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600 Personal Development Exercises

do one a day - every day!

How can we go beyond Negative Conditioning?

4/30/2021

 

NEGATIVE CONDITIONING

Much of our conditioning
about God has come
through the media and religions,
with their view of what is truth.

Much of our conditioning about
talking with God,
has come through concepts
such as prayer or meditation.

But what if we made a fresh start,
and built our own understanding
and personal relationship, with
whatever we perceive God to be?

For God is really
the unknown that is out there,
beyond us and yet in each of us,
and all of us.

Imagine then, if we
could go beyond 
all that negative conditioning
and talk with love and kindness,

To ourselves
and to others.
 to all that we know,
and don’t know.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How do you imagine a God that is unknown but yet within you and part of you? 
2. How can you begin to develop a relationship with your God?​


Day 402 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is a Three Year Plan?

4/29/2021

 

THREE YEAR PLAN

Have you created the picture
of what your life
will look like ,
three years from now?
 
Can you see
where you are living,
who you are with, and
the work that you are doing?
 
Can you imagine how you feel,
what your health is like,
what is happening around you,
and what is bringing you joy?
 
It’s time to draw,
to map out in words,
exactly what your life will be
three years from now.
 
For if you do not know
who you will be, or
where you are going,
then how will you get there?

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Who will you be in three years time?
2. What will you be doing in three years time? ​


Day 401 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is White Space Time?

4/28/2021

 

WHITE SPACE 

When I feel the automatic urge
to pick up my phone, switch on
the TV, or browse the net,
I now pause.
 
For I realise that these are
habits I’ve learned.
I fill my brain and use up my time,
with activities.
 
It’s all other people’s content,
and although some is good,
to be honest, most is not really
the food of life!
 
I 'm trying not to give away
my time and my focus to external
content. I'm learning to be
more selective in my choices.
 
My freelance graphic designer
has spent years telling me
about white space, and urging
me to see things differently.
 
‘You don’t need to fill
every piece of the page
with text, images or content,’
she says.
 
I’m now leaving empty spaces
in my day, replacing the urge
to fill every moment.
It’s my white space time.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. When is your White Space time today?
2. How much are you filling up on other people's content? 


Day 400 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What should you write first in a new notebook?

4/27/2021

 

 A NEW NOTEBOOK

It’s always a strange feeling
starting a new notebook, and
writing on that first page.
 
It’s like a new baby,
full of potential and ready
to tell all her stories.
 
It’s the same routine for both,
daily feeds and each day,
a new chapter unfolds.
 
Your notebook and your baby,
both reflections of you
in their own way.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Is it time to start a new notebook?
2. Are you ready to capture all that is happening within and around you?
3. What will you write first in your new notebook? 


Day 399 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is the Rule of One?

4/26/2021

 

THE RULE OF ONE

The center of the universe
and of everything
is in each of us.

All power and powerlessness
lies within each of us,
in our own measure.

All resources and lack of resources
 lie within each of us,
in our own measure.

All opportunity and struggle
 lies within each of us,
in our own measure.

All joy and pain
lies within each of us,
in our own measure.

All hope and hopelessness
 lies within each of us,
in our own measure

All love rests within each of us,
overflowing beyond all imagination,
embracing each of us,
without measure.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What is your measure of power, resources, opportunity, joy and hope? 
2. Where is our embrace for those who struggle, are in pain or powerless in our world? 


Day 398 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Is it time to sit in an empty bath?

4/25/2021

 

PULLING THE PLUG

It’s as if the
plug has been pulled
out of the bath.
I’m sitting in empty space.
 
That’s how I feel today.
My brain has been emptied
of all tasks and work.
I have literally nothing to do.
 
It’s an amazing feeling!
An incredible freedom.
Is it time to pull the plug
and sit in empty space?

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Are you willing to sit in an empty bath?

Day 397 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Are you leaving Caterpillar Tracks?

4/24/2021

 

CATERPILLAR TRACKS

I am a caterpillar among
millions of caterpillars.
Some of them talk of breaking free
and living in a different way.
 
But I have much to do
as a caterpillar.
All talk of freedom and flying
is for butterflies.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. When and how are you going to become a butterfly?

Day 396 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Which Phase of your Life are you in?

4/23/2021

 

PHASES OF LIFE

As we go through life,
it’s easy to see it all
as one journey.

And yet, if we stop
and look back,
we can notice
​different periods.

A time when we did this.
A time when we were that.

So, look at the present time
and realise that this too,
is a period of transition,
and transformation.

You are in the middle
of something now.
And soon it will end.

And then you will be
into the next phase
of your journey.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What are the key characteristics of this Phase of your life?
​2. What do you think your next Phase will look like? 


Day 395 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What are the Four Prisons of Self?

4/22/2021

 

FOUR PRISONS

We all have our regrets
which we hold and bury.

We all have our fears
which we manage or ignore.

We all have our secrets
which we cover or hide.

We all have our mistakes
which we repeat time and again.

We all have a view of ourselves
that can trap and restrict us.

Regrets, fears, secrets and mistakes
are the four prisons that stop us
becoming all that we should be.
 
Our transformation comes about
when we replace these with
love, joy, friendship, and trust,
 in all that we are, and do.

So replace your regrets
with joyful reminders.

Replace your fears
with trust in what is now.

Replace your secrets
with love of yourself.

Replace your mistakes
 with friendship and help for others.
 
Free yourself from the
four prisons of self,
and see the incredible person 
that you already are.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write out the regrets, fears, secrets and mistakes that you still carry.
2. Write out your new list of joy, trust, love and friendship. ​


Day 394 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is your Future Self saying to you?

4/21/2021

 

FUTURE SELF

Write yourself a key message for today.
It’s a message from your future self.

Write a message to encourage you,
 lift you and inspire you.

It’s a message to focus on what matters, 
reset your direction, and sort out your future .

Your future self is reaching backwards,
 smiling as you are handed this message.

Write yourself a key message for today.
What is your future self saying to you?

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write out a message right now, from you future self?
2. How exactly are you going to act on this?


Day 393 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Inner and Outer Learning?

4/20/2021

 

INNER AND OUTER LEARNING

There are two parts of your self.
There is a busy part that we
know well and lasts a lifetime.
The quieter part is hidden
and it lasts forever.
This is the part 
that we must find.
 
These are the two aspects
to personal development.
Outer learning shows us
how to survive and
grow in the world.
And Inner learning
teachers us about
who we really are.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What are you doing to develop your inner learning?
2. What are you doing to develop your outer learning?


Day 392 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Friendship?

4/19/2021

 

FRIENDSHIP

We don’t try to
sell stuff to our friends.
We help them,
without asking for money.
 
We don’t try to
make money from our friends.
We share what we have,
for free.
 
Friendship is a mindset,
with activities that offer
and share all that we have,
 for the benefit of others.
 
Friendship is that joyful space
of playing together and
growing with others,
where money is not the driver.
 
For friendship is a gift where,
we quietly receive more
than we could ever imagine,
for free.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Where is 'money the driver' in your relationships with others?
2. Do you look to build friendships first or to sell stuff first?


Day 391 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How do your Teenage Years shape you?

4/18/2021

 

TEENAGE YEARS

When I was fifteen,
the teachers shouted at me,
for daydreaming and looking out
of the window. I only scraped
a pass in a few subjects.
 
Every day now,
I sit quietly
and daydream.
 
When I was sixteen,
I wrote a book of song lyrics.
Teenage love and
aspirational words.
I never shared them.
 
Every day now,
I write new words
for all to see.
 
When I was seventeen,
I created my first business idea
and bought a candle making kit
which came in a box.
It never got off the kitchen table.
 
Every day now,
I light a candle
which sits on a little table.
 
When I was eighteen,
I decided to become a priest
and go off to Africa
and help the poor.
I never made it.
 
Every day now,
I try to build
a world of kindness.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Think back to your teenage years. Where are those activities, dreams and ideas happening now in your life?
2. Look after our teenagers - for they are already living their future right now.


Day 390 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What book are you reading today?

4/17/2021

 

BOOKSHELF

What book are you reading today?
How are you growing and nourishing
all that interests you?
How are you taking some time
to escape the world, and
to be with yourself?

What book will you pick up today?
To sit for just a few minutes,
perhaps with a cup of coffee.
A chance to imagine, to explore,
to smile and to revive you.
What book are you reading today?

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Choose a book from your bookshelf - perhaps one you haven't opened in a while or one you never got around to reading.
2. Find a quiet corner ....


Day 389 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Can we Live our Life Backwards?

4/16/2021

 

LIVE YOUR LIFE BACKWARDS

​To live our lives backwards frees us
from the expectation of our past.
It lifts the burden of
everything that we are carrying.
It allows us to start afresh from
a position of where we end up,
not where we are now.
 
Living our life backwards takes us
out of ‘cumulative thinking’
where we keep asking ourselves
‘what comes next?’
For all of our current options are
created from our experience,
expectations and learning to date.
 
However, if we start at the end
 and live our lives backwards
we begin from a completely new place,
one of no history or expectation.
 It means that we can
completely and freely design
the rest of our life.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What will you be at the end of your life?
2. Where will you be?
3. What will you have achieved?
4. Now live your life backwards and make it all happen! 


Day 388 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is your Future Story?

4/15/2021

 

FUTURE STORY

Write down your future story!
State exactly what will happen.
Read your story every morning.
Read your story every evening.
 
Put your story on your phone.
Put it beside your computer.
Put it inside your notebook.
Put in your wallet or purse.
 
Put your story on your fridge.
Put it on your office wall.
Put it on your bathroom mirror.
Put it on your bedside table.

Read your story now.
Watch your future unfold
every moment, every day,
everywhere.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write down exactly what you want to see happen in your life.
2. Make it real every day.....


Day 387 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Impossible and Unimaginable?

4/14/2021

 

IMPOSSIBLE AND UNIMAGINABLE

Leave some space every day
for the impossible
to happen for you,
or it won’t.
 
Leave some space every day
for the unimaginable
to happen for you,
or it can’t.
 
We cannot transform our lives
by expecting more of the same,
or repeating
what we’ve already done.
 
So, every day take a moment
for the impossible and the
unimaginable to happen for you, 
and it will.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write down what is impossible for you?
2. Write down what is unimaginable for you?
3. Now allow yourself to see impossible an unimaginable actually happening for you.


Day 386 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Qualitative Easing?

4/13/2021

 

QUALITATIVE EASING

There is talk of slowly
getting back to normal.
But this is much more
than a call to gradually
ease back, into the way that
 we used to work and live.
 
We have been given the
opportunity to reposition
exactly who we are.
We have been given an
amazing moment of choice
and the time to make it happen.
 
This is a call to lift our lives
from where we were
and to place ourselves
where we want to be.
This is the life-changing moment
of our real new normal.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Are you going back to where you were?
2. What would you like your new normal to be? 
3. What is you plan to reposition who you are and to place yourself where you want to be?


Day 385 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What do others think of you?

4/12/2021

 

IDENTITY PARADE

It’s not that I don’t care anymore,
about what others think of me.
 
It’s that I care more than ever,
about who I am.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How would you describe how others see you?
2. How close is this image to the real you?
​3. What is stopping you being  open with others about who you really are? 


Day 384 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Career Swapping?

4/11/2021

 
​
​CAREER SWAPPING

The Monks give their lives to God.
Their worldly aspirations and desires
for self-fulfilment are left behind.

And yet the monastery requires
income to survive, and so monks
must integrate with the world.

They need to sell their beer,
and open their café and shop.
They become reluctant businessmen.

We, are on the other hand,
strive to develop our future and
provide for our longer-term needs.

We are immersed in the busyness of life.
as we look after our loved ones
and build our career.

As we grow older, however, we are
forced to address a different reality.
We become reluctant monks.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 
1. Where are you at this stage of your life, on the 'business-monk' scale?

Day 383 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
​

What are 'Past Present' Statements?

4/10/2021

 
​
​PAST PRESENT 


We can train our brains
to help us to achieve all
that is important to us, including
relationships, money, career,
health, home, happiness,
lifestyle, and so much more.
 
Simply write down your
Past Present statements
for exactly what you want to see
in every aspect of your life.
Be as detailed as you can and  imagine 
what each one means for you.
 
Past Present statements are written
in the past tense, such as
I created, I built, or I developed.
Or your statements can be written
in the present tense, such as
I am, I have or I own.
 
If we write our statements
 in the future tense, such as
I will or I am going to have,
then we are telling our brain
that this is not for today.
This is never going to happen.
 
Now read your top five
Past Present statements
first thing each morning
and last thing every night.
They will enable you to  become
the you, that you already are.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What would you like to see happen in your life?
2. What would you like to be different?
3. What does happiness really look like? 
​

Day 382 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
​

Where are the Peace-Builders in Northern Ireland?

4/9/2021

 

​PEACE-BUILDERS

52 years on
from the start of the Troubles,
we still send our children
to separate schools,
to learn division.

52 years on
from the start of the Troubles,
we still align our lives
to different churches,
to promote exclusion.

52 years on
from the start of the Troubles,
we still send our politicians
to lead our tribe,
to represent us.

52 years on
from the start of the Troubles,
we send our children’s children
to fight on the streets,
to celebrate our success.

​ PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What can each of us do to break the mould of schooling, church and politics and begin to build a different way of living together?   
2. What messages can we send with our actions? 

​Day 381 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercise
​

How do I become a Self-Publishing Author?

4/8/2021

 

​SELF-PUBLISHING AUTHOR
 
You sit
and you write.
You capture
what comes.
 
You walk
and you speak.
You gather
what comes.
 
You type
and you organise.
You sort
what comes.
 
You print
and you publish.
You share
what comes.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Have a notebook and write something every day. Just write what comes.

​Day 380 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
​

How do I create a Personal Development plan?

4/7/2021

 

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Life doesn’t come neatly
packaged in different boxes such
as work, relationships, spirituality,
health, happiness, children,
career aspirations, money or hobbies.
 No, everything is mixed together.
 
So, when it comes to
personal development do not limit
yourself to courses such as
communication skills, or
books on the latest business idea,
or webinars on income generation.
 
Our life isn’t one dimensional.
 It has multiple jigsaws with pieces
all mixed together. These pieces sit
alongside each other, slotting together,
overlapping and creating multiple
pictures, all of the time, for us.
 
We all have pieces on self-improvement,
emotional development, inner learning, 
mental health, spiritual development,
fitness programmes, vocational training,
personal wellbeing, career progression,
and so much more, to explore and enjoy.
 
Develop every aspect of what speaks
to you, what you love and what makes
you happy. Create new pictures.
Personal development is your call to
play with all of the different pieces that
make up the unique person that you are.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Make a list of all of the aspects of personal development that you would like to explore.
2. Put a series of actions against each one of these - and start to play!


​Day 379 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercise
​

What is Spiritual Tourism?

4/6/2021

 
​
​SPIRITUAL TOURISM


​We visit sacred sites,
old churches and temples
from different traditions.
 
We see others praying there,
as we take our photos
and visit the shop.
 
It’s easy to be a tourist in life,
to pass through and
miss the meaning.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Where are you visiting today? ​

​Day 378 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises​
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