2021 is upon us and not any quicker I’m sure you would agree. But let’s put aside the strangeness that has been 2020 and let us focus on this new year; 2021 and how to create your soulful personal development plan.
Have you written your action plan for abundant wealth or improving your health? Have you set your goals for the coming year within the right framework? To achieve not just a tick on a sheet but to take yourself closer to your truest desire, to bring you in alignment with your soul? I am not here to make you feel overwhelmed at that task and that’s why I believe if you haven’t already you need to create a personal development plan but make it what I call your 2021 Soulful Development Plan.
Traditionally we have been taught to set new year resolutions which often promotes a subconscious attitude towards goal setting. Or perhaps we have learnt how to create personal development plans which heavily focus on career goals.
I want you to consider another option, one I believe to better encompass your whole self and enable you to create a vision, not only for the year but for how you wish your life to be. That is a Soulful Personal Development Plan; this is a sort of blueprint for your life based on your purpose, vision, and principles. It allows you to create goals that are deeply rooted in your values and it enables you to have accountability with regards to the tasks you focus on.
A Soulful Personal Development Plan is effectively a way to manage your life, which is the key to being successful or being productive. Too often we think managing time is the key to success but actually, it is managing ourselves, ensuring discipline, and understanding what keeps us motivated and on task. When you create a mission statement for your life based on your purpose, and core values it allows you to know exactly where to begin in creating the daily or weekly steps to take you to that more fulfilled abundant life you deserve.
1. You need to know your purpose- This is paramount, it’s necessary to create abundance, to find lasting love, to create the life you desire. It is the most important step and the key to truly understanding yourself.
2. A vision for the life you wish to create- this will be tied to your purpose but basically it relates to understanding what matters most to you, your values, and the principles you wish to live by.
3. Let go of the concept that goal setting is a to-do list or a ticking-off exercise-I cannot stress this enough. When you create what is essentially a purpose-driven map for your life, it is not a list of mundane daily chores to achieve. It is also not the place to write goals that do not have a strong ‘why’ behind them.
To create your truest, most authentic life map and one in which you will be motivated to pursue a life long, you need to have a deep-rooted reason behind wanting to achieve the goals. Without this, you will soon lose motivation, and become distracted, which in turn may lead you completely off track from the journey you were meant to take. So come to this exercise with a new mindset and an openness to focus on the bigger picture that pursuing your purpose will lead you to create.
4. Adopt the Pareto Principle- named after the economist Vilfredo Pareto, it states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the work. That is if you focus your energy on the top 20% of your priorities, this will yield 80% of your results.
When setting tasks from your goals, focus on those few that are most important and will yield a high return.
5. Learn the art of saying NO- the world does a funny thing when you are on target, it sends you distractions. Be it in the form of people who seem to want to only have fun or tasks that occupy your time but add nothing towards your life mission. Hence the need to learn to say NO, literally to others and even yourself. On those days when your mind would rather you binge on Netflix series all day than work on your novel.
6. The first focus is building relationships and results, with the secondary focus on time management- for it to truly encompass who you were called to be, your deepest needs the foundation must be in building relationships and not only working on your career.
Relationship with yourself, God, family, and friends. When you understand that within your planning it is crucial to make time to unwind, spend quality time with your partner or children, you start to see that this is more than your route to monetary success. Just as important as this, is focusing as I have already alluded on activities that will bring you closer to achieving your goals.
Finally, this will allow you to either plan daily or weekly the different activities needed to accomplish your goals. Whilst understanding that life ebbs and flows and you may have given an hour to spend with your child for their homework but it took two instead. Realise that human beings cannot always be fixed into a time allotted slot and the benefit, the potential positive impact made makes it worth it every time. Stay flexible and be compassionate with yourself on days you go slightly off-plan.
I bet you’re wondering when the good stuff, the all-important so how do I create this Soulful Development Plan is coming!
This is 2-3 sentences based on your purpose and values of how you will live your life.
My 5 Best Tips on How to Find Your Passion
This could be health, career, family spirituality, your personal development/management isn’t just about career or money. Neglecting other key areas will eventually lead to failure or lack of fulfilment in the area you chose to focus only on.
Set up goals within each of the above areas going back to the example above, if you are a parent perhaps this week you’ve scheduled helping your child with a school project or learning activity.
Also, think about tasks that can be delegated. I like to think in terms of my hourly rate and how that activity lends itself towards my personal growth. For instance one day whilst spending 4 hours cleaning the house and still doing a terrible job I was lucky enough to come by an article. The article was on how successful people are efficient; by outsourcing. From there in came my hiring of a cleaner and soon I intend to upgrade to housekeeper!
When creating your goals, constantly refer back to your life mission statement and tie your goals into the big picture.
I like weekly planning. It allows me to see what the main goal is, the overarching task that feeds into my purpose that I need to accomplish that week.
Now it’s time to get started! Start with what’s important and work your way through each day making sure to celebrate your wins as you go along.
Make time to do nothing and to indulge yourself. Obviously, just like with chocolate this is something we treat ourselves to in measured, responsible amounts.
Don’t be ruled by your development plan, it is a tool to help you manage yourself more effectively so never create guilt around it and never beat yourself up for a bad day.
Ideally, you want to be able to see your planner throughout the day; notebooks, journals can help you with this.
I find it helpful to evaluate and reflect on how my week has gone. I evaluate how well I accomplished my goals and how they made me feel. It’s important to enjoy working towards your purpose even when it may seem like the end goal is far away. But also to realise that life will happen and so during your reflection note what unplanned tasks came up or life situations may be pulling you away from focusing on your goals. Then incorporate into your planner how to deal with this, perhaps meditation daily is what you need or reducing your time on social media to help reduce daily stress or distractions.
Besides during your reflection is when you decide factors such as perhaps there were activities originally you thought weren’t important but actually are or perhaps more time is needed in certain than you previously allocated.
What I love about having created my soulful personal development pan is that when it came to evaluating how 2020 went I could clearly see the goals I had achieved and their relevance to my purpose and values. It also provides a starting point for setting the goals for 2021. Allowing me to note those to discard or carry forward into 2021.
So here are a few take-home points
I hope this helps you create your 2021 soulful development plan. I would love to hear your 2021 goals.
Happy New Year to you all.
In case you want a little bit more…….
Do not go into the year 2021 with emotional burdens. Read this article to learn How to Release Trapped Emotions From your Mind and Body and you should also download this free gratitude affirmation here to get you started into the New Year!
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