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Why You Should Write a Personal Development Plan Today

Gary Gabriel
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Why You Should Write a Personal Development Plan Today

Welcome to 2021! 2020 has been tough for all of us. 

I’m hopeful for a brighter, and more fulfilling 2021. With this in mind, let’s start the year off strong. 

Today, I’m touching on the importance of a personal development plan. 

When was the last time you sat down and thought about your life? Have you ever considered what things are important to you? If so, why aren’t they happening? 

The answer may be that we have a tendency to follow someone else’s plan (society’s) instead of our own. 

Personal development is an important part of success, as it improves your performance in all aspects of life including work, family and social interactions. 

Most people use a personal development plan to focus on their goals, the obstacles they face and how to overcome them. Life isn’t easy, but if we approach it with the right mindset and ideas, we can make it simpler.

 Consider these benefits of a Personal Development Plan:

  1. You’ll feel more fulfilled 

Feeling fulfilled is a feeling that many strive for. It comes with knowing you are doing what you love and spending time on things that give meaning to your life. 

While this may seem simple, even the smallest amount of effort can help increase fulfillment in your day-to-day activities. 

The first step towards increasing personal development is by setting goals for yourself so that you know where you’re going and why it’s important to achieve them. 

Once you’ve set your goals, try to schedule in blocks of time where they will be accomplished; these times could be just before bed or while taking public transportation on your way home from work.

2. You’ll have a better sense of who you are and what you want to do with your life 

Personal development plans give your everyday life more meaning by helping you make small but significant changes to it. 

By following a plan that already has a clear picture of what success looks like, there is no need for you to toy around with ideas in your head or pursue goals that are not really yours. 

It enables you to get things done effectively and efficiently while setting a positive tone on what the day will look like. 

And because of this attention to detail, personal development plans can help increase your productivity and happiness levels in life. 

  1. You’ll be able to plan for the future, which will help you make better decisions now

A personal development plan is a helpful tool to help you achieve your goals and set yourself up for success. 

This plan can provide you with the structure needed to make sure that you do not get sidetracked or lose focus on what really matters. 

You can use it as a way of keeping track of where you have been, where you are now, and where you want to go in the future. 

  1. It’s an opportunity for self-reflection and growth

As a working professional, you are constantly under the pressure to do well. 

Whether it is from your superiors or yourself, there is always some method of judging success and how well you are doing in your field. 

This can be demoralizing at times because we often feel like we are never achieving enough, even if this isn’t true. 

Therefore, one needs an outlet for self-reflection; to find out what they really want and need in order to be happy with themselves. 

A personal development plan does just that by encouraging growth through self-awareness.

Conclusion

The biggest mistake most people make is they rely on their motivation levels alone to get them there. While motivation helps, it’s not enough, and eventually that motivation will wane. 

That‘s why making the commitment to writing your own personal development plan today is important, as it’s your guide to help you get to where you want to be.

So, how do you start a personal development plan?

  1. Figure out what your goals are 
  2. Set a timeline for achieving those goals 
  3. Identify the steps you need to take in order to reach your goals 
  4. Create a plan of action and follow it through

Generate Success With A Strong Foundation: The 5 Elements You Need To Work On

Gary Gabriel
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0
Generate Success With A Strong Foundation: The 5 Elements You Need To Work On

As we conclude September, focus on optimizing your success by mastering your time and prioritizing life’s many demands. The biggest obstacle that impedes your success is you; so start there.

For many of us, the New Year starts with vigor and new hope with our life’s changes, for example, losing weight, finding a new job, quitting excessive drinking, or improving our finances. However, by mid-February, some of that vigor dwindles or vanishes altogether. Why? The primary reason; we couldn’t get out of our own way. That’s right!  When it comes to change, we are our own worst enemy.

So how do you combat this issue? You need a plan, one that you value, and can stick with through any challenges in our lives.  A foundation plan contains five essential elements that you need to conquer your biggest obstacle – you.

Let’s go through the 5 elements:

Mind/Body:

Did you know that a body with poor diet and exercise increases anxiety and depression? It does, and therefore we must enhance our diet and exercise; avoiding chemicals and contaminants with negative affects on our lives.

Spiritual:

Many people believe that you have to be religious to be spiritual. However, I believe that being spiritual is about strengthening your internal belief systems; this propels you forward regardless of obstacles.

Habits:

Many of us have some habits that are impeding with negative effects in different areas of our lives. For example, drinking alcohol is a habit, however, in excess, it can restrict us from others and harm our health. A Poor diet can do the same.

Stress:

It can be good,  at the same time detrimental. Negative stress can take a tremendous toll on our health; in excess, it can lead to anxiety and depression.  A key element to building a sound foundation for success is managing stress.

Relationships:

Our lives are connected through relationships, including– family, spouse or love interest, friends, money, co-workers, food, etc. However, to build a strong foundation for success, we must first tackle the toxic relationships in our lives.

Conclusion

As you build your foundation plan for success, turn inward for answers. You’ll be surprised at the answers; some you’ll already know, while some will amaze you. To help you along this journey, journal your growth and obstacles, learn more about yourself in everything you do. This way, you can adjust as you move forward.

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7 Tips To Ease Your Worried Mind

Gary Gabriel
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7 Tips To Ease Your Worried Mind

Welcome to November’s post. You’ve been working hard to achieve those goals. This month, let’s take a moment to relax, take a count of your blessings.

Many people know they have 24 hours per day, but not too many realize it also limits their energy. You have a limited amount of gas in the tank for each day – and you need to be careful about how you use that fuel.

You can invest your energy in accepting yourself, crafting solutions, and self-improvement. You can also waste it on negative thoughts, anxiety about the future, and self-destructive attitudes.

To ease your mind and get the most out of your daily energy, follow these five tips below:

  1. Accept your situation

Never dwell on a problem for too long. If you can fix the issue, you do so on the spot. If you can’t change your current situation, you’ll simply accept it and move on.

As you know, there’s a certain amount of energy you have per day – and a common way people waste it is by dwelling on things they cannot change. You might think you’re lying on your bed doing nothing, but you’re filling your mind with negative emotions and wasting your energy away.

There are countless things you cannot fix -there are also plenty of issues you can solve. It’s always better to fix what you can than to dwell on the impossible.

  1. Focus on solutions

For things you can change, it’s all about action.

When something bad happens, you can curse and scream about your luck – or you can treat it as a possibility for improvement. There are obstacles in life, there always will be. It’s up to you to dwell on the issue or the solution.

Let’s say you have to go to work tomorrow and you are feeling anxious about that. It could be for many reasons, like disliking your job. You can burn out doing nothing but feeling sorry for yourself or you can sit down, update your resume, and get that job interview you want so much.

If you can’t change the situation, you must accept it until you can change it. If (and when) you can change it, ask yourself: “how can I make this better?” and do it without hesitation.

  1. Focus on letting go of the past

It’s bedtime. You lay down on your bed and close your eyes. Suddenly, that silly thing you did three years ago hits you out of nowhere. You’re still clinging to the past! And guess what? Doing so will not help you at all.

Your past is there to elevate you, not to torment you. Everyone makes mistakes – and many of us will continue to do so! But as long as you can grow from your mistakes, you have nothing to be ashamed of.

Once you missed an important deadline, you’ll be on time for the rest of your life. Missing out one time is a small price to pay to be on time for the many opportunities to come!

  1. Do something fun

There will be times when you will need to remove yourself from a situation entirely. It might be a bad day or a terrible week – awful months are not unheard of either! To fix situations like these, you need to hit the reset button.

The only way to do so is to have fun. Going to the bar with friends, playing video games, whatever it is, you need to keep it light and fun. Then and only then, you’ll be ready to kill it at work.

Cars go to gas stations to get more fuel; humans sleep to get energy. Cars need routine work every once in a while to keep things in check; humans need to have fun to stay sharp!

  1. Focus on relaxation

If you think you’re not tense, then check again: unclench your jaw, drop your shoulders, and stop breathing shallowly. We’re constantly stressed and we don’t even know it!

Fortunately for you, as long as you pay attention to your body, you will know when stress is creeping up on you. And that’s when you have to focus on your breathing. Breathe deep into your stomach and feel how tensions escape your body.

A tense body is an anxious body – and when anxiety takes over, it’s hard to get anything done. Breathing is the way out of that terrible state!

Conclusion

How you handle your situation depends on how you interpret it.

If you focus on things you cannot change, everything will seem impossible. If you work with what you can change, the progress itself will be motivation enough to keep going! When things get rough, you can always have fun and get back to a relaxed state.

Remember: a tense body moves half as fast as a relaxed one – and you are one deep breath away from relaxation.

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Why You Need To Develop Self-Acceptance

Gary Gabriel
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Why You Need To Develop Self-Acceptance

As we conclude November, let’s take some time to not only practice gratitude, but to trust in your abilities, and have the compassion to gain a better perspective of how self-acceptance can be your path to contentment. 

Self-acceptance is the very first thing you must accomplish in your life. Accepting who you are is the key to unlock a good living – if that door remains closed, you won’t be able to move toward your goals.

Being at peace with who you are is fundamental; otherwise, you will end up sabotaging yourself no matter what you try to do – and it will trap you in a self-hating downwards spiral.

Before you move forward in life, you need to develop self-acceptance. All you have to do is start at step one! 

  1. How your self-acceptance can be affected by low self-esteem

Every time you do something, you have a choice to make. You can appreciate the good and improve its flaws or fixate on the bad and blind yourself from anything else.

There’s no in-between: it’s all about a positive attitude or a negative one – and, remember, it’s a choice you make.

When it comes to how you perceive yourself, make that choice. How you perceive yourself is how your self-esteem is determined. And your self-esteem will determine how you judge everything you do!

Let’s say you finished a project, and it’s a little rough around the edges:

  • If you have positive self-esteem, you will appreciate the good and work to perfect the rest – and in doing so, you will perfect yourself!
  • However, if you see the project as one big flaw (because of your low self-esteem), you will destroy it and stay stuck on square one – forever unable to move towards your goals!
  1. How to develop self-acceptance

You have features and flaws – everyone does! You need to learn to appreciate the good stuff and build upon that amazing foundation you have. If you do that, little by little and brick by brick, you’ll have rock-solid self-acceptance – one that will allow you to try (and accomplish) any goal you set.

Your self-acceptance needs to be solid. Otherwise, when the wind blows, it’ll fall apart.

You need to be strong to understand you define your value alone – what others say about you is not what defines you. If others have the strength to destroy your self-acceptance, it’s not solid enough. Keep in mind it takes more than a day to build something. 

  1. Accept your mistakes and move on

In life, lessons are paid upfront: You err, you learn, and life keeps going!

Unless you are unwilling to move forwards. Feeling guilty over a mistake you made will prevent you from learning. You need to appreciate your mistakes – they made you the better person you’re today, and there’s no guilt in that.

Be happy you erred before, you’re now ready for bigger challenges because of it!

Be willing to make mistakes: fear of failure will keep you stuck where you are. You need to walk forwards if you want to be anywhere in life. Being afraid of mistakes is like being afraid of walking.

If you trip and fall, you simply get up and keep going. Being depressed and ashamed over past mistakes is like staying down on the ground after falling. Laugh it off and walk it off. 

  1. Challenge yourself to try these methods to increase your self-acceptance
  • Take responsibility for your mistakes: Your mistakes are yours to make and accept. If you keep blaming someone else for every mistake you made, you won’t be able to understand where you failed and how to grow from the experience. There’s no shame in making a mistake, but there’s some in not taking responsibility.
  • Practice positive self-talk: Your self-talk defines who you are. If you refer to yourself as a failure, you will do nothing but fail. Instead, see yourself as someone who has failed but is working to improve. That will give you room to build yourself into someone you like.
  • Be accepting and considerate with yourself, just as you are with your friends: Whenever you’re struggling with something you did, picture what would happen if a friend of yours made that mistake instead. How would you react to it? You’d be gentle and understanding, so be like that with your own mistakes as well!

If you’re trapped in the confines of low self-esteem, the key to escape that situation is self-acceptance.

Self-acceptance is not about becoming a narcissistic egomaniac who can do no wrong – instead, it’s about seeing yourself as human: someone who makes mistakes and grows from mistakes. It’s a choice you make between appreciating the good in you and improving from the bad or blinding yourself and seeing your flaws alone.

To accomplish your goals, making the right choice is the first step!

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Do You Know Yourself? 12 Questions You Need To Answer

Gary Gabriel
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Do You Know Yourself? 12 Questions You Need To Answer

As the month of transitions concludes, let’s take some time to assess how much we know ourselves.

It’s no secret we primarily run on autopilot. We follow the same thought patterns and do the same things each day. In our free time, we indulge our minds by surfing the internet, watching our favorite TV shows, playing games, scrolling through social media on our smartphones. We hardly spend time with ourselves.

It’s likely you don’t know yourself as well as you think!

To learn more about yourself, start by examining these power questions:

  1. How would I define yourself? What would you say? Get candid on both your negative and positive traits. To start, use a few adjectives to describe yourself and expound further. How did you feel about the answer to this question? Where can you make some improvements?
  2. Start with this statement, those who know me well know that I………? This question is about defining your best quality. What is that fundamental truth about you? 
  3. What am I passionate about? What is that exciting thing that makes you lose track of time? What makes you want to jump out of bed each morning? Perhaps you need more time to think about it. Knowing your passions eliminates distractions. Why? Because you spend more time doing it.
  4. If I had one year to live, then I would? Many of us live as if we have all the time in the world. Our thinking? There’s always tomorrow. But what if you knew you only had a year left, would you spend your time and energy to focus on changing your life? Think about it. What should you spend more time on?
  5. If I could go back in time five years, what advice would I give myself? To help with this, evaluate the past five years. What were your biggest mistakes? What were your failures and successes? What opportunities did you waste? Overall, what can you learn from the last five years?
  6. Imagine living today over and over for the next 5 years. What would my life look like? Make this an instructional question, assess your average day. How are your daily efforts affecting your future? Many of us are hardworking, but achieve little in the long-term. 
  7.  If I could attain 5 things before I die, what would they be? This question will help you uncover your values and determine your most important tasks. When you look back at the end of your life; will you feel a sense of fulfillment? What would you want to look back on?
  8. If I knew I couldn’t fail, what would I do? We all have fears and face challenges. What does your fear of failure prevent you from accomplishing? This question can help you uncover it. 
  9. What would I do with $5 million? Would you leave your job? Give to charity, family, and others? What would you do in your free time? What would you purchase? Five million dollars 
  10. Who am I? This is a challenging question, as it’s about your identity. It’s important to ask; give yourself some time to think about it. 
  11. What is my purpose? Perhaps you haven’t considered it. It’s important to know why you exist, it’s up to you to determine this. 
  12. Am I failing to live authentically? Why? In what ways are you true to yourself, and how do you hold yourself back? Think about what you’re afraid of and how it’s costing you. 

Asking yourself these questions is your first step to learning more about you. It is pivotal that you’re honest with who you are and where you’re going. 

Few people can answer these questions candidly. You must be resolute and consistent in discovering who you are, as it may uncover answers to improve your life.   

Until next time.

After answering these questions, what did you uncover? What improvements can you make? Leave a comment below.

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Life is a journey. Whether it's a road trip or an adventure to the moon, each day gives us an opportunity to seize the day and make our lives extraordinary. It’s 11:59 P.M. is about inspiring people to be deliberate in their time and take action on the things they care most about in life.

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