Strategies on Personal Development Plan: Benefits and Obstacles

This essay delves into the realm of personal development, exploring its multifaceted nature and its impact on various aspects of life, including studies, career, and future aspirations. The discussion centers around the significance of creating a personal development plan and its benefits, such as discovering life's purpose, fostering empowerment, and boosting motivation. The essay also highlights the importance of setting goals, cultivating a positive attitude, and nurturing relationships as key components of personal growth. Furthermore, the essay acknowledges potential obstacles, including a lack of knowledge, skill gaps, and mental challenges, while emphasizing the role of assertive skills in both professional and personal spheres. It concludes by stressing the importance of writing down a development plan, addressing the benefits and challenges, and providing recommendations for personal growth.

Running Head: STRATEGIES ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
STRATEGIES ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
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1STRATEGIES ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Writing development plan...........................................................................................................4
Benefits....................................................................................................................................4
Discovering life purpose..........................................................................................................4
Empowerment..........................................................................................................................5
Motivation................................................................................................................................5
Setting goals.............................................................................................................................5
Positive attitude.......................................................................................................................6
Happiness.................................................................................................................................6
Relationship.............................................................................................................................7
Obstacles..................................................................................................................................7
Absence of knowledge.............................................................................................................7
Lack of skill.............................................................................................................................8
Apparent failures.....................................................................................................................8
Mental challenges....................................................................................................................8
Assertive skills.............................................................................................................................8
Professional goals....................................................................................................................9
Personal goals..........................................................................................................................9

2STRATEGIES ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Recommendation...........................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................12

3STRATEGIES ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Introduction
Personal development is related to the progress and growth of an individual in every
aspects of life. For an instance, it can be focused on studies, life, career or future. In response to
that personal development will help to take necessary steps in order to achieve future goals.
There is a psychological underpinning regarding the concept of personal development.
According to Piaget, Personal development is a discourse or a process which can enhance
employment skills, yielding wealth and developing consciousness through cognitive way of
learning (Cottrell 2015). Besides the theoretical definition of personal definition there are also
some practical ideas of personal development. In his book Kolb (2014) highlights some key
concept of the definition of personal development. It can be viewed that personal development is
referred as a concept of career development. For most of the people it is an important decision to
set his career goals with taking proper development plans (Tattum and Tattum 2017). In fact, it
can be seen in other spectrum of life such as in studies or in other course of life. In this context,
this report is going to discuss about the correlation between individual and the core idea of
personal development. In course of the discussion, assertive skills and their impact on
professional and personal sphere are also being addressed. Moreover, the analysis will further be
extended by putting emphasis on the advantages and obstacles while writing a personal
development plan.

4STRATEGIES ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Discussion
Writing development plan
In supporting the practice of writing development plan, it can be argued that most of the
successful people in the planet have or had a tendency to write down their development plan. In
this regards, an evident question comes in mind about the effectiveness and relevance of
development plan in individual life. The basic feature of writing a development plan supports
this trend. The first principle in setting for a personal development plan one has to keep in mind
that the plan should be noted down. The reason behind this habit is more prone towards a
psychological explanation. Writing down the development plan spontaneously generates a
feeling of achievable and pragmatic instance (Magee and Webb 2015). In fact, it can usher a
feeling of mental stability which will foster more willingness to achieve the target. Therefore, it
is obvious that writing a personal development plan is very much beneficial for individuals.
Benefits
Discovering life purpose
It is important to figure out the purpose of life. Without having aims and targets
life will be futile and pointless. In respect to that it can be argued that discovering the purpose of
life is not an easy task. There are a number of factors in terms of macro and micro environment
are related to identify the aim of life. It will also enable the individual to become empowered and
inspired with having a clear idea the priorities of life (Mazur et al. 2016). This new direction in
life also provides a new vision and mission which is reflected in the gesture of the person. Living
a simply life with some specific purposes can be beneficial for personal development.

5STRATEGIES ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Empowerment
This purposeful life leads to empowerment. Often it can be seen that people are
suffering with lack of mental ability and strength. In government, education or in other sectors
most of the people have no idea about their creativeness or the power to produce something
innovative (Cottrell 2015). In response to that empowerment furnishes a strong message of
empowerment which in contrast helps to build up confidence within an individual mind. In
addition to this, there is also a positive output of writing a personal development plan which
keeps the individual active in pursuing for achieving the goals in life.
Motivation
In this regards, motivation plays a significant role to develop personal credence. It
is however imperative to acknowledge the capability of individual power and analyses the
capacity to make the aims successful. Moreover, the willingness to perform better with a creative
mindset helps a person to become more innovative and resourceful. For an instance, in private
organisations employees have the fear of getting dismissal in spite of having a good working
experience (Bohatko-Naismith et al. 2015). Job insecurity is not the only factor for employee’s
anxiety, however, lack of self motivation leads him towards inefficient. Hence, the employee is
getting worried about his future. In this context, writing a personal development plan plays a
pivotal role to boost up the psyche of the employee. The personal development plan will make
the person more focused and will also keep him motivated to go for a long run and enrich his
skills by keeping his mind free from any kind of anxiety or insecurity.
Setting goals
Everyone should possess the idea of setting targets and goals respect to their jobs.
In fact, it can be argued that goals should be demarked in long term and short term needs. An

6STRATEGIES ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
individual must have a clear understanding about his long term and short term goals. However,
setting goals in terms of short term and long term is not an easy task (Guerra, Modecki and
Cunningham 2014). It requires a clear understanding of the situation and ability to prioritize
specific targets. In reality, people have to deal with plenty of events and it is not possible for
everyone to recall their tasks in a matter of urgency. Therefore, writing down the goals is a better
option for everyone. It will help the person to remember his or her priority goals in emergency
times. In fact, it will also enable the person to reshape his mission and vision if the previous set
of goals is failed to keep pace with the given targets.
Positive attitude
Positive attitude is very essential in this regards. It can be asserted that attitude is
the mirror of the mentality of a person. Individual attitude makes him different in compare to
other people and reflects his passion for doing something different. Addition of positivism leads
him to stay on the right way with full of hopes and beliefs (Jess-Cooke 2017). In response to this,
the role of writing a personal development plan is to keep the person aware of his targets and
achievements and at the same time help him to figure out whether his path is going to meet the
goals or not.
Happiness
A good personal development can bring happiness to a person’s life. The purpose
of fixing targets and meets all the requirements can make a person calm and controlled. In fact,
happiness is the key factor of prosperity in anyone’s life and everybody deserves to be happy. In
this context it can be argued that writing a personal development plan and in pursuit of attaining
all the goals accordingly are closely interlinked each other (Jess-Cooke 2017). Constructing a
development plan and write it down is therefore very essential and effective in this regards.

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Hence, it can be asserted that writing a personal development plan will put focus on the heyday
of an individual by reflecting the ways of going towards success.
Relationship
Relationship is considered to be a significant element in contributing to the
achievement of the goals and objectives of an individual. Relationship can engulf healthy and
balanced life with the help of individual development plan. Writing a personal development plan
plays a major role in this context. For instance, the relationship between the happy and healthy
life of a graduate student is primarily associated with his or her educational progress and the
progress is achievable with the help of written personal development plan (Kashdan et al. 2018).
Obstacles
Nonetheless, despite of having an immense benefits provided by writing of a personal
development plan it is also important to become aware of the obstacles in order to write a
personal development plan. In fact, most of the people while assessing personal development
plan and write it down are facing a number of challenges in various sectors (Scott et al. 2015).
Absence of knowledge
Having knowledge and idea of the relevant targets is very essential for an
individual. In respect to that lack of understanding of the required goals and objectives can bring
failure to anyone’s life (Pu and Evans 2018). It can be stated that without having a clear picture
of the estimated goals will be resulted a mayhem in career developing.

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Lack of skill
Summarizing the goals and objectives is a primary principal for constructing a
personal development plan. It is however can be argued that without having adequate skill to
meet the targets the written form of the plan does not have any pragmatic value (Szigeti 2016).
Apparent failures
It can be argued that getting inadequate perception of the personal development
plan can lead towards failure. In this context, the written format of the personal development
plan will also lose its relevance and will be treated similarly (Jureddi and Brahmaiah 2016).
Mental challenges
Mental instability and disbelief cannot be a foundation basis of any formulating a
personal development plan. The person has to keep in mind that while constructing his personal
development plan he or she should not be diverted by any internal and external factors. It can
pose an obstacle for the entire process and considered to be a deterrent factor while writing the
plan (Morningstar 2017).
Assertive skills
Assertiveness is referred to the way through which one can achieve quick respect in
workplace or anywhere else (Brownell 2015). This is a factor which can help to influence others
by setting a number of boundaries. However, those boundaries are not permanent in nature and
in due time with the change in situation and goals it will also shift its focus. In fact, assertive
skills generate a positive sense to make a stable relationship with others. The persuasive nature
of communication further affixes more impetus in this process (Botvin and Griffin 2014).

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Professional goals
In professional field there are two assertive techniques which are able to earn respect in
workplace (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2014). The first method is associated with the
relationship between the mentors and the individual employees. There is also a chance of
opportunity for the employees to flaunt their best skills in time. However, it can be understand
that the person has an idea about the timing of his revelation. It is resembled with the
creativeness of an individual. In order to achieve that influencing the mentors through actions is
considered to be a prime task for every employee. In this context expressing oneself in the
professional meeting is supposed to be the best option for earning reputation (Heuvel, Demerouti
and Peeters 2015).
In addition to this, the second technique is referred to the professional portfolio of an
individual. Professionalism is considered to be the best policy in this context. In fact, the
professional nature of an employee is beneficial for an employee in order to get success by
getting attention of the authority (Greenan 2016). However, it is necessary for the employee to
keep in mind that creating attention must be based on positive body language of the employee
(Bohatko-Naismith 2015). The assertive skills on professional attributes will help an employee to
earn reputation which he or she deserves to gain.
Personal goals
Being assertive is seemed to be a better style of achieving the aim in life. In response to
this it is imperative to analyse the significance of assertive skills in personal life (Alberti and
Emmons 2017). In this regards, it can be opined that personal goals can help an individual to
regain his lost confidence which in near future assists to get self esteem.

10STRATEGIES ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Besides this, it can be stated that even though in personal life a person requires some kind
of recognition from family and friends especially. In respect to that, the assertive skills prove to
be the best method to earn respect and recognition (Botvin and Griffin 2014).
Another positive impact of using assertive skills is that it can improve the decision
making skills of an individual person (Szigeti 2016). It is also necessary for a person to get
satisfaction and improve decision making skills by incorporating the assertive skills in personal
development plan.
Conclusion
Personal development plan is very significant for every individual being. It creates a
healthy mental stability and calmness which help a person to get success in life. In respect to that
it is important for the individual to write down the important goals in life and prioritize it
regarding the situation. Hence, it can be concluded that the report is clearly addressed the
principles factors that affecting the writing of a personal development plan positively and at the
same time the report analyses some obligations related to composing the personal development
plan. In fact, incorporating assertive skills in both personal and professional life is highly
beneficial which in return facilitate the process of development personally and professionally.
Recommendation
There is ample of opportunities for an individual to get involved in the course of
developing a personal progress plan. Anxiety, insecurity and negative mindset is considered to
be a backlash in the process of promoting oneself. Therefore, it is important to figure out some

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recommendations in response to resolve the problems regarding composing a personal
development plan and writing it down.
The first recommendation in response to writing a personal development plan is that
before getting into the process the person should understand the value of the writing. Moreover,
a clear vision about planning and objectives should be kept under scrutiny. The external
environment like negative influence from the outside and internal factors such as anxiety or lack
of confidence should keep aside while formulating the ideas.
In addition to this, it is important to understand that assertive skills have a positive impact
in structuring the personal as well as professional development plans. Therefore, using the
assertive techniques needs a matured insight of the individual targets. Furthermore, the person
has to prioritize his or her goals so that the assertive skills will able to perform effectively.