Several months ago, I completed a personal pursuit to create a Personal Growth Planner to aid me, and others, in fashioning one’s life to the unique design one imagines it to be. Whether we realize it or not, throughout our life we are engaged in a deliberate act of creation. The question then is, how much focus, intention, and discipline are you directing towards the act of deliberate creation, or more commonly stated—the achievement of defined personal life goals? As a lifelong student of deliberate creation or personal transformation, I am constantly reading, listening, and viewing various suggested techniques to help me along on my journey. The Personal Growth Planner is an act of deliberate creation to take the methods I’ve learned from others and apply my own design thinking to create a tool that would aid me in my quest to become “better.”
With prompts for daily morning and evening entries, as well as places to write reminders, notes, and some surprises, the Personal Growth Planner is set up to engage you on a daily basis. For me, these are the most important reminders to have in my everyday carry. Keeping these priorities and directives in front of me on a daily basis helps me stay focused on the moment and in the act of deliberate creation as each day builds and rolls by me.
Here are some pictures of the Personal Growth Planner Version 2.0. Currently, the only way you can get your hands on one of these little babies is to be affiliated with the company I founded and run, or be a friend or acquaintance. Below are instructions on how friends and acquaintances can obtain a Personal Growth Planner to try it out in one’s own personal workshop.
This personal project started out a couple of years ago by creating Version 1.0 for myself at Kinko’s over the span of a few days. I enjoyed Version 1.0 so much, that I thought creating a Version 2.0 incorporating various improvements would be a worthwhile endeavor to share with my circle. For reference, here is Version 1.0 of the Personal Growth Planner. The entry in Version 1.0 is dated January 23, 2017, which feels like both yesterday and a lifetime ago. I attribute this dichotomous experience to the fact that when you are present, engaged in the act of daily creation, personal growth accelerates exponentially, making who you were two years ago, almost unrecognizable to who you are today. And yet when you live in the moment, time is a seamless river with recognizable boundaries.
Since I have had a chance to share the Personal Growth Planner with some friends, I have received some wonderful positive feedback in the last 45 days since it was published. So it gives me great reward to write about the Personal Growth Planner and offer it up to others. The feedback I have received is that the Personal Growth Planner is having a positive impact on making my friends’ lives better. And that’s what it’s all about, making things better, even if small in scope.
I’m also pleased by the fact that I was able to take a personal project that I created for myself, and transform it into something that can help others become their best selves. As the deliberate creator of my own life, that has great personal reward.
On that same note, I’ve received some great inquires to my post on collarbone fracture recovery from individuals who have suffered the same injury and were faced with similar questions and concerns. Helping others in unique little ways is #awesome.
I would like to note, importantly, that many of the ideas behind the Personal Growth Planner are borrowed from others who have published and written extensively on the subject matter. So I want to be sure that proper credit is given to those who have come before me and have helped me along my personal journey. So a big shout out to Tim Ferris and many others for doing the great work to pave the way. The Personal Growth Planner is my way to “pay it forward” as they say.
Just in time for the holidays, we will be making the planners available on my website, so if you would like one for yourself or to give as a gift, check back soon. We simply ask that you make a donation to the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) in order to get your own Personal Growth Planner.
Make it a great day!