What Personal Growth Plan is and how to create your Personal Growth Plan

Creating your Personal Growth Plan is as important to you as an individual as the Goal you wish to achieve. You may have heard about this famous quote credited to Thomas Edison, “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning” or this one from Tom Landry which says “setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”

Every successful man or woman out there understands and appreciates the place of a Plan in becoming successful. In fact, in the building industry, every knowledgeable architect or builder knows and understands the importance of having a plan for the setting up of a building. The plan covers every aspect of the building, detailing each component that will go into the building, including where what will be located and when each will be put in place.

Another area we could easily find an example of the importance of a Plan is in the sporting field. Every successful coach knows a Game Plan is not something that needs to be toyed with as it goes a long way to determine who gets the maximum points at the end of the day.

Businesses also do not become successful without a plan. That goes to show how important a Plan is to every venture. So, if plans are needed to achieve success and growth in every other area of life, don’t you think you need a plan for your personal growth?

In this post, I will be sharing with you on what a Personal Growth Plan is, what constitutes a good Personal Growth Plan, why you need one and how to get started with creating one for yourself.

What is a Personal Growth Plan?

Before I move on to define what I mean by a Personal Growth Plan, I need to first let you understand what a plan is. Oh yes! I know you already have an idea about what a plan is and how it works, but please permit me to once again remind you. A reminder shouldn’t cost a thing, right?

I define a plan as a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something. According to the Cambridge Online Dictionary, a plan is a set of decisions about how to do something in the future.

From the above decisions, it is clear that a Plan is set out with the intent of helping you achieve a set of objectives or goals you have set out for yourself.

With our understanding of Personal Growth, we can then say that a Personal Growth Plan is simply a detailed draft of actions and steps to take to become better in any area or areas of your life.

What makes a Good Personal Growth Plan

Not everything qualifies for a Plan. A lot of persons think Plan to mean anything written on paper which talks about what you want to achieve or do. That is not the whole truth about what a Plan is. So, you may have a Plan but you find out that it is not good a Plan to get you the results you intend for yourself.

A good personal growth plan must be able to answer the following questions:

• Where?
• Why?
• When?
• What?
• How?

That is to say, it must tell you where you are at the moment, where you intend to go, why you must get there; when you intend to get there, what you need to get there and how to get what you need to get there. Your personal growth plan must state clearly what your present situation is, what destination is for you as an individual and the direction you need to take to get to that destination.

Unless the above questions can be answered clearly in your Personal Growth Plan, it is no Plan at all. It may be passed on for some other things like “to-do-list” or even a “wish book.”

Why Personal Growth Plan?

The benefits for a Personal Growth Plan are quite enormous. Just like I pointed out in the Introduction, a Plan is important in achieving anything worthwhile. So, if you still need extra convictions on why you need a Personal Growth Plan for yourself, below are the benefits of a Personal Growth Plan.

Clarity

The number one benefit of a Personal Growth Plan to you as an individual is that it helps you gain clarity into your life so you could understand where you are, how far you have come and how far you still need to do. So, a Personal Growth Plan clarifies the journey of Personal Growth for you, making it easier for you to work on your Growth.

If you still do not understand, think about a Google map which when you input a search, it pinpoints to you, “where you are” and outlines how to get to where you want to get to, that is the same thing a Personal Growth Plan does for you.

Makes you aware of the Personal Growth journey and what you will need

I don’t think that needs further explanation. A Personal Growth Plan will ensure you are aware of the processes and steps thereby giving an idea of what you will need to get to your desired goals. If you will need to register for additional training, your Personal Growth Plan will help you understand that.

If you will need to stop a training or any other venture you are involved in, through the reflection method which I shall share with you below, you can effectively take into accounts what you need to stop doing to get to your desired goals.

Focus and Determination

A Personal Growth Plan by clarifying the processes and steps to your desired goal for you helps focus your attention on what is important to get you to the desired goals. It also ensures you are determined to keep on at your goal because you can see clearly what remains to get you to your goals.

Foresee challenges and prepare for them

With a Personal Growth Plan, you can foresee the challenges you will face in getting to your desired goals. This will help you whether or not you have all that you need to handle those challenges. So, Personal Growth helps to keep you prepared at all times.

Helps you know when you have reached your Goal and what lies beyond it

As much as setting your goals is important, it is important to know when you have reached it. That is what a Personal Growth Plan does for you in your Personal Growth journey. It helps you determine what will become the yardstick for measuring your growth or for measuring the attainment of your set goals.

Besides, by knowing from the onset what will form the yardstick in judging your goal, you can know what next after that. What next is as important as getting to your goals. Because, if you don’t know how to handle your success, you may find out that your success could be shortlived.

How to create your Personal Growth Plan (The 4Rs of Personal Growth Plan)

Having clarified what a Personal Growth Plan is and why it is important to you as an individual to have one, below I will be showing you how you can get started on creating your next Personal Growth Plan that will bring you the results that you need.

To create your Personal Growth Plan here are steps you need to take. These steps represent what I refer to as the 4Rs of Personal Growth Plan.  For this activity, I strongly recommend that you set out time for yourself to engage in them and while you do, work with a paper and pen.

Reflect

The first place to begin in setting out a plan for yourself is to take time out to reflect on your life in order to understand the progress you’ve made so far and the extent you still need to go. It is at this point that you answer the question, ‘where?’

• Where am I  coming from?
• Where am I at the moment in my Personal Growth?
• Where do I still need to go?

Record

When you are done reflecting, the next is to put down on record the results of your reflections. Here also, you are to specifically outline the necessary actions and steps you must take in order to arrive at the destination/goals/dreams you envision.

Your action steps must be clear enough to inspire action in you. It must answer the questions ‘how?’, ‘when?’ and ‘what?’

• How do I achieve these set goals?
• How do I improve in these areas?
• When do I need to improve myself?
• What do I need to focus on?

Run

Plans do not achieve themselves, they require us running with them in order for them to be achieved. So, when you have reflected on where you are and what you need to do, and you have recorded them down, you must commit to running with what you have recorded. This is why it is important to have your plans written down and as clear as possible to you.

Review and report

As the days go by and you begin to achieve what you have recorded, there is a need to continually review the progress made to understand how far you have come.

Also, through the review, you will get the opportunity to adjust and readjust your strategies in the light of changing realities. Your review could be done on your own but I highly recommended that you have someone also whom you are accountable to and who you could report progress and review your plans with.

Such a person could be a close friend, a partner at work or a professional Coach or Trainer. But, you must be convinced that such a person understands your journey up to the point where you are and what you still wish to achieve for yourself as an individual.

At the Double Edged Impact Network, we have a program in place which we refer to as the Personal Growth Accountability Program. Here is a  sample of a Personal Growth Plan Template we used for some time in 2020. You can download and get more idea on how exactly your Plan should look.

You can learn more about the Double Edged Impact Network and how you could become a member by visiting our website.

Conclusion

I have tried to clearly show you what a Personal Growth Plan is, the importance of having a Personal Growth Plan, what constitutes a Personal Growth and how to get started in creating one for yourself.

I must not fail to let you understand this, a Personal Growth Plan is not a magic wand that makes all of your dreams come through, it is simply a guide to help you put in the right works towards achieving your results. So, without work, a Personal Growth Plan is simply a “wish book.”

Now, that you already know the steps towards creating your Personal Growth Plan, what are you still waiting for? Get started already. It will be nice to hear your thoughts about this piece. Please share your thoughts using the comment box below. And if you still have any questions about Personal Growth that you do not wish to share via the comment section or you need personal coaching on it, you can reach out to me via my email, victor@pglcorner.com.

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