Report on Personal Development: Definition, Value of Short, Medium and Long Term Goals, and Personal Development Plan

This report discusses the concept and significance of personal and professional development of a person. It focuses on short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals and the value of a Personal Development Plan. It also includes examples and actions to improve skills and qualities.

BSc (Hons) Business Management with
Foundation
BMP3001
Academic Skills and PDP
Assessment 2
Report on Personal Development
Submitted by:
Name:
ID:
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Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Definition of the concept of personal and professional
development 3
3. Description and discussion of the value of short term goals
identifying at least 3 personal examples 3
4. Description and discussion of the value of medium term goals
identifying at least 3 personal examples 4
5. Description and discussion of the value of long term goals
identifying at least 3 personal examples 4
6. Description and discussion of the value of a Personal
Development Plan 5
7. Conclusion 6
Reference List 7
Appendices 8
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1. Introduction
Personal development refers to the ongoing process of weighing one's personal
goals in order to develop skills and qualities to reach his potential. Whereas,
personal development plan is an official record of those skills and qualities which a
person wants to develop. This will assess them as a reflection on what they want to
achieve and how they can achieve (Ackerman). The aim of this report is to discuss
the concept and significance of personal and professional development of a person.
PDP focuses on three goals of a person i.e. short-term, medium-term and long term
goals.
2. Definition of the concept of personal and professional
development
Personal and professional development refers to the process of building action plans
based on reflection, awareness, goal-setting, values and significant planning for
personal growth within the context of education, career, relationship or self-
improvement. This framework is useful for both organisation and person in which
both are engage for the learning purpose in order to accomplished goals. The main
objective of this plan is to improve and increase the inner capabilities of a person
through different range training and developing activities in order to achieve the three
goals of a person. This will also improve the current performance of person. It can
be also explained as the development of knowledge, skills and learning so that one
can create and get career opportunities (Dorsam, 2018). It is an ongoing and never
ending process which lasts for long time until the goals are accomplished by a
person. It outlines that learning which can be achieved by any person at any time,
which can enhance and build a better future of a person. This is also beneficial for
the organisation and a person himself as it helps to improve the productivity and
performance which aids to attain the certain objectives. When a person develops in
his career, it can provide opportunities such as addition in duties and responsibilities
and many more. Therefore, the whole concept of PDP focuses on one basic factors
i.e. development of a person's skills, quality and knowledge in an effective manner.
3. Description and discussion of the value of short term
goals identifying at least 3 personal examples
Short-term goals means the goals that can be attained in the near future. The near
future can refer to today, tomorrow, week, month and a year, but not more than a
year. This type of goal is something a person want to achieve soon. Short-term goals
aids a person to think what he can do right away. Short-term goals seems small but
once they achieved, it can lead to big accomplishments in career and life. This type
of goal also helps a person to manage his time. It is necessary for individual to
realize the value of short-term goals as every individual whether he is a student or an
employee has certain desires which they want attain in the best possible way. For
instance, suppose a person want to live in a big house or bungalow and for such
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motive he needs to earn and raise his income which is not a easy task. For such
desire, he needs to be talented and skilled. Learning skills and knowledge can help
him to fulfil his dream.The main objective of short-term goals is to further success
and assist the long term goals. They are more certain and actionable. Building short-
term aspirations can help an individual to build his career and professional growth as
it helps to be more productive at his workplace and enhance the job satisfaction.
Examples of Short-term goals-
 Find a balance between work and personal life.
 Improve a work-related skill.
 Communicate more with colleagues.
4. Description and discussion of the value of medium
term goals identifying at least 3 personal examples
Medium-term goals are the bridge between short-term goals that can be attained and
long term goals that requires long time to be attained. Since long-term goals takes
time to be accomplished, medium-term goals supports a person to stay encouraged
and motivated while his taking routine small steps for the steady process towards
long-term aspirations. Medium-term goals takes a bit longer time period than short-
term goals. It takes few months up to 3 years for the accomplishment. There are
many goals which cannot be achieved in short period. Such goals are medium-term
goals which requires patience for the accomplishments. Short-term goals and
medium-term goals can be a stepping stone for long term aspirations. It is also vital
to both organisation and an individual to achieve long-term goals with the support of
medium-term aspirations. It is essential for an individual to set SMART goals which
facilitate motivation and satisfaction that they will attain their long-term aspirations
within a certain time (Faizuddin, 2020).
Examples of medium-term goals-
 Travelling
 Starting a business
 Repaying student loans
5. Description and discussion of the value of long term
goals identifying at least 3 personal examples
Long-term goals are very sensitive for person as they are the ultimate goals and
vision of a person. It can be meant by those goals which take time, efforts and
significant planning to attain. Long-term goals are the aspirations that a person want
in his future. These goals require several steps and small goals along the way. Long-
term goals are essential and significant for a successful career. These aspirations
cannot achieve in months or in a year but takes multiple years to the completion. By
sensing long-term goals, an individual can think about his education that he will
require for the long-term aspirations. He will also think about jobs that he want for
such accomplishments. This adds a true meaning to an individual's life. It must be
understood by a person that a failure does not mean that he cannot achieve success
rather he must focus on his individual goals, accept challenges, work on failures and
grab opportunities which offers him a bright future and better life (Ghait, 2018). For
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instance, an individual wants to be come an ultimate rich person in the whole world.
That is the reason, they set their dreams to fulfil those desire as a person cannot
become a rich in one day, weak or month but takes lots of patience, determination
and longer period of time.
Example of long-term goals-
 Get a university degree
 Secure funding for family and children
 Get the dream job
6. Description and discussion of the value of a Personal
Development Plan
Personal development plan is also named as individual development plan (IDP) or
personal enterprise plan (PEP). Personal development plan can be referred to an
investment in the most critical resource i.e. oneself in order to manage his life in the
most effective way irrespective of hurdle and obstacles along the way. This is an
action plan or strategy that enables a person to be proactive rather than waiting
things to happen automatically. A person takes a significant initiative so he can make
those things possible (Tulu, 2019). As PDP is important for developing skills and
career, an individual must review his strong and weak point honestly as this plan
help to enhance the weaknesses and show a right direction and ask people to leave
their comfort zone. It is essential to understand that one cannot always achieve his
goals but surely he will gain experience and the effort will definitely rewarding in his
forthcoming days. In other term, PDP can be explained as a commitment towards
oneself to identify the personal fulfilment. PDP is a step in the right path as it aids an
individual to find solution to some critical questions in order to plan and go along.
This plan deals as roadmap and support in the self-reflection. Every individual has
some goals and aspirations in his life and the PDP acts to build strategies that will
support in attaining with minimal fuss. An individual thinks about his skills, interests,
capabilities, market opportunities and weighs his core competencies. PDP plans
helps to find out the available resources. A person identifies his strong and weak
points that help to overcome the gap to be more useful and productive (Johnson,
2019). An individual develops personal development plan to accomplish the desired
aims and conquer his establish aspirations. Personal development plan also assists
a person to be more motivated and focused toward their aims and objectives. It will
prevent an individual to taking wrong decisions. A well established plan for
development can relieve a person from stress and bitter situations. It is also found
that people must not be adhere too hard to their PDP. Because in some of the
cases, long term aspirations may not fulfil and may create possibilities to not offer a
better future. When individuals follow PDP strictly, they might lose chances and
better opportunities.
Value of personal and professional development plan-
 It helps a person to recognize the relevant areas for improvement so that can
add benefits in personal and professional life.
 It helps in learning about the abilities, skills and aspirations.
 It helps build a vision.
 It aids to improve the work life balance.
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 When short-term goals are achieved by a person, it offers a motivation to
move forward to attain medium-term and long-term goals.
 It supports in weighing the progress and becoming more aware about
individual potential.
 It helps a person to face any kind of challenges and situations when enters
the professionalism (Nair and Arshad, 2018). (Continue in appendices)
7.0 Conclusion
It has been concluded from the above discussion is that personal and professional
development of a person is very essential as the competition is increasing day by
day. As the competition increasing, a person needs to develop and focus on the his
skills, knowledge and learning that helps him to be competent. A person can improve
his skills and qualities by developing action plan for his personal and professional
growth. Such plans are consist with short-term, medium-term and long-term goals.
Short-term goal is the first step to create better career and bright future for a person.
Medium-term goals helps a person to stay motivated and focused that will be useful
in the accomplishment of long-term goals.
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Reference List:
Ackerman, G. L., Training, Planning, Designing: Purposeful Professional
Development.
Dorsam, L. A., 2018. Professional Development, What's the Point? An Insider's
Perspective of a 6-day Professional Development Opportunity for Faith Based Youth
Workers (Doctoral dissertation, Clemson University).
Faizuddin, A., 2020. Continuous professional development for principals in light of
the 21st century management in selected high schools in Aceh, Indonesia.
Ghait, A., 2018. The Perceptions and Experiences of English Foreign Language
(EFL) Primary School Teachers from the Gharian district of Libya towards their
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) (Doctoral dissertation, University of
Huddersfield).
Johnson, A., 2019. Action Research for Teacher Professional Development. The
Wiley handbook of action research in education, p.253.
Nair, R. and Arshad, R., 2018. The discursive construction of teachers and
implications for continuing professional development. Indonesian Journal of Applied
Linguistics, 8(1), pp.131-138.
Odegaard, D., 2020. Take Note: Timely and Targeted Professional Development
during COVID-19. Music Educators Journal, 107(1), pp.4-4.
Pelser, D. and Et.al., 2020. Professional development for clerkship administrators: a
16-year overview of the clerkship administrator certificate program. Medical
education online, 25(1), p.1710327.
Shudifat, M., 2020. Professional Development of Nurse Educators: Results of Focus
Groups of Jordanian Nurses. Health Science Journal, 14(1), pp.1-6.
Tulu, A., 2019. The practice and challenges of school-based teachers continuous
professional development: A case of Government Secondary Schools of Hawassa
City in Ethiopia. Educational Research and Reviews, 14(1), pp.33-43.
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Appendix 1: Personal Development Plan
Skills Goals Importance Actions Time Duration
Time-
management
skills
Short-term
goals
In personal and
professional life,
it is very
essential to
manage time in
order get work
and other
activities
completed.
In order to
improve time-
management
skills, I will
create a time-
table and try to
follow the work
accordingly. I
will focus on my
schedule so that
work get
competed in the
certain time
limit. This will
also
acknowledge
me to know
what task
should be done
on prior basis
(Odegaard, 2020).
3 months
Communicatio
n skills
Medium-term
goals
The
communication
skill is very
essential in the
personal and
professional life
In order to
enhance my
communication
skills, I have
researched
about many
1.5 years
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in order to put
ideas, thoughts
and opinions on
something. In
professional life,
if one cannot be
able to
communicate
with others then
will impact
negatively on
work. As I want
to become a HR
manager, it is
vital
communicate
with my
subordinates
and this can
actually happen
when I am good
at
communication.
Hence, I want to
improve my
communication
skills.
coaching
classes where I
can take
different session
of
communication.
In such
sessions, my
mentors will try
make me
comfortable with
other members
and allow me to
share and
express my
views to them.
This will also
help me to
understand their
views on
particular
concept through
which I can gain
my knowledge.
Management
skills
Long-term goals Management
skills are
essential in any
organisation. It
I realized from
my seniors that
learning
management
3-5 years
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is not easy to
gain
management
skills as it takes
time and
experiences. In
the current
times,
management
skills are vital
for every
individual. I
realized some
complexities in
managing
people in my
organisation
that is why I
want to develop
such skills
which will help
to become a
good manager
(Shudifat, 2020).
skills takes lot of
time and need
an appropriate
amount of
experience.
That is the
reason I am
focusing on to
gain experience
in management
field (Pelser and
Et.al., 2020).
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