What is your plan for personal growth?

What? A plan for personal growth?

Yes. That's what the experts tell us.  We actually need to take time, sit down, and create a plan for our personal growth.  It doesn't happen automatically. 

I suppose one way to say it could be, "Aging is not the same thing as growing."

Personally, I have been in a disjointed mental space for the past several weeks. I could point to several factors and circumstances which have impacted me during this time, but bottom line, it's up to me to take care of me, and I have not been doing an excellent job in this regard during the month of May.

If we sat down over coffee today, and I asked you this question: What is your plan for personal growth....?   Would you have an answer?  Would you be able to grab a journal or a notepad, or even a sticky note, and say, "Here's my plan!"?  

Mind you, I'm not talking here about your goals and aspirations...I'm talking about a specific plan to grow personally in ways that will be required of you in order to achieve your goals and aspirations.  There is a difference between the two things, a very significant difference.  A goal is, to use an analogy, like a destination on a map.  Your personal growth plan is a set of step-by-step directions for actions you will need to take in order to reach your destination.

So...what is your plan for personal growth?

If you find yourself without a good answer, or any answer at all, read on.  I'd like to share some things I've learned from author and trainer John Maxwell, and I think you'll find this information helpful for your future planning!

Principles to Know About Growth
1. Growth is not automatic. Growth requires intentional learning and activity, and unless we put it on a schedule and commit ourselves to the activities involved, it just doesn't happen.
2. Growth takes time.  Seems like an obvious point, but in our high tech, fast-paced world, most of us expect growth to be instant. Growth is anything but instant, and the time required for growth demands from us patience, persistence and consistency of effort.
3. The more you grow, the more you recognize your need to grow. Maybe you've heard the saying, "You don't know what you don't know...," and it's an important principle to  memorize.  When you're at the beginning of a learning and growing process, you truly don't know what you don't know.  It is only as you learn that you begin to understand how much you don't yet know.
4. Growth demands change. Think of a plant...you plant a seed. I When you plant a seed, it looks like a seed and is the size of a seed.  If the seed is to grow and realize it's potential, it must change. It changes shape, size, color, and even surroundings. A seed begins its life underground, but as it grows, pushes through the soil into the open air, going through a continuous process of change. A seed that does not change is dead.
5. Growth on the outside will never occur unless we grow on the inside.  Your external life circumstances will always...always...be a direct reflection of your internal life.  If you are unhappy with the circumstances of your external life, you must first look to your internal life for making change.  Take the example of the seed again...if you plant seeds for a zinnia, you will not see a rose spring forth from the ground.  If you want a rose, you must plant a rose. If you want strawberries, you cannot expect strawberries to come forth if you plant seeds for carrots. If you want your work, your relationships, your financial and spiritual life experience to be healthy and prosperous, you must first start with developing your internal world. What you become personally will determine what your outer life experience reflects.
6. You are the only person who can ultimately decide where and how you need to grow most.  Asking for input from friends and mentors is enormously valuable, but in the end, you must take responsibility for you.  What is it that you want to become? Who do you want to be? What do you want to be known and remembered for?  These are questions only you can answer, and answer them you should!

Where can we begin?
1. Physical Health - we are ultimately our own parent.  Once you reach adulthood, there is no longer a parent to put you to bed at night, prepare healthy meals for you, take you to the doctor and dentist for check-ups, or manage your schedule to include the basics of exercise and learning.  It's time to become a self-parent, and I personally believe this to be one of our biggest challenges.  Many of us take better care of our children and pets than we do ourselves, and yet we must take care of ourselves.  Be intentional about a plan for personal health - diet, sleeping, exercise. All of these are fundamental to our ability to be present to our relationships and to our personal goals.  And let me add this for parents - your children are watching you, and how you do or do not take care of yourself.  Remember always that you are teaching your children about self-care (or the lack of it), and their adult behavior is almost certain to mirror what they are learning from you.  If you can't muster the energy for good self-care on any other basis than this, take good care of yourself so your children will learn how to take good care of themselves when they're grown.
2. Spiritual Health - I think Jim Rohn says it best, when it comes to your spiritual health.  Jim has said that whatever your belief system may be, be intentional about studying and knowing what you believe, so that you can grow in those beliefs, practice them in your daily life, and share them in a meaningful way with others.  I talked recently with an individual who professes to be a Christian.  Ironically, this same person said, "I don't know anything about the Bible."  I found the statement significant, especially when I thought about it in relation to Jim's advice.  How can we really profess to believe in something that we know nothing about?  Once again, remember that your external life is always a reflection of your internal life, and if you are to live out a belief system, you must be intentional in learning and practicing your beliefs.  We simply cannot reflect externally what we do not possess internally.
3. Mental Health - personal growth and professional growth rise and fall on what we intentionally learn and practice, consistently and persistently, over a long period of time. One of the easiest steps you can take to implement a plan for mental health and growth is to read 10 pages of a good book each day.  For many people, reading isn't a fun activity. Personally, I love to read...but I understand this isn't true for everyone.  At the same time, there is no escaping the fact you must continually read and learn new information if your mind and abilities are to successfully grow and expand.  By reading just 10 pages of a good book each day, over the course of one year, you will have read 10-12 quality books.  This one simple practice will distinguish you from your friends and colleagues in the workplace, and has the power to dramatically improve the quality of your life and work circumstances.
4. Emotional Health - our emotional health is, in many ways, the sum of our combined efforts in these other areas.  Our emotional health is linked to the quality of our relationships with family and friends, and to the health of our spiritual life.  As we learn to take care of ourselves physically, spiritually and mentally, we make ourselves healthier for our interactions with friends, family, co-workers, and the world at large.  As we grow and mature emotionally, we have more resources to share with the people around us.  When we take good care of ourselves, we are more free to be in relationship with others, without depending upon others to take care of us.  Lack of good self-care and personal growth is a hindrance to healthy and happy relationships, and the lack of happy relationships is probably the most significant factor in poor emotional health.  I'm reminded again of something Jim Rohn has said, and I love the principle: "I will take care of me for you, if you will take good care of you, for me."  Rather than expecting others to take care of us, we need to take care of ourselves. When we take good care of ourselves, we are free to be in healthy relationships with others, without the burden of expectations wrongly placed on the other person.

I chose to write on this topic today because I find it's crucial for me to slow down every few weeks and invest time to review principles like the one's I have shared.  It is too easy for me to lose touch with what is most important, and to completely lose sight of the specific steps I need to take on a daily basis to grow in a healthy way.  I think it's easy for all of us to lose sight of what's most important, so I hope you'll take time today and answer the question for yourself: What is your plan for personal growth?