Whether you are still at school or battling your way up the corporate ladder in the workplace, one of the best ways to plan on being the best that you can be is through personal development planning.

What Exactly is Personal Development Planning?

First, here is a brief definition of the term. Personal development planning involves the identification of the aspects of your personality that can do with an improvement. The second part of the process is to actually improve these areas, to help meet your personal or professional goals.

What are the Advantages of Personal Development Planning?

Next, here is a quick list of the benefits that you will get to enjoy through personal development planning:

• Personal development planning will help you define your clear-cut goals, whether they are of a personal or professional nature.
• The process of personal development planning will help you identify your skills gaps, and come up with ways to improve them accordingly.
• The process will help you explore your career or life options, and help turn your dreams into a reality.
• The process will help you manage, control and keep track of your own development.
• Personal development planning in general will help you achieve both your short-term and long-term goals.

Steps to Follow in Personal Development Planning

Now that you know about the numerous benefits of personal development planning, the best part is yet to come. Here are a few steps that you need to follow when going about the process of personal development planning:

1. Determine what your “skills gaps” are.

This is the aspect of your professional and personal skills which can do with a major improvement. Evaluate the skills that you possess and analyze which aspects can be improved. It will probably help if you will get some outside opinion – so that you can have others assess which areas of your personality and skills need to be improved.

2. Proceed to goal setting

After determining your skills gaps, the next thing that you need to do is set some short-term and long-term goals for yourself. This is the time when you should set your priorities straight.

If you feel that you have not been spending ample time with your family, exert some effort into freeing up your time. If you feel that you have not been focused at work, do what you can to change this so that things can be placed back on track.

3. Set a deadline to meet your short-term and long-term goals

If you keep putting things off, chances are your personal development planning will not work. The key to making this process a success is to set a deadline for yourself. You will definitely feel a sense of accomplishment once you have managed to beat the deadline that you set for yourself as you reach your short-term goals and start working your way slowly but surely towards those long-term goals.

At the end of the day, personal development planning is the best way to ‘plan’ on being the best that you can possibly be.