plan on how it is you will achieve your dreams (it may sound a little exaggerated, but that’s what I believe it can truly provide if you’re self-aware enough to know what it is you want with certainty).

Another strong advantage of having a personal development plan is that motivational levels have been repeatedly seen to increase upon the creation and implementation of a plan. Although the percentage varies, every study ever produced in regards to setting goals and achieving targets has found a clear correlation between those who set specific goals that are actionable, and those who achieve.

There are many benefits of setting goals within your professional and personal life. Some of these being:

• More organised thoughts
• Allows for more introspection and self-reflection
• More positive feeling about your current employment or situation
• Help identify current and future needs, which allows you to see the long-term perspective

 

Furthermore, if used in the context of your own life and career, the results can be riveting. Here are some tips on creating your own personal development plan:

Set SMART goals

Setting SMART goals will help in any business decision, but it is the same in your personal development. SMART goals are certainly something that are used in business; though they can also be used to drive personal growth. They’re widely popular and have shown to have positive results for those who employ the tactic, evidenced by the way it is used within organisations and taught throughout schools worldwide. They encompass everything we need to ensure that we do not fail within our goal-setting, and for those who need an explanation:

SPECIFIC – be specific in the goal which you set. For example, don’t say “I want more money” say “I want to earn £2500 per month.”

MEASURABLE – ensure that the goal is measurable. For example, don’t say “increase sales” but “increase sales by 50%” – it helps.

ACHIEVABLE – ensure the goal is achievable. This is really about setting yourself an achievable, realistic goal.

RELEVANT– is the goal relevant to the objective? Aims become the individual’s purpose, the objective is the way in which you will do so and the goal is what is to be achieved.

TIME – set a time limit. How hard can it be? Setting a time limit gives us something to work towards in a definite amount of time, providing urgency.

 

Increase your level of self-awareness

Self-awareness is crucial to any personal development planning. Without it you are sure to fail, your plan consistently changing and adapting to the new ideas you come up with. You need to be definite in your approach to planning your future, and self-awareness allows you to know what you truly want, and find a way to work towards it.

Take real action

I feel this is the most crucial point of the whole topic. Upon setting a plan you should make sure they have actionable steps that you can take in order to achieve your goal – then do it. You could have a million plans, each of them as huge as the next, but without action they’ll never manifest into reality.

Carl Rogers said that in order to achieve a true feeling of congruence within our lives, our ideal-self much closely match the reality of our actions and behaviours. How can you act differently today to further enhance your journey to fulfilment, achievement and purpose? One change is all it could take.

Categories: Self