A Look Into My Personal Development Plan

Personal Development Plan Exercise

After reviewing previous exercises and personality traits the two strengths of mine that I settled on were empathy and self-expression. My first strength that I would like to practice is empathy. Since my plan is to enter the world of marketing and designing, empathy is a critical muscle that needs to be exercised. One way that I will practice empathy is by writing down a list of empathy-evoking questions. I will then practice asking people one question a month. In order to be more empathetic, I must know how to extract emotion from stories being told, which starts by asking good questions. The second action step I will take is to talk to a different person each week and design something for them. It’s more than likely that in my future, I will be designing for someone who thinks differently than I do, so it’s crucial that I know how to see things from their point of view and create something for them. I will also be able to gain feedback from that person in order to improve.

Next, the strength I want to work on is my self-expression. As a kid, I never had a problem expressing myself (usually through the form of tantrums), but now that I’m older my self-expression has been channeled more through written word, rather than verbal. I enjoy expressing how I feel or what I’m thinking by writing it down, it often makes more sense than when I speak it. One thing that I want to do to improve this strength is to make a daily practice of reflection. At the end of every day, I want to write down something good that happened that day. This way, I will be practicing my self-expression through writing, but I also will be practicing gratitude. The second action step I will take to further grow my self-expression is to actually launch my blog by my 21st birthday (November 27th). I think having a blog will force me to think deeply and document my feelings often. This has been something on my to-do list for 5 years now, but I can’t quite seem to finish it, which brings me to my weaknesses (or opportunities for growth.)

My first opportunity for growth is actually following through/self-discipline. I have huge ambitions and mean well, but when it comes to the execution, I fall apart. I allow myself to get too distracted before finishing a task. The first action step that I will take towards growth is by timeboxing my day. At the beginning of each day, I will write down the things that need to be done that day, in order. This will help me to stay on task and make practical steps to accomplish things. The second action step I will take is by making a daily promise to myself each morning. When I sit down to timebox my day, I will write down something that I will promise to do for myself that day. For example, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I might promise myself to workout by 9am on Monday and Wednesdays. Or another example might be to read 15 min each night before bed. I will also record my daily goals each day, so that way I have something tangible to remember what I’ve accomplished.

My second opportunity for growth is speaking directly. Through the DiSc assessment, I learned that I fall in the influence category, which means I need to “expend more energy speaking directly and candidly.” I have so many thoughts swirling around in my brain, it’s often hard for me to get my point across without trailing off or stumbling over my words. My first action step is to make a daily practice of thinking before I speak. Before I open my mouth to say something in class, I will remember to slow down and project my voice with confidence. My second action step is to count my filler words. Similar to a swear jar, I will keep track of how many times I say “like or umm” in a sentence.

Click here to see the behind the scenes of my PDP.