Hi, and welcome to the Leadership Done Right YouTube channel! Whether you are trying to obtain your ideal life, become a highly successful leader, pick up a new skill, develop a new hobby, or improve in some other way, it is very important to have a personal development plan.
Quick Recap
This is the fourth and final video in the Personal Development Plan Series. Before we get too far into this video, let’s do a quick recap. At this point, you’ve watched videos 1-3, determined why you need a personal development plan, developed your personal development plan strategy, and determined how to implement your personal development plan.
Now, you are implementing your plan by following these six steps.
- Review/Create Your Goals
- Prioritize
- Set Deadlines
- Take Action
- Get a Mentor
- Monitor Your Progress and Reflect
I hope you are making great progress on your plan and everything is working nicely for you! I also hope you are having success and reaching your goals! So what now?
5 Steps To Continuously Move Your Plan Forward
In this video, we are going to discuss five steps you can take, to continuously move your plan forward.
1. Make Your Personal Development Plan a Priority
Often corporations and large organizations spend a significant amount of time and money on their strategic plan to move the organization forward. The plan is often developed over weeks of meetings, retreats, and mid to senior level management focusing their own time to create the perfect strategy.
Once the strategic plan is completed, it is often a modern-day masterpiece that details exactly how the organization will move forward! But what often happens after that is quite discouraging to say the least. The strategic plan is created and then left on the desk, shelf, or some other location and never looked at again until the next powwow to create the next strategic plan. What a sad waste of time, energy, and effort!
This is not just an anomaly with strategic plans. It happens to goals and many other plans that we create. Let’s not have this happen to our personal development plan.
Make the Plan a Priority
Instead, let’s make the personal development plan a priority. Schedule the plan into your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly routines so it is part of your life.
I created my plan some time back and I do a big review at the start of each year. During this review, I look very closely at each point and make sure it is still relevant for the upcoming year. I also add in items that weren’t on it but are appropriate for the upcoming year. From there I set goals and check points I review daily and weekly. The key is that I schedule those goals and check points into my week. I also do a monthly progress check to make sure I am on schedule and each point is still relevant.
I have found that if I don’t schedule time on my calendar to complete these reviews, they often get overlooked and don’t happen. Therefore, it is extremely important to schedule them on your calendar.
2. Select an Accountability Partner
Point number two is to select an accountability partner. Have you ever gone to the gym with a friend on a regular basis? If you have, you have probably learned the power of positive peer pressure. Having someone else go with you each time you go to the gym, helps you to stay motivated to continue going even when you would rather do something else. When you don’t have a gym partner, it is much harder to keep the habit going because there’s no one there to push you.
Similarly, it is important to have an accountability partner with your personal development plan. Find someone that will regularly check in with you and hold you accountable for completing your goals. Find someone that will push you in the way you need to be pushed.
Find the Right Accountability Partner
For example, you will likely want someone that can empathize with you on your setbacks, but has a similar temperament to push you in a way that is effective for you when you are starting to feel lazy.
Schedule time on a regular basis when you can go over your progress with your accountability partner. Let them know what successes and failures you have experienced. Then get their feedback and support.
With your accountability partner, do your best to ensure that it is not only for your benefit. Find someone that is on a similar path so you can help them on their journey as well. Have them report to you on what they are doing and how it is going for them. As they report to you, you will gain valuable insight from their experience making it a win-win for both of you.
3. Refresh/Update Your Plan to Meet YOUR Needs
Once you’ve worked on your plan for a little while, take time at your weekly or monthly check-ins to review your plan to ensure it’s meeting your needs. Look at the big picture to ensure your daily activities will lead you to complete your goals as you want them completed. If you find that daily activities are getting off track, make adjustments to get them back on track.
There has been a common theme through this personal development plan series; keep the plan relevant to you, your current life circumstances, and where you want to go. By refreshing and updating your plan to meet your needs, your plan will stay relevant and exciting.
4. Refine and Refocus
If you find in step three that your plan is getting off course, or if upon further review you realize you are losing your focus, step four is to refine and refocus.
I’d like to share an analogy that goes along with this. Have you ever walked outside at night when there was no moon and it was complete darkness with nothing more than a flashlight? If you have, you’ve experienced what it’s like to walk in almost complete darkness. Your flashlight shines just far enough ahead of you that you can see a few steps ahead of where you are going, but the rest is darkness. With each step, you can see a little farther ahead you where you once were.
Often it is like this with a personal development plan. As you make progress you can see a little farther in front of where you once were. When you are walking in the dark, you don’t know what is beyond your flashlight. It could be a turn, an obstacle, or something else in your path. When that happens on your personal development plan journey, refine and refocus so you continue to make progress.
5. Keep At It!
The fifth and final step is to keep at it! When I think about the people I look up to, they weren’t always the smartest, most talented, or gifted. But, they were the hardest workers! They worked harder than anyone around and their hard work made up for any lack of skill, giftedness, or any of their other weaknesses.
Your personal development plan won’t be easy, but it will be worth it, so keep at it. When the going gets tough, keep at it! Remember that the resistance will come so prepare for it and well, keep at it. There will definitely be time where you will want to give up and throw in the towel or when relaxation will seem better than the hard work required for your personal development plan. Don’t give up because you will regret it. Instead, keep at it.
Wrap-up
Now to wrap things up, I am really excited for you because you have chosen to work on your personal development plan. As long as you continue following the methods outlined in this personal development plan series, you will never regret the hard work you put into yourself and your well-being.
Please share your successes, challenges, and learning experiences as you go down this learning journey on your personal development plan. I am sincerely interested in hearing your feedback. You can send me your feedback by emailing me at BrandonWJones@LeadershipDoneRight.com. In the subject line use the phrase “Personal Development Plan”.
Conclusion
Thanks for watching this video and the video series. If you enjoyed them and would like to watch more great videos just like them, please subscribe to the Leadership Done Right YouTube Channel and check out LeadershipDoneRight.com. Also, please like the video and share it with others! Well, until next time, go and be the best leader you can be!
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