Now is the Best Time to Update Your Personal Development Plan for the New Year
As the end of the year nears, it is time to start thinking about what the new year will bring. What are you going to do for yourself? How will you continue to develop your skills and abilities as a leader? These are some of the toughest questions to ask ourselves. While no one knows us better, it is still very difficult to complete a self-assessment and determine what is next. I will admit it is far easier to write about this type of activity than it is to complete for myself. The advantage I get from writing about it is that it forces me to actually think about it.
Development is personal, thus the name, personal development plan. However, as I have mentioned before, take on partners. Seek the advice and insights from peers, friends, spouses, or even hire someone as a coach. It may seem unusual and even uncomfortable, but there are many people capable of helping you, and undoubtedly many more willing to help you on your own development journey.
Below are some questions you can ask yourself to help you in updating your development plan for the coming year. Set aside sometime over the next few weeks to plan out what you want to do for yourself in the coming year.
Evaluate what you accomplished in the current year
It is always good to start with what went well for you in the current year. What were your accomplishments? I am confident there were many, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Push yourself to list out at least ten things you accomplished for yourself and in your life over the past twelve months. Take a few moments to reflect on what it felt like performing those - recognize the effort it took to reach those achievements. Were there any standout moments along the way to those completed items? What can be learned for the future? Write as much detail as you can for this portion.
What do you believe will help you the most in the new year?
There are several things that most of us know that if we just dedicated some time and effort to, we would make a big difference for ourselves. What are those things for you? Think about the small items that never seem to be big enough to make a concerted effort to develop further. Often we think everything needs to be a big new idea or something that will be a significant investment of time. Because of that, we never get around to it. Making small changes will add up. If you could make a small one-percent change each day, or even each week, that would add up to a significant change over the course of a year. So don’t trick yourself into thinking you need a big thing to work on for next year, perhaps it is a couple of smaller things that will make all of the difference.
What did you feel were strengths to build on this year?
This may build on some of the accomplishments you listed previously. Think about what you felt really good about doing this year. What clicked that you can now leverage for the coming year? The Gallup organization and specifically, Marcus Buckingham, Don Clifton, and then Tom Rath have all build a platform around developing your strengths. You can do this with your everyday activities as well. As part of your review, think about what actions were the most beneficial to your work and how they lead to your accomplishments throughout the year. These can become the building blocks for what comes next.
What goals are you planning for the coming months, how does that connect to your development plan?
Thinking about your development at the same time as you are planning your goals for the new year can work very well together. Understanding what you want to accomplish will inevitably lead to the question of ‘how will I accomplish those?’ Building in development time to achieve those goals can be the perfect way to learn new things, but have an immediate case for using them. Your goals and development plan do not have to connect, but where you can create those bonds, it will serve to reinforce the growth you can realize in those focus areas. Plus, you get the benefit of working towards your most important goals at the same time.
What do you want to say you accomplished for yourself in twelve months?
Finally, when you look back a year from now, what do you want to be able to say you accomplished? When you get a good vision of what that looks like, you can ask, ‘what would it take to achieve that?’ This can serve as the final review of everything you are planning for yourself. Did you cover all the bases? Will your plan lead you to where you want to be? Don’t be afraid to go back and make adjustments to what you just worked through. Also, set this question aside so you can refer back to it often. This can become your personal development goal statement for the year. You can then reference it regularly throughout the year to ensure you remain on track for getting to where you said you wanted to go.
As I wrote the questions and the thought for each, I also realized that this would be an excellent journaling exercise. If you are using a daily journal, dedicate several pages to this exercise. Leave plenty of space so you can do this over the course of several days, if necessary. That will allow you to have space for these thoughts as well as your regular daily pages. If you are using a digital journal (like DayOne) it will be easy to start and come back to your entry as needed over the next few weeks.
I think this can be a powerful exercise to set yourself up for a year of positive growth. All of us have tremendous potential. It can be realized when we take the time to develop ourselves and make our own goals as important as many of the other things we do for those around us.
When will you start to update your development plan?
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