600 Personal Development Exercises
do one a day - every day!
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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