Personal Development

The 10 Simple Steps for Creating Your Personal Growth Plan

And a free template to help you develop your own

Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy, or stupid. Those things are what happen when you don’t have a plan! — Larry Winget

One of the most fulfilling things a person can do is take some kind of action that causes them to improve in a certain area of their life. Think about this from your own perspective for a second.

Remember a time when you accomplished something that proved you had become better? How did you feel?

For me, one of my goals is to be a professional speaker. Despite how nervous I get before a talk (mostly due to a lack of experience), I get out and start speaking. I am mediocre at best. But I keep trying, learning, studying, and practicing.

When the opportunity came to speak to a huge group of high school students, I delivered my most confident and inspiring talk to date. I still remember the rush of excitement at the end of the talk when a bunch of the students lined up to speak to me and ask me questions at the end.

I knew I had taken a step in the right direction. The real win: I was improving and it was an awesome feeling!

Why Do You Need a Personal Growth Plan?

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Humans are hardwired to constantly improve and create better versions of ourselves. This will never change. That is why the market for self-improvement and personal development on the internet is so massive.

Marketdata Enterprises Inc., a leading independent market research firm estimated that the U.S. self-improvement market was worth $9.9 billion in 2016, constituting growth of just 4.3% since 2011. They have also forecast that the total self-improvement market will grow by 5.6% every year, reaching a value of $13.2 billion in 2022 in the U.S. alone.

A Personal Growth Plan will help you get to where you need to be. It can serve as a source of guidance, inspiration, support, and wisdom to help you achieve personal goals across all aspects of your life.

You can personalize your plan to help you achieve whichever goals you desire. A better body, a healthier lifestyle, more mindfulness, a more spiritual or more productive version of yourself, you just need to create a comprehensive Personal Development Plan to help you on that journey.

My Personal Growth Plan summarily looks like this;

1. Define your goals

2. Prioritize

3. Set a deadline

4. Understand your strengths

5. Understand your weaknesses

6. Recognize opportunities and threats

7. Develop new skills

8. Take action

9. Get support

10. Measure progress

How To Create Your Personal Growth Plan

Define your goals

What is important to you? Which new skills do you want to get? Which achievements would make you happier? Do you have any unfulfilled dreams which you are now ready to accomplish? Do you want to move ahead to the next stage in your career? Do you want to get a better job?

The first step is to define goals that are really important to you.

It could be something related to your career, but also something that will enrich or improve your personal life (like lose weight, start a new hobby, learn a new language, etc.).

Step 1: Write down 5–10 goals which are important for you to achieve.

Prioritize

Out of all goals you wrote down, which one is the most important? This is your key goal which will be your focus for this plan. You can create a new plan for each major goal.

Maybe you want a career change or you want to achieve a good physical shape or acquire some new skills.

Are there any transferable skills (skills which you can transfer to different areas of life) that would be important for your success? For example, if you improve speaking skills, the result can be more confidence, better relationships and communication with others, and even business success.

The purpose of a Personal Growth Plan is to help you expand your knowledge, develop new skills, or improve important areas of life.

Step 2: Take a good look at your list and select one goal which is the most important to you and that you will work on first.

Set a deadline

If you have a goal but don’t know when you want to achieve it, chances are it will never happen.

Rather than saying “I want to be a millionaire someday,” it’s better to make a plan to double your income this year.

How long will it take you to achieve your goal?

Once you have a realistic timeframe for your goal, it’s important to commit that you will really do it. Be serious about it. If you are not the one who is taking your plan seriously, nobody else will either.

You should also define how you will reward yourself when you manage to achieve your goal.

Step 3: Set a deadline.

Understand your strengths

Everyone in the world is good at something and has above average skills/strengths in some specific areas. Even if you are not a talented singer, actor, or artist, you can still be a good parent, an excellent listener, or a caring person.

What are your key strengths?

If you are not sure about the answer, then ask your friends and family.

Step 4: Once you understand what your strengths are, write down which of these strengths can help you to achieve your goal.

Understand your weaknesses

It is equally important to know your weaknesses as much as knowing your strengths. Your weaknesses hold you back from achieving many great things.

Weaknesses are areas that you have the power to improve.

It can be anything ranging from professional to social skills.

Step 5: Once you understand what your strengths are, write down which of these weaknesses can hinder you from achieving your goal. Also, make note of how you can improve in these areas.

Recognize opportunities and threats

Albert Einstein said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

That means that despite existent threats, you can still find opportunity to improve and to grow.

Opportunities may take different forms from one goal to another.

If you are in a job and decide to advance in your career, each new responsibility or promotion is an opportunity. If the development you are undertaking is purely personal and not professional, then everything can become a learning opportunity.

Your current behaviors and habits can either support or not support you to achieve your goal.

There are some new actions that are opportunities for you to achieve goals much easier. What actions can you choose to start doing that will help you to achieve your goal?

On the other hand, which of your habits or actions are threats to your goal achievement? These are the things you need to stop doing.

Step 6: Create a start doing and stop doing list! On one side, write down the things you are going to start doing and on the other, the things do you are going to stop doing in order to achieve your goal.

Develop new skills

For everything you want in life, there is a price you must pay, in full and in advance. Decide what you really want and then determine the price you’ll have to pay to achieve it. Remember, to achieve something you’ve never achieved before — you must do something you have never done before. You must become someone whom you have never been before. Whatever you want, you’ll have to pay a price measured in terms of: sacrifice, time, effort, and personal discipline. Decide what it is and start paying that price today.

— Brian Tracy

In other words, to achieve something you have never achieved before, you need to develop the skills you have never had before and to start working on those skills as soon as possible.

Which skills or knowledge will help you to achieve your goal?

Step 7: Write down the list of the skills you need to develop, which will help you achieve your goal.

Take action

If you want to achieve a big goal, there will be many actions you will need to take.

Step 8: Write down at least 3–5 most important actions you will need to take within your defined timeframe.

Get support

Who can help you to achieve your goals faster?

For example, if you want to change your career, you can consider talking with a career adviser; if you want to lose weight, you can have a fitness coach; if you want to improve your finances, you can talk with a financial adviser…

Step 9: List anyone who you can think of who would be able to help you to achieve your goal.

Measure progress

The best motivator to stay persistent in achieving goals is your own progress. Even if it is a little progress, it is still something.

It is important to recognize that you are moving forward and to write down things that you are doing well.

If something is not going so well, what can you do differently?

If something is not going well, that means that you need to change (or improve) the strategies you are using. By doing the same things, you will be getting the same results. If you want better results, you need to change something.

Step 10: Write down things that you need to improve and define new strategies that you will try. Your responsibility is to make things work for you.

I hope this has been helpful to you.

Click here to download my free Personal Growth Plan Template.

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