Having a personal development plan is key to living your dream life.

Let me ask you this: If you keep doing what you’re doing, where will you be in five years?

A friend of mine asked me this question a few years ago, and it changed my life. I can still remember sitting across from her at a coffee shop in Los Angeles, afraid to answer because I didn’t like the future I was imagining.

Today I am asking you the same question. Take a moment to think about your life now and how it will look a few years down the road. This is the most important question to ask yourself if you want to live your best life. I call it the magic question.

Will you be at a job you love? Will you be of good health? Will you be making the amount of money you want, or enjoying the lifestyle of your dreams?

If the answer is NO to any of these questions, then it’s time to make a change. Consider that the definition of insanity is doing what you’ve doing and expecting a different result. That’s Einstein’s definition of insanity, by the way!

Implement a Personal Development to Live with Intention

I genuinely believe that you can be intentional and create the life of your dreams. If you’re unhappy with where you are right now, you don’t have to keep repeating the same things year in and year out.

• You CAN have your dream job.
• You CAN have a healthy body.
• You CAN have the financial freedom to do what you want.

You can start your personal development plan today and make this year the best year you’ve ever lived. It’s totally possible to wake up five years from now and know that you are, indeed, living your best life.

When my friend asked me the magic question, my life flashed before my eyes.  All the stress, worry, and boredom came down on me like a ton of bricks. I had big dreams, but I wasn’t doing anything to achieve them. I was just living day to day, putting out fires and dealing with whatever came my way. Can you relate?

• I didn’t like my job, but I kept dragging myself to work instead of pursuing my passion.
• Writing a book is all I dreamed of, but I never made the time to actually write it.
• I wanted to lose 25 pounds, but I kept skipping breakfast, drinking soda, and eating fast food. 
• Money was a constant source of stress, but I kept avoiding my finances.
• I wanted to make more money, but I never took the time to figure out how.

If I kept living this way, I would not only be miserable in five years, but I would be worse off. I needed to change, BIG TIME!

This blog is the result of my journey to live my best life. I wanted a place where I could share everything I’ve learned about creating a dream life.  

I hope that others who are looking to change their lives for the better will benefit from my journey.  

So, let’s get started so you can discover how to create a personal development plan and live your best life in three simple steps.

Steps in Your Personal Development Plan

“Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development because success is something you attract by the person you become” – Jim Rohn

This quote by Jim Rohn says it all. Creating a personal development plan is the most important thing you can do if you are looking to grow and live your best life. A commitment to personal growth is non-negotiable. 

Incorporate Daily Self Improvement Activities

The way I incorporate personal development in my life is by:

1. Reading Daily – I read one personal development book per month, and I read for 10 minutes per day. That small amount of time adds up, and before you know it, you have read a library.
2. Listen to podcasts – I love listening to podcasts while driving or doing housework. My favorite is The Life Coach School Podcast by Brooke Castillo. Episode #1 will blow your mind, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you binged the entire podcast.
3. Self-Coaching – This is by far the best thing I have done to change my life – FAST. Self-coaching is the process of managing your thoughts. I use a tool known as The Self Coaching Model to manage my thoughts. I learned this tool from life coach Brooke Castillo. 

More About Self-Coaching

The Self-Coaching Model shows that your thoughts cause your feelings, your feelings cause your actions, and your actions create your results. Circumstances in your life are just neutral.

This is super important to understand because every obstacle we face is caused by our thoughts and can be solved by changing our thoughts.

Let me share an example from Brooke’s book, Self-Coaching 101, to illustrate the power of the Model.

Results of a Bad Thought

• Circumstance: My husband forgot my birthday
• Thought: He doesn’t care about me
• Feelings: Horrible, sad, lonely, angry
• Action: Give husband the cold shoulder and avoid him
• Result: Less time spent with husband – less caring with husband

Results of a Good Thought

• Circumstance: My husband forgot my birthday
• Thought: I know my husband wants to help me celebrate my birthday, so I will remind him.
• Feelings: Satisfied, love.
• Action: Connect with husband, love husband
• Result: Enjoy birthday with my husband

Note that the circumstance was the same – Husband forgot Wife’s birthday. What changed, however, was the thought.

The wife could not change that her husband forgot her birthday. However, she did have control over her thoughts, and how she decided to think determined whether she had a great or lousy birthday. 

I use this Model daily to intentionally create my life experiences around my business, family, money, and everything in between.

Pick up a copy of Self Coaching 101 to better understand the Model and how you can use it for self-improvement.

Decide What You Want

The next step in your personal development plan is to decide what you want. There are eight key areas in life, and you must determine your grand vision in each area if you wish to live your best life. As an example, I’ll walk you through my choices.   

1. Health – To reach and maintain my ideal weight through good nutrition and exercise.
2. Relationships – To make family a priority. To be more social and create a tribe of meaningful friendships.
3. Personal/Spiritual Development – To strengthen my spiritual beliefs.
4. Career or Business – To publish my novel. To serve working moms through my financial wellness business.
5. Recreation – To travel the world and make self-care a priority.
6. Finances – To achieve complete financial freedom through passive income.
7. Environment – To create an organized and clutter-free home and office. 
8. Contribution – To support important causes with my time and money.

This might be the first time you have considered all eight areas of your life, but don’t feel overwhelmed. Take all the time you need to consider the big picture for each area of your life. What you decide is not set in stone, so you can choose now and change it as you get more clarity.  

Set a Goal and Create a Plan to Track Your Progress

“If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work for you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work for you. Whatever good things we build, end up building us” – Jim Rohn

Set SMART goals

Once you decide what you want and have a grand vision, the next step is to establish a goal. Goals give your mind direction. Setting goals is how you predict where you will be in the future. Without goals, you are leaving your life to chance. The best way I have found to achieve goals is to set SMART GOALS.

S — Specific
M — Measurable
A — Achievable
R — Relevant
T — Timely

SMART means your goals are specific, relate to your grander life vision, and have a deadline. I like setting one big SMART goal every year.

One example of a SMART GOAL is to lose 60 pounds in one year.

Break up your SMART Goal into Mini-Goals and Create an Action List

Once you have your yearly SMART goal, think about how you can break it up into monthly mini-goals.

If we continue with the weight loss example, our monthly goal would be to lose five pounds each month.

With the monthly goal in mind, you can create a list of tasks that will help you meet your monthly goal. In our example, a list of tasks could include:

• Throw out all junk food and processed items from the pantry and refrigerator
• Pick healthy recipes and create a weekly meal plan
• Create a grocery list
• Go grocery shopping
• Meal prep
• Track weekly progress

Add Tasks to Your Calendar

Now that you have your list of tasks, your next step is to add each item to your calendar and set deadlines. Do this weekly and at the end of each week, review your results to see your progress. This step takes time, but once it’s done, you are set up for success. Your only job is to show up and do the work. You can use my SMART GOALS Worksheet to start setting your own goals.

To Recap

You have complete control over creating and living your best life, so it will all come down to whether you use your mind or if your mind uses you. The key is to implement a personal development plan, learn something new every day, and take it step by step. Five years from now, you will be happy you made the change. If you’re ready to live your best life, then give these steps a try:

1. Commit to Daily Personal Development

2. Decide What You Want

3. Set SMART Goals and Create a Plan

Here’s to creating the life of your dreams!

Don’t forget to grab my FREE SMART GOAL WORKSHEET so you can start your journey to a more fulfilling life!