DO YOU HAVE A PERSONAL DEV. PLAN?

We all want to be happy, healthy and successful. Now, consider this: Even to make a building, we need a proper plan, so how do we think we can build a durably happy and successful life in this increasingly complex and difficult world, without a detailed, regularly-monitored plan?

Organizations are essentially people; lot of money is being spent by them on training and development. But unless people themselves take charge of their lives and nurture themselves, OD efforts cannot succeed.

A PDP or Personal Development Plan (also called IDP - Individual Dev. Plan) is a two-fold exercise :

1. Introspective Self-awareness i.e. a clear understanding of where you are now and in what state, and where and in what state you ideally want to be: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/introspection-mirror-within-hans-dholakia/
2. A road map for this journey of self-transformation. By just making small changes in daily life, we can work out a miraculous self-transformation: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/miracle-small-things-hans-dholakia/

Such a plan must have many verticals with precise action-plan and a time-frame:

1. Health & Wellness : A clear understanding and precise schedule for daily exercise / yoga, things you need to eat and things you need to avoid, getting proper sleep etc. for physical wellness; the emotions and attitudes that you must work on for your mental and emotional wellness, and practices and discipline needed for your spiritual wellness. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/20140623092533-9788056-body-mind-soul-wellness-healing/ Here the main factor is controlling the mind. Most diseases today are psychosomatic; they have roots in the mind although they manifest in the body. Modern medicine is very symptomatic; it heals the manifest symptoms, not the hidden roots. If we can manage the mind, the whole life improves. By changing our mind and consciousness, we can get over even our genetic barriers and bad karma and we can be well and happy unconditionally: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/re-inventing-life-beating-karma-changing-genes-hans-dholakia/
2. Personality Type: When you interact with people, they feel your personality and sometimes there are clues from their reactions which can be very useful as direct or indirect feedback. There can be many personality types and there are different theories. For example, you may be a multi-tasking, hyper-active, demanding Type A personality, or a relaxed, explainable Type B, or a truly introvert, extremely hardworking Type C, or a very stressed, pessimistic Type D, etc., but most people have a mix of various traits and so we have MBTI theory of the 16 personality types. The basic, yet largely untold, truth about personality is that it can be changed; you are not your personality, you have it - anything you have, can be changed. Otherwise, if it were our helpless destiny, there is no use of even trying to know one's personality. Personality is the sum total of various mind-body characteristics and by conscious living, we can slowly bring in a transformation. The main need is to be aware and to persevere in working on oneself. In your PDP, once you understand your present personality make-up, write the personality traits you would like to change. Here is an online course for transforming personality inside out: https://www.udemy.com/personality-development-holistic-all-round/
3. Work & Career : For most people, this is the heart and soul of their daily life. Work must be such that one can enjoy it, otherwise it is very hard to create any excellence. If you don't like your present work, you should intelligently and patiently look for something that is closer to your liking, and inwardly fulfilling, but don't rashly leave your present work. On the other hand, some people who enjoy their work and are very passionate about it, are such that they overdo it: they overwork, spend long hours away from the family with the result that they do make a career and perhaps much money, but are unable to enjoy these. Know that if we are not happy, we are not yet successful : https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/happy-you-arent-doing-well-yet-hans-dholakia/ and also https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/back-happiness-right-within-hans-dholakia/ . So, keep a balance. In your PDP, plan doing some special courses/training related to your work, and read about those who made a mark in your field.
4. Love, family relationships and service: These are so vital that they could easily be the first point or the second. Love is both a human and a divine need; but we must clearly understand that love is not an emotion, so possessive attachment must be avoided. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/love-attachment-emotion-hans-dholakia/ But it is also true that without work, you cannot feed your family, and without wellness/self-awareness, you could be a liability on your family and dear ones! So we need a balance. Caring for parents, spouse and children, for close relatives and friends, even as you care for yourself, would principally constitute your happiness level and a vital support system. In your PDP, you should mark the domains or specific relationships that you would like to work on / improve upon, and keep a regular check on this. Service to others is a secret and sacred law of sustainable happiness; it builds us inwardly and makes this world more livable.
5. Your finances: Money is a need for everyone, and there is nothing evil about it. Material abundance is not unspiritual, nor at the same time should one go out of one's way to be materially very affluent https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/material-abundance-unspiritual-hans-dholakia/ Remember that the coffin has no pockets to carry your worldly riches! So, even from a balanced perspective, money is very important. In ancient Indian spirituality, money has been one of the 4 cardinal pursuits (Purusharthas) of a householder's life (Artha-Money, Dharma-Righteousness, Kaam-World desires and Moksha-Final Liberation). So there should not be any double-standard about it really, like some people keep saying 'money is nothing' or 'it is ??? ?? ???' and yet, in reality, they would go to any extent to get it and would even die for it! Proper financial management is necessary and it should have a good place in one's PDP. This includes making allowance for housing, children's education, old-age healthcare etc.
6. Spiritual growth: Though the last-mentioned, it is of supreme importance. This is primarily what we came on the earth for-we didn't come here to make money or make human relationships; we came here to know and become our true Self, to love better. Of all the people who have had near-death experiences, and who came back to life, not even a single person returned with the desire to make more money or have more power; they all came back with the resolve to love better! They came back wiser. Daily meditation, reaching out to others in selfless service, prayers etc. should be as much a part of our daily life and our PDP as exercise for wellness, work, money or relationships. Now meditation should be done everyday from a young age; spirituality is not just for the old and the dying-one never knows how long one is going to live. Living in the world, working in the office, doing our earthly duties, we can still be a budding Buddha: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/self-awareness-being-budding-buddha-home-office-hans-dholakia/

So do you have a PDP? Do you introspect? Most people don't introspect until something grave happens to them. A regular brief introspection before going to sleep, and a detailed one at the weekend would be of great help in finding out what we are, or what we are becoming; if we are not happy with that, we should edit our PDP and work on ourselves. Now, obviously, having a good PDP in place is only half the story; the other half is working on it!

CEO's, HOD's, Sr. Managers and Team Leads should not only have their own PDP's to work on, but they should inspire their team members to do so, by their own example and by dialogue. When employees take charge of themselves and do conscious living and inspired work, the results can be mind-boggling - it not only creates a great place to work, it can also create the finest competitive edge in any business.

As a Motivational Life Coach / Wellness & Yoga-meditation Coach with decades of experience in both business and holistic human development, and empowered with lessons from real life under a great Master's teaching, I could help you in this personal growth exercise, collectively through training in groups and individually through personalized life coaching. The later can be online, through private, inter-active video chats, so where you live hardly matters.

Hans Dholakia // Blending Science, Management & Spirituality for Human Optimization.