Personal Development Plan and Identification of Goals - Essay Example

Identification of goals Most of us, young people do not know what we want. Sometimes we tend to think that we know what we want, but we certainly do not. We only know what we do not want. Majority of us, we do not want mundane jobs (Lyons, 2010). We do not want to be poor. For us to be successful in life, we need to overcome the difficulty that prevails when we try focusing our minds on a specific goal. It is said that a person can do anything he or she put his or her mind in. Having come across this statement, I took my time to reflect on what I wanted to achieve in my life. Through this reflection, I came up with a number of goals that I need to work hard in my life to achieve. In the New Year resolution, I sat down reflecting over my life I clearly came up with various goals which I have planned to achieve in different phases. Some of the key goals I need to achieve in my school and a professional life include getting a high score in my exams, becoming the best graduate in finance and accounting department, acquiring recommendation letter by the end of the semester and finally getting a job with one of the leading government developmental project. I decided to set these specific goals because they will be easier to achieve than vague ended goals (Lyons, 2010). I have realized that being focused on a path gives someone a logical set of actions to follow. So each and every accomplishment leads me one step closer to the final goal Progress towards my goals As I proceed to third year, I have laid down plans on how I will achieve some of my key goals by the end of the year. Getting a high score on my exams: since I joined this college, I have been strictly adhering to my reading time table and managing my time well. This has enabled me to score high marks in my first and second year. As I start my third year in this college, I plan to attend more group discussion as this will help me in carrying out my course projects (Smith,Rawling & Jones,2007).This will essentially help me to score high marks in my final exams. As a result, I will achieve one of my key goals. Attaining a letter of recommendation: Concerning the letter of recommendation, I have contacted the department of finance and accounting through accounting lecturer, who is also my mentor. The department has assured me that by the end of the semester, they will issue recommendation letters to all third year students. So there is a high hope that by the end of the semester I will acquire my recommendation letter, which will assist me in my attempt to securing a job. Being the best graduate in school of accounting and finance: earlier in the first year, I realized that to be the best graduate in any department does not concerns reading books only (Lyons, 2010). This realization has played a significant role in my attempt to be the best overall student in my department. It has made me develop strong relations with other students. This has given me a better opportunity to succeed in other co curricular activities. Last year, all students in the accounting department elected me to represent them in the school congress. This opportunity has enhanced my skills in leadership, thus enabling me to make immense progress towards my goal of becoming the best student in school. Getting a high paying job: At the end of my education journey I want to get a graduate job. I want to be a team leader in one of the key government owned community development project. I plan to lead a newly started government project, which is meant to provide rural people with vocational training on how to start and run a small business in rural areas (Smith,Rawling & Jones,2007). This will give me an opportunity to ensure that every single cent allocated for this project, is utilized for the purpose intended. Working with a project that directly touches the life of local people has been my dream. I would like to lead a project that directly transform and improve the life of rural people. My mother and I lived in an extremely remote area since I was young. Together we have faced a lot of problems, and sometimes we had to sleep hungry. These memories remain in my mind, and now that I got a chance to be in college, I want to lead a team that will directly link with rural people. Changing the lives of these people will derive considerable satisfaction to my whole career. Plans for the third year course As I enter my third year in this college, I primarily intend to engage myself in finance and account debate club. I plan to vie for the chairmanship of this club. Leading this club will add me exceptional skill, required in the external market. Secondly I plan to develop my own proposal to push for the establishment of a community service club. I intend to link with other friends and push for certification and funding of this club by the department. Engaging in activities of this club will hugely help me to get experience on how to relate with the external environment (Smith,Rawling & Jones,2007). The experience acquired will enhance my chances of getting a chance to lead the rural initiated a project after leaving college. Skills I have developed Through my personal reflection, I have realized that leaders are made, not born. I have also realized that young people can learn and develop leadership skills. Before I joined college, I feared talking to people. I was so poor in communication that even asking for permission in class was a problem. Since I joined college, I have gained immense skills that now put me in a better position to get a good job in the outside world. I have improved my communication skills. I have acquired skills of working with a group of people, I have also acquired project management skills, and also through experience I have been able to realize my personal identity. How have I developed these skills? Leadership ability cannot be acquired reading texts books and listening to a lecture (Lyons, 2010). Having known this, I worked extra mile to ensure that I perfect my leadership skill while still in college. All what I have achieved in terms of skills is vast. But this did not come easy. I had to sacrifice my time and the little resources I had to ensure I acquired all these skill I posses. First, I sacrificed my evening study time in order to participate in football. Football, being a competitive sport, allowed me an opportunity to interact with other team members and opponents. This helped me to learn how to take turn, share play time and also how to follow rules. Engaging in football helped me to learn how to gracefully handle defeat (Rughani, 2001). It also taught me how to develop a sense of fair play. Participating in sport, adhering to academic demand and attending to my personal activities helped to learn how to manage my time well, as a result, this enhanced my multitasking skills thus helping me to realize my natural potential for leadership. Secondly, from my first year in college, I actively participated in volunteer activities. As a group, we participated in neighborhood recycling effort. We could create time to interact and advise the resident near our college on how to recycle products like polythene papers and empty soda bottles. My participation in all these volunteer activities allowed me to develop more leadership skills. It also gave me a golden opportunity to share the leadership skills I had acquired with the rest of the community (Smith,Rawling & Jones,2007). Lastly, in my second year I was elected to represent my class in council meetings. This gave me a chance to interact with experienced board members, whom I learnt from. I have significantly benefited from this position as I got a chance to chair some of the meetings proceedings. These opportunities have allowed me to develop and improve on my communication skills and other crucial skills needed in the job market (Lyons, 2010). How will these leadership skills help me at work? Correct application of my leadership skills in the workplace will help me distinguish myself from others. Effective application of these skills will help me to rise to challenging occasions at work (Jasper, 2011). This will motivate my work mates. These skills will also help me to create open communication with other members of the project. Through this, I will be able to eliminate fear and shyness from other workers by encouraging them to speak up their minds. These leadership skills will enable me to practice what I preach to junior workers. Skills will help me to act out to concepts I believe in (Dransfield, 2004). These wills help me to become a leader who believes in and lives by my principles. This will inspire result from my fellow workers. Lastly these skills will hugely help me come up with better ways of dealing with my fellow employees. I will stand a better chance to deal with all members involved in the project. This will benefit the project as all employees will feel appreciated thus motivating them to work harder in their daily chores. Job requirement To achieve my main goal of being a leader of the project that transforms rural lives, I researched and found out that all I need to have is a 2.1 honors degree or equivalent gained in any discipline, grade A in both math’s and English, ability to travel and relocate nationwide without barriers, and a permit to work in united kingdom without the need for an employer sponsorship certificate (Council of Europe, 2006). What further skills must I develop? Other vocational skills I need to highly work on so as to achieve my dream of leading and controlling the use of fund in the newly initiated project are; written communication. I need to effectively use these skills in communicating with other parties involved in the project implementation, decision making is also a key skill I need to internally develop need to train and read intensely on how to become a better decision maker, team work is another key skill I need to acquire before the end of my education (Smith,Rawling & Jones,2007). Effective and successful projects require better coordination amongst key stakeholders, so before the end of the year, I will have to train myself on how to positively influence a team of students towards the realization of it goals. Lastly I have to develop my skills and enhance my ability to be a better critical thinker. Project implementation calls for vital decisions, which require a sober thinking and decisions. How will I develop them? To develop my ability to make accurate decisions, I will start monitoring all the key decisions I make and their outcomes (Rughani, 2001). First I will develop a journal where I will be keeping track on all my decisions to identify how they worked out. This keeping and logging of all my crucial decisions will help me on making better decisions in future. Also to improve on my decision making ability, I will start reflecting on my inner motivations and reactions to any decision I make. To develop myself to be one of the best critical thinkers, then in my profession, I will be insisting on multiple problem definition before I make the final choice (Lyons,2010). I will be taking my time to consult the group on their views concerning the problem that has to be defined. I will ensure I apply this in every in every project scoping conversation especially when the issues are new and complex. Secondly I will encourage disagreement from my junior workers (Jasper, 2011). Debate always creates insights. I will encourage other employees to criticize my decisions provided their conflict will be based on ideas and not against personal differences’. I will ensure I approach alternative views with an open mind. This will help me to avoid being a prisoner of my own myopic mental model. Then I will carefully listen while other workers talk. This will allow me time to evaluate my facts and make amendments if need be (Dransfield, 2004). Lastly I will continually ask myself critical questions and going a step ahead in analyzing them. This will prevent me from taking everything at a face value. It will give me an opportunity to look for inner motives. All these actions will see me become a better critical thinker. References Dransfield, R. (2004). Business for Foundation Degrees and Higher Awards. North Shore: Heinemann. Jasper, M. (2011). Vital Notes for Nurses: Professional Development, Reflection and Decision-making. John Wiley & Sons. Lyons, N. (2010). Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry: Mapping a Way of Knowing for Professional Reflective Inquiry. New York: Springer. Rughani, A. (2001). The GPs Guide to Personal Development Plans (2e). New York: Radcliffe Publishing. Smith, B., Rawling, P., & Jones, C. (2007). Core Topics in Operating Department Practice: Anaesthesia and Critical Care. Cambridge University Press. Advanced Training for Trainers in Europe - At the End Is the Beginning: Volume 1 - Curriculum Description. (2006). London: Council of Europe. Read More