If you’ve ever struggled with creating a personal growth strategy or setting clear goals for yourself, here’s a blueprint I use to achieve this. I conduct an evaluation every start of the year to ensure that I am on the right track on my growth path.
If companies take time every year to define their goals and map their growth strategy for achieving them, we should invest that same time in our own goals.
Here’s a blueprint you can use:
But First: Begin by defining your version of a perfect life.
Dream about it. Ask yourself – who do you admire? What is it about them that you admire? If you had a wand to create your life in the future, what would you wish for? Write your thoughts and dreams down. You will need to keep benchmarking other aspects of this framework to measure yourself on how close or far out you are from your perfect life.
Next up is the actual Framework. I have divided this into 6 areas, and we will tackle each one after the other:
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Career
This is about your personal development. What would you like to achieve by the end of the year? It could be a new skill such as writing more often, or to change jobs, and so on. Define your career goals here.
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Hobbies
Your mental health is so important, and your hobbies can keep you grounded. Some of us are so bogged down by everyday activities that we are unable to make time for the things love; the things that trigger mental happiness. Start by itemizing little things you can do to de-stress as you hustle. It does not have to be something complicated. It could be watching a movie a week, traveling once a year, whatever it is.
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Relationships
Your growth in this area could include relationships with God, family, friends, acquaintances, romantic relationships, etc. Here, define what you want to change this year. Keep it short and simple.
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Business/ Projects
Whether you run a business or handle projects, define what success looks like in this area. Success could be a completed project and a final handover or a revenue milestone in your business. Whatever it is, define these here.
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Health
A healthy body is an active body. Define one or two healthy habits you would like to drop or pick up this year. Be as specific as possible. It could be exercising every week, decreasing your calorie intake, etc. Ensure your goals are specific.
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Financial
This is broken down into 3 segments:
a) Investments: What is your goal for investments? How would you like to grow your investment portfolio? An easy way to define your goal is this: Ask yourself – if you were to liquidate your investments today, how much would they be worth? And then, if you were to do the same at the end of the year, how much would you want your investments to be worth? Plan the end goal and then itemize the ways you want to achieve this growth.
b) Expenses – All the things you dreamed up above, what is the cost for achieving them? This will define the third part:
c) Income – I would advise you to tackle this one last. How much would you need to generate as income this year, month by month, based on all the expenses, projects, and dreams you itemised above? Be as clear as possible, and define the sources of your income, including salaries and other forms of investment.
There, you have it. Creating a personal growth plan is not easy. It would probably take you about a week to complete this but when you do, you will be so glad that you did. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too many things. Don’t have too many goals so you don’t get lost in your plan. And don’t forget to break these goals down into month-by-month achievements.
You can just break these down into a three-month plan at a time, again so that you are not overwhelmed.
All the best.
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