Personal Development Plan
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The Personal development seminar was held on 6 Oct 20112, which was almost one month ago till now. That was the first time that I attended a REDbird activity and met my nest mates (I did not participate in the team building day because I was back home) . So I was very excited to meet all my nest mates and coaches.
1. A plan to do exercise regularly
At the beginning of the seminar, we filled in our life map, which included our current situation of education, work, lifestyle, health, finances, family and relationships. After filling all the blanks in my life map, I was not satisfied with my current lifestyle. I think I did well in some parts of my lifestyle, for example, I eat healthy and I did not sleep very late. However, I was not doing lots of exercise at that time. What I did was going to sports skill class once a week (and I was not sure I would go every time because it was at nine o'clock in the morning and sometimes I was so tired that I did not want to get up so early). Another exercise (if it could be counted as exercise) was that I walked from hall to academic building several times a day which takes about fifteen minutes each time. The amount of exercise I did was really far too less to keep a healthy lifestyle. As a result, I set up a goal which was to have a healthier life style by doing more exercise.
2. A SMARTe goal
During the workshop, I learnt about the basic elements to set up a SMARTe goal. After getting to know the concept of SMARTe goal, I was surprised how limited information my goal carried. I then modified my goal to make it "smart". The goal that I set was too general so I added what specific exercise I was going to do to make it specific. My goal was not measurable as well and I added the duration for each exercise each time and how many times I would do each week. Besides, my goal was not time-bounded, as a result, I added the end time of my goal, which was the end of fall semester. But making a SMARTe goal is not that easy, because it is always easy to say something, but it will be really difficult to achieve it. By learning what a SMARTe goal is, I modified my goal to make it more likely to be achieved.
3. My learning outcome
This workshop is useful for me not only for setting up this goal but is also helpful in my whole life about how to make a smart plan. Making a goal is easy but thinking carefully about the details to make it most likely to be achieved is challenging. I always make study plans but I seldom achieve them. It is because I overestimate my ability and planned to cram a lot right before the exam. It makes me very stressful because of the tight schedule and not achieving the goal makes me unprepared for the exam. So next time when I set up a study plan, I will try to make it very specific like how many chapters I will read and estimate the time needed to do that. The more specific a goal, the more likely it will be achieved.
Another thing that I learnt is that a plan in mind is not enough, I'd better write it down and post it somewhere that I can see quite often. A paper written plan is more organized and clear. Actually I had been thinking of doing some exercise regularly from fall semester commenced. However, I was too lazy and always came up with many reasons to postpone my action. But when I wrote everything on a paper this time and review it quite often I did take action on my goal.
This seminar really helped me a lot on motivating me to do exercise regularly. Now I do much more exercise than before and it keeps me healthy. However, I am still quite lazy now, and always come up with different excuses for not doing exercise. But for last semester, I really went to all the sport skill classes! I also realized that I did not like running so I went swimming instead. I really like the feeling that thinking about my life, reflecting what happened these day and making a basic schedule plan in my mind under water. It refreshes my mind and makes me feel more energetic after swimming. However, the cold water sometimes undermines my desire to go swimming as it is too cold!
I think I can review my PDP plan once a week and write down the time for exercise on my timetable as a task to remind me.
1. A plan to do exercise regularly
At the beginning of the seminar, we filled in our life map, which included our current situation of education, work, lifestyle, health, finances, family and relationships. After filling all the blanks in my life map, I was not satisfied with my current lifestyle. I think I did well in some parts of my lifestyle, for example, I eat healthy and I did not sleep very late. However, I was not doing lots of exercise at that time. What I did was going to sports skill class once a week (and I was not sure I would go every time because it was at nine o'clock in the morning and sometimes I was so tired that I did not want to get up so early). Another exercise (if it could be counted as exercise) was that I walked from hall to academic building several times a day which takes about fifteen minutes each time. The amount of exercise I did was really far too less to keep a healthy lifestyle. As a result, I set up a goal which was to have a healthier life style by doing more exercise.
2. A SMARTe goal
During the workshop, I learnt about the basic elements to set up a SMARTe goal. After getting to know the concept of SMARTe goal, I was surprised how limited information my goal carried. I then modified my goal to make it "smart". The goal that I set was too general so I added what specific exercise I was going to do to make it specific. My goal was not measurable as well and I added the duration for each exercise each time and how many times I would do each week. Besides, my goal was not time-bounded, as a result, I added the end time of my goal, which was the end of fall semester. But making a SMARTe goal is not that easy, because it is always easy to say something, but it will be really difficult to achieve it. By learning what a SMARTe goal is, I modified my goal to make it more likely to be achieved.
3. My learning outcome
This workshop is useful for me not only for setting up this goal but is also helpful in my whole life about how to make a smart plan. Making a goal is easy but thinking carefully about the details to make it most likely to be achieved is challenging. I always make study plans but I seldom achieve them. It is because I overestimate my ability and planned to cram a lot right before the exam. It makes me very stressful because of the tight schedule and not achieving the goal makes me unprepared for the exam. So next time when I set up a study plan, I will try to make it very specific like how many chapters I will read and estimate the time needed to do that. The more specific a goal, the more likely it will be achieved.
Another thing that I learnt is that a plan in mind is not enough, I'd better write it down and post it somewhere that I can see quite often. A paper written plan is more organized and clear. Actually I had been thinking of doing some exercise regularly from fall semester commenced. However, I was too lazy and always came up with many reasons to postpone my action. But when I wrote everything on a paper this time and review it quite often I did take action on my goal.
This seminar really helped me a lot on motivating me to do exercise regularly. Now I do much more exercise than before and it keeps me healthy. However, I am still quite lazy now, and always come up with different excuses for not doing exercise. But for last semester, I really went to all the sport skill classes! I also realized that I did not like running so I went swimming instead. I really like the feeling that thinking about my life, reflecting what happened these day and making a basic schedule plan in my mind under water. It refreshes my mind and makes me feel more energetic after swimming. However, the cold water sometimes undermines my desire to go swimming as it is too cold!
I think I can review my PDP plan once a week and write down the time for exercise on my timetable as a task to remind me.