Building Your Own Personal Growth Plan

When I work with leaders in different parts of the world, be it CEOs or Frontline Supervisors, I see a common trait. Often, the leaders I work with have a solid grasp on planning for their team or their business, a clear direction, measureable KPI’s and a methodology for governing their plan. What I rarely see however, is the same rigor and discipline for a personal growth plan for themselves.

It would seem like common sense that to be the very best at what you do, you would have a plan for developing the very best version of you. However, personal planning rarely happens.

The Importance of Building a Personal Growth Plan

The crazy part is that developing and following a personal plan is actually fairly simple.

The problem starts within ourselves.

Some of us may be carrying baggage from childhood that prevents us from thinking that we are worthy of being the very best version of ourselves. Do yourself a favor if this sounds familiar and reach out for help in order to find a way to move past it and on with your life.

Some of you may be young and thinking that you don’t have to worry about pulling long hours, eating crappy food, not getting enough sleep or exercise, etc. Believe me, youth will pass and you will wish you built and worked out a plan in your youth.

Whatever the reason you have for not building and following your own development plan, you are kidding yourself.

What Happens When You Build A Good Personal Growth Plan?

When you are the very best version of yourself, magical things happen. You will experience…

• More energy
• More restful sleeps
• Better relationships with your loved ones
• Better performance
• Better results
• More promotions
• More enjoyment

Just to name a few.

Building the Personal Growth Plan

Here is my simple approach to building your own personal growth plan:

1. Envision your future self. What do you want to look and feel like in the future? Whether it’s 3 months from now, a year or 10 years from now. What does the future ‘you’ look like? Visioning your future self is ground zero for your plan.
2. Think 3. Building a 12-point plan is futile. Too overwhelming. Too complicated. Take your ginormous plan and focus on the top 3 priorities for yourself. Be it, personal, fitness, family, spiritual, financial, whatever… What are the top three? Studies and data prove out that if you focus on more than three objectives, your chances of success hover around 17% versus 84% for three or fewer goals.
3. What does your ‘Scoreboard’ look like? Keeping score (or measuring your progress) is highly motivational. Whether it’s your waistline or bank account balance, keeping track of the score moves you forward.
4. What is your reward? When you achieve your milestone goal, what or how are you going to recognize and reward yourself? Acknowledging and rewarding your achievements will help you (The top performer) realize that you are moving forward.

That’s it. Super simple… right? Final word on this… The biggest limitation and blockage we top performers often have around personal planning is the ‘6-inches between our ears.’

Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, partner at Incrementa Consulting Inc., #1 Best Selling Author, and International Keynote Speaker. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

The audio version of Bob’s #1 best seller It’s Already Inside is now available on Audible.