Custom «Personal Development Plans» Essay Paper Sample

A Personal Development plan can be can be defined as a structured and well supported plan/process set out by a person aiming to reflect on their education, general performance and/or the achievements. It then helps in the personal and educational planning and eventually in career development. The main aim at to help the individual learn while developing effectively. The individual will thus be able to; learn on a wider variety and context, while keeping records that can be revisited to measure growth. They can also review the set goals. The student is also able to plan and be responsible for their own learning. 

Personal Development Plan

My current State

My Strengths

1.         Principled.

2.         Positive thinking, I believe in myself.

My Weaknesses

1.         Doing my assignments late.

2.         Lack confidence in front of strangers and tutors.

3.         Procrastinating

4.         Loosing my tempers very easily when provoked.

Feedbacks

1. Not assertive enough.

2. I am good at planning but not implementing and thus I lack in personal initiative.

Performance Indicators

1.         When there is heavy workload, I get overwhelmed with stress.

2.         Poor performance.

Focus area priorities

1. Learn to have more self confidence & courage in all situations.

2. Develop assertiveness. Be strong and pronounced.

3. Learn to not get worked up so easily and be in control.

My desired state

I.          To be able to talk, act and explain myself confidently regardless of who am I talking to or the situation I am in. Be able voice out my opinion and to stand for it without being shaken so as to win others confidence.  Be able to influence or convince group members because I exhume confidence.

II.        Able to take control of whatever situations I am in and be assertive. Able to lobby for recommendations ideas and the decisions I make to be accepted by others in cases where I believe they are the best. To proactively take the leadership role in a bigger number of situations as compared to my current state. Strive take the personal initiative to be the leader in group situations where the leader needs to volunteer. Ensure I am the first to give recommendations in cases where the group needs to make a decision. Incase I do not agree with members, I should be able to say no firmly. The decision I make should not be influenced by others but by what I believe in.

III.       Learn to react situations more calmly and to assess them before reacting to them. Engage the skill of looking for the positives in a situation and thus use my energy in finding the situation rather than losing my tempers.

Why do I want it?

I.          With confidence, I am able to create new opportunities for myself in all fields. I command more respect from all those I interact with. Confidence will make me more daring and I will thus be able to go against. The current thus creating more opportunities for me. I will be able to make a better person of myself and thus life will be more interesting for me in all fields.

II.        With assertiveness, I will not have to follow or subscribe to people’s decisions but my own. This will go hand in hand with confidence to make me a well rounded individual with a lot of self control. Assertiveness will install self esteem in me in addition to making more respected by all.

III.       By learning to control my temper, I will be more responsible for what I say when in low moods as I will have avoided saying things I later regret. This will ensure that unlike before, I will not hurt my friends and family again. I will use my energy in a positive way instead of wasting it on anger. To steer away from regular confrontations and embrace compassion instead.

Short term goals

1. To final finish reading a book I have on self confidence within two weeks and apply the principles therein.

2. Make four new recommendations to my group members and follow on them to be implemented.

3. Start going for anger management class and see to it that I complete the course.

Long term goals

1. To achieve my future goal of starting my own logistics business and being able to compete globally, I need to be able to command confidence in all situations. This will ensure that the business is not affected by setbacks.

2. Always ensure that when the situation calls for me to be the leader, I am assertive while ensuring I am not too extreme.

3. Keep my calm in all situations.

Requirements

1. The use Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques so as develop confidence.

2. Request to be a leader in the various aspects of and teach myself to be assertive by making suggestions of new ideas and being there to help in the decision making.

3. Anger management books and meditation.

Resources

1. The book: ‘How to develop confidence’ by Joe Smith.

2. Read books on NLP to learn to communicate assertively & respectfully.

3. An anger management class in my locality.

Timelines/Date on which they should have been achieved

             The specific areas of improvement are; to improve on my personal confidence, to learn to be assertive and to manage my anger. All the three are closely tied as they all affect my general possibility and how I relate with people around me.

            As at now, I have managed to become a more confident person. With help of books, I have learnt to conquer my worst fears and this has changed the way people view me. (Gallen & Reed Business Information 2000)I have managed to make more friends in the process. Assertiveness has also been achieved though I am yet to have a bigger challenge that will see my decision making influence very important. I joined a local anger management class and since then, I have been taught to keep my temper in check.

Part II

            The personal development plan has taught me a lot of things while helping me change to a better person. They are things that I previously ignored or just did not think mattered. It would have taken the effort of a friend or a specialist to notice these “small” mannerisms (Grit and Nico van der Sijde 2009). More often than not, we all believe we are right and stand for what we believe. A person may believe that they are weak and not plan on how to tackle this. The plan has helped me realize that with enough dedication and a good plan, change can be achieved. It requires one to be dedicated and honest to themselves.

            I have always believed that I am naturally shy and since my childhood days, I have always kept to myself at all times. I only came out to play with people I knew and even then, I could not be too social. However, the plan has made me realize that it is not inborn and that I can actually lead. My acquired confidence has made me more assertive and I have no problem talking to a crowd. I have learnt that that was just a notion and that the real me is a social and jovial person.

            The personal development plan has also made me realize how much I was losing by being temperamental. I now know that that attitude had actually cost me friendships. The attitude could also have scared off potential friends because they worried that I would get angry too often.

            The most significant learning experience at the University of Greenwich is the online discussion forums. The advent of IT has seen many changes in the way we learn and instead of meeting in groups, we can actually have virtual discussions. This is a move that has made work easier while increasing accountability of time as the software can also track participation. I am also a fan of the internet and discussions help me a lot.

The virtual blackboard is a forum for students to share only important knowledge at the right time. This means that since we do not meet physically, then there is little social interaction that hinders flow of education. Virtual discussion also allows one to attend the discussion at the comfort of their homes. It is thus very flexible and thus can be done at all times.

Deadlines set on this virtual forum also ensure that students are always on schedule, The state of the art forum is fully automated and thus no student would try to look for excuses. They have to be ready for strict deadlines and thus they strive to achieve the best within the given time.

The change I have experienced has been positive. I have become more social as a result of my confidence and this has opened up many avenues for me. My assertive nature has been appreciated before and I have learnt to deal with my emotions in the right way. I have also learnt to be self controlled by preparing and following the strict personal development plan.

TASK II   

Attendance of the class means that the student logs on to their CMS and reads through the discussions posted on the board. It is thus simply availing yourself for the discussion. This is mandatory for a serious student who wants to avoid penalties on their final grade. On the other hand, participation requires the active contribution of the student to the topics being discussed. The student will be graded according to how active they are in the Class Practice Requirements (CPR). The success of these classes thus relies on participation to the discussions on board. Grade penalties will be imposed on for neglecting attendance whereas regular and active participation will see the student rewarded by earning them points. (http://www8.nau.edu/d-elearn/support/tutorials/discrubrics/attendpart.php)

                The online forum has really helped me grow by being able to easily interact with people with same aspirations as mine. In this particular forum, we were supposed to introduce ourselves first. This went a long way in creating a familiar presence and sharing with others what to expect from us. By introducing ourselves, I had to work against my usual reserved self, meet, and study with people I would have shied from interacting with. One was able to learn to interact even with people online and be able to contribute.

            In this phase, we were also required to describe one accomplishment we wanted to achieve in life. For me, this was not easy, considering I found that a private issue. However, this was a requirement and seeing other students tell of their aspirations so easily, I did not have a problem explaining my aspirations. The fact that fellow students reacted to my posting was a bonus. After writing that I aspired to be a global leader in the logistics business, A few people wanted to know how I had chosen that as my career path. I described that I had actually worked in this business for two years and that is why I had developed an interest on this field. Some agreed that that was a good choice and continued to encourage me to work towards my goal. This really helped me grow in confidence.

            On the second phase of these online forums, we were also required to give presentations. We were also to review the presentations that had been displayed on the web links section. We were to give an opinion on the best and worst presentations after going through them. I decided to choose my best presentation by carefully considering the key points in the video presentation which were; font size, amount of text used and the choice of visuals (Rosania 2003). I had special focus on visuals, as the audiences are able to understand better from few visuals compared to long paragraph of text. I gave that a priority in my rating in addition to font size which had to be large enough considering that the slides were presented to a group and thus needed to be legible to all. (Rutledge 2010)

            I could personal improve on the font and slide speeds. I would also reduce the amount of text per slide thus ensuring that the speed of slides goes hand in hand with the various speeds of the group members.