Came across two great post today on personal development plans from google reader.  The first was  a simple question from Jesse Phillips at Catablog, “What is your personal development plan? share it!” I did not share mine because I don’t have a specific plan.  I read a lot of books and piggyback them off of each other, I read the bible and pray, I spend quiet time before the throne of God,  but I have not had a specific plan for a couple of years.

Luckily Ron Edmondson is where Jessie got the question from.  Ron had posted on his blog  Three Questions to Write a Personal Development Plan.  I immediately went to Ron’s post and scoured the article.  Ron is a leader and leaders help those around them.  I am not going to put Ron’s three very simple keys on here because I want you to go to his site and read them for yourself.

So do you have one?  Post it here, or over at Catablog.  If you are like me and don’t have one let’s get started together.

I think when you realize that you were created to do something your life begins to take shape.  You realize you’re not on this earth to just sit around in a cubicle or work for a company.  You realize that there’s something inside of you and you begin searching for what that is.  When you begin the search you don’t really know what you’re looking for so you start anything you can.  That is OK, trying different things and failing helps you to realize what you’re not supposed to do.

Think about this for a minute.  The modern job has only been around for 150 years.  No one worked in an office complex or a factory for 5000 years, now almost everyone does.  Everyone had a home office, you lived and worked in the same place.  But now our image of work is so screwed up that we believe money is the reason we work.  Money should never be the reason you work. Yes you need money to survive but you need a lot less money than you think you do.  So wouldn’t it be better to do what you were created to do and live a happy life than to work for money and live a miserable half-filled life.

I don’t know what you were created to do; maybe were created to be a great mom or dad, maybe you were created to start a restaurant, maybe you were created to paint a great painting (there are a lot of lousy paintings around so somebody needs to paint a good one).  Whatever it is you were created to do, start with a step.  I’m not telling you to quit your job, I’m not telling you to leave your family. I’m telling you to take a step and find out what it is you were created to do.

Here’s the hard question I ask on the coaching survey, “If you died tomorrow how would people remember you?”

Read What Ton Teegarden said about The Single Biggest Secret of Moving From Fear to Your Freedom

This phrase actually came from Tiger Woods. At his news conference before the 2010 Masters.  He actually said that his father told him he must, “Learn to help himself, before he helped others.”  But I decided I liked “lead” instead of “help” so thanks Tiger for the quote.

I have experienced many types of leaders through my life.  Many of them never really lead as much as they told those that worked for them what to do. They then went about taking credit for the good, and giving blame for the bad.  I worked with a man once that complained about Dr. John C. Maxwell’s writing on leadership, but never read any of it.  I would suggest he never learned to lead himself.

Discipline is hard, but discipline is a must for anyone who wants to be successful at whatever they do.  If you are always late, it is because you are not disciplined enough to be on time.  Not because your family is a late family and you always have been.   When I was in the Navy I learned this lesson first hand.  I was relieved from my watch every day by a man who was consistently late.  I reported the man several times and he was moved to other watch sections but his tardiness never ceased.  He was finally taken to Captains Mast and reduced in rank before being released from the Navy.  His inability to be on time cost him his job, and he never knew why.

Control your tongue. Swearing is one of the best signs of an  undisciplined mouth.  In the bible we are told that the tongue is like the rudder of a ship.  A rudder is small in comparison to the ship, but turns the thing.  Your tongue can lead you down roads you do not want to travel.  Swearing is not the only sign of an undisciplined tongue.  Arguing, sarcasm, complaining, and gossip are other signs.  No one wants to be around someone who complains all the time.  It’s just not fun.  Learn to control what you say and do by Forming Better Habits which can take some time, but pay huge dividends in the long run.

Discipline is more than being on time and controlling how you talk.  But being on time is a good start and controlling what you say is a good start.  Make a list of things you need to do and stick to the list this way you can be encouraged by you progress, and prodded when you slack.  Always remember, you can only accomplish something if you do it.   The minute you put it off, you will stop and lose your momentum.

From Mary Jo Asmus  Stuck? Admit It and Ask For Help

Professionals will tell you it takes 21 days to create a habit.  While this may be true a habit that is only 21 days old can easily be broken.  Habits a truly formed over a lifetime of study and change.  The younger we form the habit in our lives the deeper the habit will be ingrained.  Kids that learn to get out their books and study as soon as they get home will keep this habit for a life time. On of the strongest habits we as Americans have is watching TV.  Yes it is a habit not a need for you to watch must see TV every night.

Here is one way to form a habit.

1) Take a 3×5 index card and write in the first person present tense the habit you want to form.  If you want to be more courteous, on time, an early riser, what ever habit you want to form write it on the card.  Only Do This For One Habit At A Time. If you try to change to many things you will change nothing.  Read the card every hour during the day to instill it into your mind. Example:

I get up at 5:30 every morning

2) Do what you say you are doing.  If it is hard to get up get a coffee pot that automatically makes the coffee before you wake up so you can go get a cup as soon as you get up. You must do the thing you want to.  Reinforcing by reading and then not doing only brings disappointment in yourself .  This turns into failure talk and you stop doing what you really want to do.

3) Don’t give in to tomorrow talk.  I’ll start tomorrow will never start.  You have to do the things you say you want to do or you will never do anything.  If you do the same thing enough days in a row you will find it becoming easier over time.  It becomes ingrained and you become better for it.   A habit is like a computer program that just starts ever time your computer starts.  You don’t have to worry about it and you know you can rely on it being there.  You will do the right thing every time without having to think about it.

Charles C Noble said this, “First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”  You can do what you set your mind to, but you have to do it.  Reading about it will not organize your house.  Watching a TV show will not drop the pounds.  Listening to a motivational speaker will not get you off the couch.  You have to go do it so do it today.

For all you techies here is a website to help you with your habits HabitForge.  It is free and emails you everyday for 21 days.  Another place I like is FutureMe.  You can send an email to your future self just so you know what you were thinking, or check up on where you thought you should be.

You Can Start A Payment Jar

I hate to admit it, but I have a swear jar.  If I use a curse word I put a dollar in the jar.  It only has five dollars in it, but that is a sign of a habit I need to break.  If you want to stop swearing or even stop eating out a jar is a good way to encourage change.  Fro the eating out, or spending money without accounting for it, you put the amount you were going to spend in the jar so you are saving the money instead of spending.  Yo can also do this by asking a friend to keep you accountable. This is the jerk friend that points out when you need to put money in the jar and smiles at your failure.  Yes it needs to be a jerk friend that you will get so tired of seeing their smiling face tell you to put the money in the jar you will stop doing to get back at them instead of losing the money.  Remember, you still have to do it for it to work.

Here is a quick idea from Unclutterer…Three quick organizing projects you can do right now

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No one has ever been able to truly show what success is because it can neither be seen nor held.  While it can’t be seen , I believe that success can be defined as: doing what you were created to do.  Notice I did not say anything about money or things which is how most people define success.  The truth is I know many people who are successful but have very little monetarily. So if success is doing what you were created to do, how do we do that?

Do Your Best

Doing your best  is part of doing what you were created to do. You can not do better than your best, and you can only do your best at what you were created to do.  We are all unique, and have been given abilities to do things that no one else can do, and be someone no one else can be. You may not have been able to decide where you were born, but you can decide what you do with the life you have been given.

Think Small To Grow Big

We were all created for a reason.  While I can’t tell you what you were created to do,  I can tell you that you have a natural ability that only you can use.  You are in control of yourself, and you are in control of whether or not you use your gifts.  Our tagline is, “Get There, Stay There, And Pass It On.”  I use it because I know the only way to get to the top of the mountain is to start the climb.  Mountain climbers know that training and climbing smaller mountains is the key to success when climbing bigger mountains.  You will never climb Everest, if you have not first climbed a hill.  The same goes for your life, if you are not willing to do your best and climb the smaller hills first, you will never be a true success.

Thrive Where You Are

If you are beginning a small business or working from home, don’t give up the job you have now if you are not willing to do it to the best of your ability.  I see many people who are not happy where they are.  They have a bad boss, or bad people around them, or they just hate the job they have.  If this is you; my suggestion is to learn to do the job as best you can and if you are starting a business let the job be your seed money.  I know many other career/business coaches that will tell you to get out now if you hate the job because the pressure of being unemployed will drive you to do whatever it takes to get the business off the ground.  That may be true, but if it takes a year or more, you may run out of money  and in today’s economy you may not get a job if you need one.  So learn to do your best at the job you have, and do your best at the career you are creating until it can support you.

Give Only 100%

Many times we are hampered in doing our best by believing that doing more, is doing our best.  If you are trying to do more, or even less than you can, are you really doing your best?  If you do more than 100% you are probably skipping things and are out of balance in one or more areas of your life.  If you are doing less than 100% you are getting the benefit of someone elses work and that is just like stealing.  Give 100% to whatever you do.  If you can’t give 100% cut out things until you can give it to all you do.

Practice, Practice, Practice

This may seem childish but it is the only way to become the best at what you do.  If you want to speak in front of audiences then get in front of the mirror and talk.  If you want to play golf then get on the range and hit.  Michael Jordan didn’t learn to shoot playing video games, he went out and shot tens of thousands of baskets.  You have to as well.  If you want to teach a subject you have to read books and take notes.  The process is long but it has to be done.  Dr. John C Maxwell said this, “There is a price to pay for everything. You can either pay it now, or you can pay it later, but there will be a price paid.”

Success is built one accomplishment at a time. If you never do anything you will never accomplish anything.  So as you stand at the bottom, or the middle, or wherever you are on the mountain of life remember this.  You and only you can figure out what you have been created to do.  You and only you can decide to be a success at the job you have.  And, As long as there is breath in your lungs you have a choice about how high up the mountain you go. Decide what success looks like and start the climb today.

Image Via Wikimedia Under CC 2.5 Liscense