Patterns for success

Not all strategies are alike. I think some of us have the unspoken assumption that we all pursue personal development in the same way, at least in the most general terms. Although we may have different goals, focuses and values, I think most people assume that personal development is the same process for most people. In reality I see huge differences. I believe it is often these differences in procedure for how you move towards any personal development that often determine your results.

As I have done more and more things towards my own personal growth I have really noticed a consistent pattern for progress. I believe that it is this process that has allowed me a lot of success in moving forwards. That said, I don't believe that there is only one successful process, nor do I believe that my process is a perfect procedure. However, if you are frustrated with a lack of success in your own personal development efforts, you may want to look at the pattern that has served me so well.

My pattern for personal development comes down to pretty much the same three steps every time. The steps are ideas, implementation, review. By focusing on all three steps of this personal development equation, I have been able to achieve a fairly high degree of personal development success in a relatively short period of time. I think that these three steps are so important that I have decided to make a blog entry for each one of the steps.

In order to improve you need to have ideas about where you can improve. Idea generation is an important, but often over-emphasized phase. I would suggest spending no more than twenty percent of your resources on this phase. Idea generation comes from reading books, listening to audio tapes or reading this blog. You can also generate ideas from introspection and journalling, or modeling the success of others. Consider idea generation to be like collecting seeds for future growth. Collecting a lot of seeds from a wide variety of plants will give you the greatest ability to select those with the most potential.

Idea generation is an incredibly important step in personal development. It is the first step, for without seeds there can be no trees. Unfortunately, most people incorrectly assume it is the only step. This is why you frequently see people who read self-help books and attend personal development seminars and don't ever make any noticeable progress. If you have more ideas for improvement then you can ever implement, that is an excellent thing, just make sure that you are actually implementing some of them.

The second step towards personal development success is implementing some of your ideas. Implementation should take at least sixty percent of your resources. Implementation is the most important step in moving forward. Unfortunately, this step is also the most energy and time consuming. Implementation, unlike idea generation, is an incredibly costly step towards personal growth. As a result you have to be miserly about how you invest in this step. It is impossible to spend time and energy on every idea you encounter, so you must learn to select the absolute best ideas and focus your resources on their development.