How Can I Achieve My Goals through Personal Development?

Our 4 easy steps can put you firmly on the path to personal progression
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Personal development is a lifelong process which should not end when you leave education. Adults should be constantly working on their own personal development not least for progression, but also for their own empowerment and self-worth.

We constantly grow as individuals as we age. Our tastes change, our hobbies and our preferences and so we may find ourselves on a career path which doesn’t seem right for us anymore.  

Professional Development

​Taking the time to assess whether we are on the right track may only take moments to judge, and from there a plan can formulate to get us to where we want to be.
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Read on to find out how four easy steps can get you nearer to reaching your goals and your full potential.

​Step 1 – How to create a Lifelong Learning Assessment

Congratulations! You have decided to make positive and effective life choices and decisions for your future. But where do you begin?
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• Start with what you know:  your personal development journey starts by an assessment of what you've learnt and the life experience you've gained. The things that happen to us daily (as we progress through life) can help us work towards goals and formulate plans to release our full potential for our future. Write a list of all your achievements to date:
• What made you proud?
• What is your biggest achievement?
• What was your biggest disappointment?

Thinking in terms of what makes you happy or sad can really steer you on the right path for your own personal empowerment.
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• Develop a personal vision: What do you want to do and more importantly why?
• Your vision should be for your own personal development, you should never follow someone else’s dream. For example, if you follow a career path to compete with somebody else, the fun would come from the challenge of the competition rather than an end goal. In this example, rather than compete you could have embraced your competitive nature and used it in your development rather than chasing someone else’s dream. 

​Step 2 - How to write a personal development plan
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• Only you know what you want to achieve.
• Often people keep their ambitions to themselves. They have dreams and aspirations which will never become a reality and could not possibly be achieved.
• The key here is to get those dreams and aspirations down on paper.
• Create a step-by-step personal development plan of how you will achieve those dreams.
• You are more likely to achieve your dreams if you figure out how to work towards them rather than just fantasising about them.
• How to write a personal development plan:

1. Vision – What do you want to be? By what age? Is this a solo vision or does it involve others?
2. ​Clarity – How can you achieve this goal? Do you have the right skills and qualifications? Do you need to work on a personal skill? Will you need investments from others?
3. Logistics – Will you need to travel? Do you need to move? If abroad, do you need to learn a new language? Are your family willing to move with you? What countries, or area of your current country would best suit your family?
4. Priorities – How important is your goal? How urgent is your plan? How does your vision relate to other commitments such as work, relationships or family?
5. Time – What can you achieve in the next year? Should you enrol on a course? Should you start a savings plan? How long will everything take to complete?

Writing your personal development plan will uncover the skills and experience required to achieve your dream. It will also guide you in: 

• what areas you need to focus on,
  
• what you need to learn and
  
• the process you need to take to get you to where you want to be.

Having a plan with a set time frame will also help you to focus on when and how your end goal could come to fruition.

Lastly, enjoy every step of the journey, you often find that when you achieve your goal, the journey was the best part!

​Step 3 - How to assess your skills
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Who knows you better than yourself?

Ask yourself:

• What skills do I have and what skills do I need to achieve my lifelong goals?

OK, maybe it’s not that easy!

We often don’t know our own strengths and weaknesses until we look deeply into situations we have experienced in our lives.

Building on what you excel at and improving on your past failings will help you to enhance your employability prospects for the future. Ask yourself these four questions: 

1. What are you good at? What do you find easy? What do you feel comfortable doing? What could you teach others to do? When are you at your most confident?
2. What skills have you mastered? From your personal development plan, what skills have do you have? For example: are you a good communicator? Are you an ideas generator? Are you a problem solver?
3. When do you struggle? What situations make you feel uncomfortable? What are your fears? What are your weaknesses?
4. What skills do you need to improve? What skills are you lacking? What personal skills do you need to work on? What knowledge do you need to learn? Why do you struggle?

​Often the most powerful way to learn is by reviewing where and why you went wrong.

Learning from past mistakes - and dealing with difficult situations effectively will put you in better stead for achieving your personal development goals the next time around.

​Step 4 - How to develop your emotional intelligence 
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What is emotional intelligence and how can it help you to understand other people, the way they act and why they act in the way they do.

Wikipedia describes emotional intelligence as "the capability of individuals to recognise their own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour and manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one's goal(s)". 

​Becoming self-aware will not only help you achieve your personal development plan, it will also help you to understand how best to act in any given situation.  Learning how and why people do what they do is perhaps the best way to improve your emotional intelligence, especially if you are hoping to improve your soft skills.

1. Watch how others interact – Focus your attention on people you admire. How do they build relationships? How do they talk to people? What soft skills do they have? Also focus on people you don’t admire. How do they compare to the person you do admire? What do they do differently? What traits do you witness which you would never adopt yourself? How do you think they could improve?
2. Talk and ask questions – Talk about your experiences with like-minded people. Conversations should be two-way so sharing your experiences should help others to relax around you, helping you to better receive feedback on ideas you propose.
3. Research and Learn – The best way to learn is to read, watch and listen. Take time to research the area that you want to progress in. Find out what works and what you can implement into your daily life. Personal progression is about lifelong learning and knowledge. Applying new concepts and ideas to your work will give you a deeper understanding on any subject.

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Here at Millennial Procurement we love knowledge and learning new things because:

​Learning increases confidence and leads to a more fulfilling life. 

Learning comes in many forms:

• Attending a training course,
• on the job training, or
• simply learning from those around you on a day-to-day basis.

​Millennial Procurement provides CPD accredited professional training and executive coaching services. Visit our website now for more great 'how to' blogs and top tips from www.millennialprocurement.com