A personal development plan is a strategy for organizing one’s life activities in terms of certain objectives. It can address personal goals, professional goals, or a combination of both. Some examples of areas on which to focus when creating such a plan can include education, career, personal relationships, and health. One of the benefits of a personal development plan is that it can help someone transform his or her abstract goals into tangible achievements. He or she has several options for preparing the plan, either alone or with the help of resources, like books and online courses.
At work, an employee’s personal development plan might be private, retained by him or her to help him or her set goals and track progress. On the other hand, some businesses conduct training programs and prefer to see a career development plan submitted along with the employee’s curriculum vitae (CV). This type of planning document is often helpful to have on file with human resources departments, to help someone set professional goals and ensure that he or she is fulfilling his or her job description. Generally, it is a written document that covers several topics, and can include lists, charts, and other graphics.
Most personal development plans involve some self-reflection before taking any specific actions, to determine one’s aspirations and talents. By assessing one’s current competencies and ultimate objectives, one can figure out what steps to take to make up for anything that is obstructing his or her path. Someone may decide, for example, that he or she should pursue an advanced academic degree in order to qualify for a professional position with more authority.
Goal-setting is usually the next logical step in creating a personal development plan. Depending on their ultimate objectives, people often focus on what they want to achieve within a certain period, such as one year or five years. The plan might center on one or more long-term goals. Many people also include short-term goals, as well. Then, it usually helps to create a list of manageable tasks with deadlines. Many people find that breaking large plans down into smaller actions makes them easier to follow.
Once someone has defined his or her goals and the steps needed to reach them, he or she can incorporate specific actions into his or her schedule or calendar. This generally requires some project management skills, especially if someone is working on several items at the same time. Additional tools that many people learn by creating a personal development plan are time management and the prioritization of tasks. To measure one’s progress, it often helps to use tangible benchmarks. A certificate of completion of an on-the-job training program is one such example.
Many resources are available to help people construct their personal development plans. There are books as well as online sources of information, such as training courses and seminars. Someone who assists another person with his or her personal development is commonly referred to as a life coach. Furthermore, business consultants often work with human resources departments and individual employees of certain companies, to help them set professional goals and implement their career development plans.