Agile Personal Development

After evaluating the ‘personal vision statement’ method for personal goal setting, my analysis is as follows:

Pros:

• Very clear and concise questions to help you think about your life and what is important to you
• I like the incorporation of personal values into the mix. I think this is a critical element for evaluating the backdrop against your life’s goals.
• Using the Foundation for a Better Life’s list of values to augment the basic method really helped. There are other lists of values out there to choose from, but I like their stories behind some of the famous people that exemplify these values, as well as the quotes for each value.
• I think this method sets a good foundation to start getting into specific goals, the actions that need to happen to achieve them, and how to track progress.
• The different facets of life that were suggested were inline with what I expected, making it easier to categorize the different goals for your life.

Cons:

• The basic method didn’t have good examples of the different values that could be used
• I struggled with how personal strengths and weaknesses (the last two questions) really tied in to the personal vision statement

Lessons Learned:

Even though I had originally thought of this method as a way to determine ‘big-picture’ goals, I now believe that defining your personal vision statement (and values) is a critical step *before* you start identifying specific goals. I still see this step as part of the goal-setting process, but I don’t believe it is the only step. I still need to add another method (or two) to identify some clear goals for strategy development.

Overall Evaluation:

I really like this method, and will incorporate it into my APD Methodology. I give it a thumbs up!

After working through the method of developing a personal vision statement described here, I’ve come up with the following as my personal vision statement.

Vision Statement

• Continuously learn and experience new things in life, especially through travel and outdoor activities.
• Make significant contributions in my professional life while maintaining balance with my personal life.
• Ensure my career gives me the opportunity to talk with people, solve problems through innovative approaches, and be self-directed.
• Spend time with family.
• Keep up with old friends and also make new ones.
• Be a good father and husband.
• Make time for daydreaming about the future.
• Contribute to society through mentoring/teaching and leveraging my skills to develop something new or solve challenging problems.
• Plan for a stable financial future, while enjoying the present.
• Ensure a long and fulfilling life through health and wellness activities.
• Enjoy life along the way, don’t miss out on today while planning for tomorrow.

My choices in life should reflect my core values of ambition, hard work, integrity, continuous learning, optimism, and having a vision of the future.

Now that I’ve got an initial personal vision statement (and core values), I’m releasing version 0.1 of my personal development plan.

This post continues on developing a personal vision statement using the method at this link. Part 1 is here.

Top Five to Six Values

In order to determine my top values, I took a look at The Foundation for A Better Life’s website. You may have seen some of their ads in airports or on billboards. There are some pretty interesting values, along with short biographies of people that exemplify them. After looking through their 53 values (all of them good), I chose the following that most align with my personal values:

1. Ambition. Continually striving to be a better person, and to achieve success in life.
2. Hard Work. This is one of the key values I want to pass on as a father. Good things in life take hard work to achieve.
3. Integrity. Being dependable, honest, trustworthy, etc, are core elements of what makes me who I am.
4. Learning. As noted in Part 1 of this post, continual learning keeps my brain challenged and life interesting.
5. Optimism. I’m a very positive person, and can usually find the good in any situation.
6. Vision. This value is about determining your life’s dreams and working to achieve them, both personally and professionally.

Goals for Each Facet of Life

The facets of life listed in this method align pretty well with my initial brainstormed list that I’ve created previously. For this iteration, I’m going to stick with each of my own categories and set a broad goal for each. Normally I’d follow the SMART approach to goal definition, but I think general goals are more appropriate for this effort.

Continuous Learning. Continue to learn new things, particularly those that help me achieve my broader personal improvement objectives.

Travel. Take a major vacation every two years, while enjoying smaller trips and business travel in between. Experience the local culture as much as possible.

Career. Leverage my skills to make significant contributions in my professional life, while maintaining good balance with my personal life.

Family. Be a good father and husband, and ensure that the rest of my family knows how I feel about them.

Health / Fitness. Maintain a healthy lifestyle in order to live a long and fulfilling life.

Personal Finance. Plan for the future while enjoying the present.

Relationships/Community. Keep up with my old friends and make new ones, and give back to the community in ways that are consistent with my values.

Entertainment. Stop and smell the roses once and awhile, don’t let my desire for personal achievement get in the way of having fun.

If I Didn’t Have to Work, What Would I Do?

This question reminds me of Office Space (one of my favorite movies) when the guys are talking about what they would do if they had a million dollars and didn’t have to work. Samir says he would invest his money (versus doing something fun or different with his life). For me, I would probably travel a lot of the time, visiting friends, family, and new places. I still would need to make a contribution to society by developing something or solving challenging problems. I don’t think I could travel all the time. I’d also want to spend a lot of time mentoring and teaching others.

What Will I Regret at the End of My Life?

Good question. Right now I can say there is little I would regret. *But*, there is always a voice in my head wondering if what I am doing now and what I plan to do in the future is really the *right* plan. This probably isn’t the best way to look at things, but this is likely what drives my desire for personal improvement.

What Are My Strengths and Weaknesses?

Strengths - interpersonal skills, ability to coordinate/facilitate diverse teams of people, integrity, empathy for others

Weaknesses - a little too analytical at times? (duh! - this blog proves the point), difficulty in following through with plans

Next step - combine all of the above information into a personal vision statement. See the next post for details.