Personal Development Plan Template: 5-Step Personal Action Plan

A good personal development plan template includes five steps that guide you to take action. When included, these five steps can make your personal action plan simple, yet effective.

In fact, keeping your personal development strategy simple is important when seeking a good template. Why is this important? Because when learning how to write a personal development plan (also referred to as a PD Plan), it is easy to get "analysis paralysis" if your example personal development plan is too complicated.

If you aren't familiar with the term, "analysis paralysis," it's where you are so caught up in your head, that you just keep spinning thoughts around inside without taking any action.

What we want to do here is to identify the five key components to making a simple personal growth plan. These five steps, while they may seem overly simplified, are the core to any plan, whether it is a personal leadership development plan, personal professional development plan or a personal action plan.

So, when you are looking for a good template, the simpler you make it, the faster you can "get down to business" and take action.

So, what are these five key parts your PD planning?

1. Identify goals
2. Prioritize goals
3. Action steps
4. Time line for first action
5. What if I do nothing?

IDENTIFY GOALS: When you start your personal growth plan, of course you'll want to identify what you want to accomplish. However, here's where many people make their first mistake by not identifying goals that are truly what they desire or are realistic enough to achieve. Be sure that your goals are what you truly desire at a deep, core level of your being.

PRIORITIZE GOALS: Once you find goals that are "what you want" and not "want someone else wants for you," and these goals are realistic, there are certain steps to prioritizing these goals using something called, "reverse goal setting." This is exactly what it sounds like where you take your "end goal" and work backwards writing down each step it took to get there. Like you are walking your goal backwards.

ACTION STEPS: Once you've done your reverse goal setting and have a step-by-step map for your personal development strategy, an important part of your PD planning is to find a way to turn these "bread crumbs" you've identified as a sequence of goals into a personal action plan. To do this, simply ask yourself, "What can I do today on 'bread crumb number 1' to take action?"

TIME LINE FOR ACTION: Any example personal development plan will tell you that you must set out a time line for action. What you want to do is to create daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals for yourself so you stay on track. Be sure with this part of your personal development strategy to keep it realistic with everything else you spend time on in your life.

WHAT IF I DO NOTHING? When you want to develop a personal development plan, it's easy to be very motivated in the beginning. Your enthusiasm is ample to help you learn how to write a personal development plan and about the various parts of PD planning. After awhile, however, it is easy to set your personal action plan or personal growth plan aside, so one question you'll want to keep in front of you for motivation is, "What if I do nothing?" This one question can keep you going through the myriad of tasks of putting your template into action.

While finding a good personal development plan template or personal development plan sample isn't easy at first, using these five steps in learning how to write a personal development plan can get you started. Then you can turn your personal action plan into action, rather than spinning thoughts around and around "thinking" about taking action because your plan is too complicated.


Suzanne Glover offers a free personal development plan template, as well as detailed instructions for using it in her free life plan workbook "Create Your Life," which can be found at effective-positive-thinking.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Suzanne_Glover

How awesome would it be to have a more productive life?

9:00 am and you have already done your exercise for the day and accomplished one difficult task, how great would you feel if every morning was like that?

You will feel awesome with yourself and the rest of your day will be utilized in a more productive and positive way.  Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

                                                   Click here to register for my webinar.

But how do you create a habit? By repeating a task for about 90 days. It’s not easy but if you understand how to do it then it becomes much easier.

To implement the good habit in your life you must think of this habit as something that will improve your life, instead of focusing on what you’re missing out on. If you focus on the benefit you will create a new habit easily.

By creating a new habit you will also create a new view as now something that used to be part of your life is now a memory and so you have now evolved, changed or improved. The more little positive habits you introduce in your life the better your life gets.

For example start waking up 30 minutes earlier or going to sleep 30 minutes earlier, whatever situation fits your case, maybe stop swearing or stop complaining for one day.

Once this little change has became a habit then start a new one, this time a bit more challenging, you know best where you need to improve and don’t tell me that you don’t need to improve! We all need to improve; there is no limit to this.

Don’t plan a big change in your life because you won’t respect that huge change, start small instead and you will implement the new habit.

Join my webinar to hear more great tips and information on how to start improve your life, the webinar is on in 2 days and there aren’t many spots left!

                                                           Click here to register for my webinar.

What are you willing to sacrifice to better your life? Webinar.

Would you be interested to find out how to become an early riser, get better results at work, improve your relationship and much more? I have gone through a phase in my life where I used sleep as much as I could because I didn’t have any desire to get out of bed, I used to spend hours playing video games, sometimes up to 18hours a day.

Video games turned into another form of entertainment, the Internet and all the filthiness it can offer. From the Internet I jumped into a brief online shopping addiction, then a brief alcohol and weed addiction and then back into the videogames. You can imagine how “awesome” my life was, so “awesome” that I ended up separating from my wife.

Many other, “awesome”, things have happened to me but today I am extremely grateful for all that “awesomeness” I hope you understood that by “awesomeness” I mean misfortune.

I have understood during the years, thanks to many great books like the Bible, and thanks to all the suffering in my life, that a happy and successful life isn't that hard to achieve! You simply need to understand that it is all within your power, if your life isn't brilliant right now it's because of you, it isn't anybody else's fault.

I am holding a webinar, absolutely FREE, where I will be talking about tips and suggestions on how to turn your life around.

I want people which are truly committed to change their lives.
Click here to register for this incredible webinar.

Children and Self-Discipline.

Teaching children about the benefits of developing self discipline will not only improve their ability to be patient and make good choices, but it will set the foundation for a life of tolerance, composure, and fortitude. Self-discipline is not easily acquired, and even adults are still perfecting and expanding their abilities to practice selflessness and humility.

Children who are frequently exposed to the idea of self-control are more likely to incorporate the same practices the more often they encounter a difficult decision or temptation. Children also learn by observing and absorbing the actions they see from the ones they love most. Parents have a responsibility to be a sound example to their children, not only through words, but actions as well.

Although children may not fully understand the entirety benefit of developing self-discipline while they are young, they will certainly start to experience and understand the importance as they are given the freedom to make their own choices. 

The concept will further sink in as they must involuntarily experience the consequences of their actions.

An early exposure to this trait will expand to promote empathy, awareness, and perseverance.  Developing self-discipline will help children avoid the unwanted outcomes that tend to follow poor decisions, and they will learn the importance of a strong work ethic. Self-discipline may even help children eventually begin to answer some of their endless arsenal of ‘why’ questions. If anything, children will begin to establish an ability of practicing patience, thinking before doing, and the implementing the general idea of selflessness.

Struggling with weight loss? Can't find motivation to go to the gym? Maybe you don't really want it!

Did you know that each time you go on a diet your body makes it harder for you to actually lose weight? I have came across an article explaining why people on diets tend to lose less weight compared to people which are not on diets. It all comes down to your mind.

By going on a diet your mind knows that you will be cutting down on food and so your mind tells your body to retain extra food, 'fuel', as there may not be much more food coming. While if you're not on a diet your body won't retain as much 'fuel', as the person on a diet, because your mind knows, that quite soon, you're going to have another meal, there are no restrictions on your food intake and so your body won't retain that extra fat.

Your mindset plays a big part in your journey to gain muscles or losing weight and so you must have the right mindset to be succesful. You must find within yourself a true desire to lose that extra weight or gain muscle, it can't be simply because somebody told you to do so, it must a true desire you need to have.

Let me tell you about the incredible change that my brother went through. He used to weight about 100kg, (220 pounds), at the age of 13. He had been struggling with his weight for a few years and one day something happened, within himself, and he lost about 35 kg (77 pounds) in just over 30 days. 

What has inspired him to go through this massive change was pain. Pain is a much greater motivator than pleasure. You would do anything to avoid pain instead of seeking pleasure, so if you find something, within yourself, which hurts you a lot use it as a motivator to get through what you need to get through. 

My brother got sick and tired of being so overweight, he was insulted by people, one of those people was me, I know it's not nice but I was young and silly! He didn't feel very attractive, he felt disgusted with himself and after years of being in that situation he changed and started fasting. He didn't eat anything for about 38-40 days and he lost 35kg. 

I know it may sound crazy for some of you but my family believes in fasting as a way to detox, lose weight and improve general health. It has been also proven in many scientific experiments that fasting increases your life spam.

What I recall about my brother's experience is that he tried to lose weight many times before but unsuccessfully, I clearly remember him talking about his new diet and that he will lose heaps of weigh this time and bla bla bla. Guess what? It was all talk. Everything changed the day when he didn't say anything and just stopped eating. 5 weeks later he was transformed.

At the end of those 5 weeks he simply had a big flappy belly which now it's gone. He started then going to the gym and getting healthier and healthier, now he's in his best shape ever and he has never gained any more weight.

My message is that you can try all the diets you want, all of them, try all the gyms or personal trainers you want but nothing will change unless you truly want to change. It has to be an immense desire, as I said before if your situation causes you pain then you should consider yourself lucky as that pain can be used to achieve what you desire. 

Those diets work, the gym and mentors will definitely help you but the biggest part is you, you must be really ready for it. So stop blaming those diets or stop blaming others and start instead focusing on yourself. Society puts heaps of pressure on the way we should look and if you're trying to get healthier, or lose weight because of that than let's be frank, it's probably not going to work.

If you truly desire losing weight, or getting healthier then start doing things differently. I will talk about how you can turn an unpleasant workout, or unpleasant diet into something pleasant and that will actually work. I will talk about that and more in my next post. 

Leave a comment below if you would like some tips or help with your diet, I will be happy to help.

How is Self-Discipline Interconnected with Other Character Traits?

The concept of self-discipline is not just a simple idea with a clear cut, black and white answer. Self-discipline is a practiced personality trait that is interconnected with many other characteristics. It is a choice. It is an understanding. It is a belief. It is a lifestyle. How is this so?

Having a genuine, deep rooted desire to be self-disciplined means that you are cognizant and aware of your surroundings and the cultural differences amongst you. You are self-less. You are kind. You are respectful. Being self-disciplined means that sometimes you must be self-sacrificing for the overall good and not just for your own personal gain.

Being self-disciplined requires integrity and honesty. There is no room for arrogance. Practicing this trait requires dedication and commitment to the morals and ethics that have been set forth by society. It takes a ton of patience and a considerable amount of humility to be successful in your execution of self-discipline, but the rewards are well worth it.

Self-discipline will open your eyes to your purpose in life. It will encourage you to be grateful for your blessings. It will challenge you to be brave, tolerant, and gentle. Not to mention, it will open the doors to a level of appreciation that you never knew existed.

Self-discipline is more than just abstaining from an action that has an instant poor consequence. Self-discipline is expanding your ability to look outside of your own lifestyle and consider how your own actions will impact those around you. It also requires the ability or at least the attempt to foresee how your behavior may affect others in the long term. This concept is not easy, but if you truly dedicate yourself to being self-disciplined your quality, purpose, and outlook on life will certainly benefit.

Developing Self discipline in easy little steps.

I have a small list of tips you can use for developing self discipline, don't judge those little steps before you actually try them out. If you realise of the importance of everyday little tasks you will soon become very disciplined. By developing self discipline in your everyday life you will be developing self discipline in your whole life, at work, in your relationship and in any other area of your life.
Try to understand the message in each of those tips and apply it to your circumstances.

Here are my tips for developing self discipline.

• Ask less and do more yourself. Apply this under any circumstance. Are you looking for a product in a supermarket? Instead of asking for help go and find it yourself, if after many attempts you still can't find what you're looking for then go and ask for help, instead of asking somebody to show you the product as soon as you walk in store. 
• Develop self discipline by simply parking further away from where you need to go and use that extra distance to go for a walk, a little step like this one will make a big change in your life!
• Wake up 30 minutes earlier than what you're used to and use that time in a productive manner, maybe read a book or newspaper, maybe just do some push ups or maybe go for a walk.
• Stop complaining! Complaining gives you a tiny relief, a tiny good feeling which in the long run makes you an addict. You become addicted to complaining because it makes you feel good but at the same time it makes your life worse. Quit complaining, try simply to avoid it for a whole day and you will realise of how different your day will be, you will also realise of hard it may be to stop complaining. If you're a big complainer people around you will view you differently. Usually the big complainers have a life fulfilled with failures and other imperfections, when you stop complaining you will start focusing on yourself and realise of how many imperfections you have to fix within yourself. Why waste time looking at somebody else's mistake if you have plenty of issues within your life? Instead use that time to focus on your life and to solve some of your issues! Have heard of this quote: "Small people talk about people, average people talk about things, great people talk about ideas"
• Spend less time in front of the television and do something more productive, read about something new or finish the book that you've started reading ages ago.
• Stop coming up with great excuses. The biggest excuse I hear from people is that they don't have enough time. Well let me tell you that if you spend time watching television, playing games, on Facebook or any other similar social networks than you have plenty of time, you simply have no desire to do sometime more productive. If you really want to get something done you will find a way, if you don't want to do something you will find an excuse.

If these tips for developing self discipline may seem silly to you than you underestimate the power of those little tasks, I can guarantee you that if you respect those little tasks each day you will be automatically developing self discipline and each day you will become more disciplined.
If you wake up 30 minutes earlier each morning to accomplish something productive and your whole day will be different, you will feel better about yourself as you have already accomplished something. This little tiny step will soon transform into something more beneficial to you just like all the other tips I have given you will soon evolve into something bigger. Developing self discipline will take time but the benefits are priceless.
The more you sit on your bum, doing nothing, the lazier you become, you will exercise less, you will complain more and your life will soon turn into shit. The more you do the more desire and energies you will have to do even more, you will also be happier and your life will also be better.
I hope you have enjoyed my article, I also have a product for you which may help you. Click here to access a FREE audio file that may change your life!
If you did like my article I also have a report about the 5 Common Mistakes people make when it comes to being happy. Click here to grab a FREE copy.

Developing self discipline to overcome virtually anything in life?

How can it be possible to improve your life by developing self discipline? I will tell you how, I will also provide you with practical examples of how this can be done.

First of all let me give you my definition of self discipline.

Self discipline is a mental strength to overcome a temptation and do what you should do even if you don't feel like doing, self discipline is an internal drive which makes a person, in the long run, successful, happy, more productive, knowledgeable, wealthier and capable to deal with whatever happens in life.

A disciplined person will do what is right even if he doesn't feel like doing it, at the same time he will overcome the temptation to do another activity which won't bring any good into the person's life. For example: today you have to do a certain task, maybe clean the house or do some homework, but instead you decide to watch television or play a video game or spend time on the net, in this case you're not very disciplined as you have decided to do something unproductive, you fell in temptation, instead of doing something more productive.

Every time you give in, to temptation, you loose self discipline, making it harder and harder for you to develop self discipline. If everyday you accomplish a task that you should do, without falling into temptation, you become more self disciplined but you also gain more confidence and strength to accomplish another task the next day.

It's easier to accomplish an unpleasant activity or job in the morning as you have more strength to resist temptation, while later on during the day you may have less energies and so you will fall in temptation much easily.

If you accomplish the hard job in the morning you will feel better for the rest of the day, simply knowing that you have already accomplished that unpleasant task will make you feel good about yourself. By unpleasent I mean something productive like exercising or working on a project.



Now have a look at your life. Do you exercise? How do you spend your free time? How many hours a day do you spend sitting in front the television? I am sure there is something in your life you need to improve on, the sooner you start the better it is for you.

Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to become wealthier? Do you want to become happier? Do you want to learn something new? There are an infinity of things to do on this world but majority of people prefer to sit in front of the television or computer and waste hours like that.

By living in that way you don't develop any self discipline you simply repeat the same actions everyday, how can you expect to improve your life if you keep doing the same things? You are a slave of tasks which give you a brief and immediate little pleasure, these are things which won't bring you any good in life. You need to become more productive, you need to quit wasting time on all those unproductive tasks. The sooner you realise this the sooner you get a better life.

How can you expect to have a better life, to have more money, to have a better relationship to become healthier if you're a weak person which can't accomplish anything? A person which can talk and dream of a better life but can't accomplish anything?

Fall in love with hard work and you will have the life of your dreams if instead you dislike hard work your life will turn into a nightmare! By developing self discipline you will realise of how beneficial hard work is to you.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR ECONOMICAL SITUATION?

You may complain that you're not earning enough but I believe the issue is the opposite, you're spending too much! Try to save up, at least, 10% of all your earnings and you will see how much money you will soon have.

Even if you end up earning double your current salary do you actually believe that you will have more money at the end of the week? You will start spending more money on things which you can't afford, right now, and soon you will be in the same situation as before, asking for more money.

I have realised something a few years back, thanks to that today I already own 2 investment proprieties plus I am about get a third one very soon and I just turned 23.

What did I realise? Of course that developing self discipline is extremely beneficial but before that I have realised that I used to spend a lot of money on junk. I used to go on eBay and waste money on junk. Anything I would see I was like; "Oh! Look at this!" and then I would simply buy it, I remember coming up with a silly excuse to convince myself into buying it. I realised then that it was a process I kept repeating on and on, I used to see something, come up with a rubbish excuse why to buy it and then buy it.

What I mean by junk is anything that isn't very necessary to you. I used to buy expensive watches and heaps of other good quality goods but there weren't needed. I slowly realised that I had to stop buying that expensive junk, as all my money was disappearing in no time. I realised that I was simply doing it for an internal little pleasure, buying junk was making me feel good, it was a damaging habit that I had, and I had to get rid of it.

I had no discipline in my life, I couldn't follow through with anything, I would simply give in anytime I would see a little pleasurable thing. At a certain stage I couldn't stop watching pornography, I had no strength to avoid it and of course my relationship with my ex wife deteriorated because of my lack of self discipline.

Let's get back to our topic now!

I had get better with my financial life and so I started organising myself more and more on how to save up money. Instead of buying lunch for work I started organising myself and make my lunch the day before, instead of going out to restaurans I started cooking more, instead of going to the supermarket I started writing down a list of all the things I needed to get and I would stick to what the list said, instead of going into a supermarket and buy whatever looks appealing.

I then realised that I was simply developing self discipline! I started avoiding the easy way, the easy solution and that gave me many other benefits. Instead of buying lunch I would make myself something healthier to eat and at the same time I was saving up money, I then also realised that this effort of me making my own lunch, instead of going for the easy way of buying lunch, was making me more disciplined.

I would then cook more often, by cooking more often I started exercising more often, and then reading more often. It was like a chain effect. By improving in one area of my life I then had more desire to do more activities, activities which before I would simply talk about doing but never actually do.

If I think back of when I used to sit in front of the television playing games I remember not having any desire of cooking, of taking care of myself, of cleaning up my place or exercising I simply was sitting on my bum and wasting time playing games!

I learned that by following the easy option, by doing what I called pleasurable, you actually end up becoming lazy, less disciplined and so very unproductive. You also end up becoming a slave of those little pleasures like I had became a slave of pornography.

I also remember, when I was undisciplined, not being very satisfied with my life, not being happy or content and now it's totally the opposite. That's why I said that once you understand how beneficial developing self discipline is you will never go back.

The more time you spend developing self discipline the better you get, as I said before it doesn't happen over night, it takes time. Easy solutions in life don't really exist, you get back exactly what you have put in.

I will leave you a great quote by Einstein pointing out the fact that little things each day make a big different at the end, so start developing self discipline, put in a little each day and before you realise your life will drastically improve.

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.”

Developing Will Power and Self Discipline.

Most people admire and respect strong individuals, who have won great success by manifesting will power and self discipline. They admire people, who with sheer will power, self discipline and ambition, have improved their life, learned new skills, overcame difficulties and hardships, reduced their weight, rose high in their chosen field or advanced on the spiritual path.

The truth is that everyone can reach high levels of will power and self-discipline through a practical method of training. These inner power are not reserved for a few special people.

Will power and self discipline are two of the most important and useful inner powers in everyone's life, and have always been considered as essential tools for success in all areas of life. They can be learned and developed like any other skill, yet, in spite of this, only few take any steps to develop and strengthen them in a systematic way.

What is will power?

It is the inner strength to make a decision, take action, and handle and execute any aim or task until it is accomplished, regardless of inner and outer resistance, discomfort or difficulties.

It bestows the ability to overcomes laziness, temptations and negative habits, and to carry out actions, even if they require effort, are unpleasant and tedious or are contrary to one's habits.

What is self discipline?

It is the rejection of instant gratification in favor of something better. It is the giving up of instant pleasure and satisfaction for a higher and better goal.

It manifests as the ability to stick to actions, thoughts and behavior, which lead to improvement and success. Self-discipline is self-control, and it manifests in spiritual, mental, emotional and physical discipline.

The purpose of self-discipline is not living a limiting or a restrictive lifestyle. It does not mean being narrow minded or living like a fakir. It is one of the pillars of success and power. It bestows the inner strength to focus all your energy on your goal, and persevere until it is accomplished.

Both of these abilities are required for daily actions and decisions, and also for making major decisions and attaining major success. They are required for doing a good job, for studying, building a business, losing weight, bodybuilding and physical exercises, maintaining good relationships, changing habits, self improvement, meditation, spiritual growth, keeping and carrying out promises and for almost everything else.

One of the most simple and effective methods to develop will power and self-discipline is by refusing to satisfy unimportant and unnecessary desires. Everyone is constantly confronted and tempted by an endless stream of desires and temptations, many of which are not really important or desirable. By learning to refuse to satisfy every one of them, you get stronger.

Refusing and rejecting useless, harmful or unnecessary desires and actions, and intentionally acting contrary to your habits, sharpen and strengthen your inner strength. By constant practice your inner power grows, just like exercising your muscles at a gym increases your physical strength. In both cases, when you need inner power or physical strength, they are available at your disposal.

Here are a few exercises:

- Don't read the newspaper for a day or two.

- Drink water when thirsty, in spite of your desire to have a soft drink.

- Walk up and down the stairs, instead of taking the lift.

- Get down from the bus one station before or after your destination, and walk the rest of the way.

- For one week, go to sleep one hour earlier than usual.

- If you like ice cream, don't have any, for a day or two.

These are only a few examples of the many exercises that can be conducted in order to develop will power and self-discipline. You might think that practicing these exercises is being tough on yourself, but they add much to the storehouse of your inner strength. By following a systematic method of training you can reach far, have more control over yourself and your life, attain your goals, improve your life, and gain satisfaction and peace of mind.

Show and prove to yourself that you are strong and in control, and practice the above exercises for a little while, before passing any judgement.

© Copyright Remez Sasson

Remez Sasson writes and teaches about self-improvement, positive thinking, creative visualization, success, mind power, spiritual growth and meditation. He is the author of several books, and the publisher of the biweekly ezine, "Consciousness and Success".

Visit his website at: http://www.SuccessConsciousness.com and find articles, quotes and ebooks.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/36539