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600 Personal Development Exercises

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What is the Real Bottom Line?

11/30/2020

 

THE BOTTOM LINE
 
What's the bottom line?
Is it profit, survival, cash,
market share, return or growth?
 
It can be all of these of course
but what’s the bottom line for you?
What really matters?
 
This is the ultimate business question.
What's the real bottom line?
Nothing matters but God.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What REALLTY matters to you? 

Day 251 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Personal Deflation?

11/29/2020

 

DEFLATION

It’s always the same feeling
as I walk away from the station alone.
You’re off on your train journey
and there is an emptiness
and a strange quietness without you.
It’s a feeling of deflation
for the wind has been
taken out of my sails.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What makes you feel deflated? 
2. How do you deal with this? 


Day 250 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What do you Really do?

11/28/2020

 

JOB VACANCY

When we are asked
‘what do you do?’,
we often give a response
based on a job.

I am in retail.
I’m in banking.
I work on the ambulance.
I’m a teacher.

Or maybe, I’m unemployed.
I’m looking for work.
I’m building my business.
I’m at college.

The world has conditioned us
to define what we do,
by the job we do.
Our perceived economic value.

But this is not what we do.
This is simply the role
that others assign to us
or we give to ourselves.

So, go beyond the two
or three word title, and think
‘What do you do?
At home?

With your family?
With your colleagues or friends?
In your community?
In all your activities?

In your creativity?
In your gentleness?
In your conversations?
In your hopes and plans?’

Next time someone asks,
Have your answer ready
and tell them,
what you really do.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Let's practice this - 'What do you do?'

Day 249 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How do we Measure what Really Matters?

11/27/2020

 

QUANTITATIVE EASING
 

The shortest way
may be the longest.
 
The highest road
​may take you nowhere.
 
The smallest thing that you do
may be the greatest.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How do you measure what really natters?

Day 248 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Modus Operandi?

11/26/2020

 

MODUS OPERANDI 

We are here in this life
to serve God or
if you prefer to build love.
They are both the same.

So many of us are told
to look for happiness
in what we do, and how
we can build our futures

But happiness is found
in the mode of service,
beyond the mode of self.

For if we work solely
for ourselves, on our plan,
we exclude others.

But when we look to all others,
we include ourselves.
For we are part of all.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What is your way of working - your modus operandi?

Day 247 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is our Gift to the World?

11/25/2020

 

​MULTI-STORY

We choose how to spend our time,
how to live our life and
what our priorities are.

It is these choices,
that create the picture, or canvas,
that captures all that we are.

And sometimes we make
the wrong choices and the wrong decisions.
But we can start again.

We can paint over our canvas.
We can make new decisions,
better choices.

So, many layers and stories
are built up over the years.
All is embedded on this one canvas.

This is our gift to the world,
enabling us to leave behind
all that we are.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What does your canvas show at the moment?
2. What layers have been covered over? How many? ​


Day 246 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Do people Malfunction?

11/24/2020

 

MALFUNCTION

The opposite of love is unlove.
It is when we move away
from our true nature.
It is when we create
a situation within ourselves,
which is not aligned
to our true being and
what we will become.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What does 'unlove' mean to you?
2. When has 'unlove' been relevant in your life? 


Day 245 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Is there a Doorway in every moment?

11/23/2020

 
​
DOOR HANDLE


What happens in this moment
can change absolutely everything,
if I let love in.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What do you have to do to open the door?
2. What will be different for you when love comes in? 


Day 244 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is a Black Christmas?

11/22/2020

 

​BLACK FRIDAY

They’re going to be
scratching their heads
even more this year.
Wondering what to get
the Old Man for Christmas.
 
Amazon will have more
clicks and cash than it
could ever have imagined.
Black Friday is becoming
Black Christmas.
 
So perhaps I’ll adopt
a different approach,
and take the pressure off those
determined to buy me something.
This year. I’ll say exactly
what I would like.
 
There are millions of people
and thousands of groups
struggling in the present situation.
There is no normal Christmas
this year.
 
So, I would love it,
if you could
make a small donation
to those doing good work
or help a local cause on my behalf.
 
However, if you really want
to do the online
Christmas shopping experience,
then why not send a surprise toy
to a young family,
a gift to an older person or
a food delivery to a local food bank.
 
We can spend our way from now
to a Black Christmas
or we can empower each other
and create a Kinder Christmas.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What would you like for Christmas?

Day 243 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Does Jesus do Monitoring Visits?

11/21/2020

 
​
MONITORING VISIT


I was sitting in the garden
early this morning
and the gate opened unexpectedly,
with a rattle,
and Jesus walked in.

It was not what I could have predicted!
He was dressed in white of course,
raised his hand,
and shouted ‘hello’
as he closed the gate.

I’ve just come to say ‘thank you
to everybody for all the good work
that you are doing.
I know how difficult it is
at the moment’.

He sat down on the bench
beside me
and we said nothing.
He didn’t need to say anything
and I didn’t know what to say.

He then got up, shook my hand,
gave me a hug and said
‘Good to see you’.
As he closed the gate he added
‘Take care, talk soon’.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What would you have said?

Day 242 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is the Arrivals Lounge?

11/20/2020

 

​ARRIVALS LOUNGE

Sit down.
Put the phone down.
Put the book down.
Put the pen down.
Breathe out.
Relax.
Smile.
You have arrived.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What is the Arrivals Lounge? 

Day 241 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What are we Immersed in?

11/19/2020

 

​IMMERSION

I close my eyes and
I can see everything.
The past, the present and
the future is all around me.
 
But it’s not activities, places
or people I see.
It cannot be described
for it has no form.
 
It is way beyond me
and yet in me,
as I am in it.
With everything.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How and where does the word immersion relate to you? 
2. What  is 'way beyond you, and yet in you'? 
3. In Astronomy, 'immersion' is defined as 'the disappearance of a celestial body in the shadow of or behind another'. How might this relate to us? 


Day 240 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Can I be a one-person Production Company?

11/18/2020

 

PRODUCTION COMPANY 

 From the words that you write
these are lines to be spoken.
There are songs to be sung
and thoughts to be owned.
 
There are moments to be savoured
and truths to be uncovered.
There are ways to be taken
and a life to be discovered.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What words are you writing?
2. Begin to keep a journal, capture your thoughts every day and create you own  production company.


Day 239 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Is there a Sign Language we all remember?

11/17/2020

 

SIGN LANGUAGE

The rabbit.
The dog and
the seagull.
 
I can still make those
hand shadows
against the wall,
when I get close to the light.
 
I can still remember
their voices and
the dramatic storylines.
They are forever with me.
 
The rabbit.
The dog and
the seagull.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What shadows can you create with your hands? 
2. What's your story?


Day 238 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How can we find True Happiness?

11/16/2020

 

​HAPPINESS

It takes great courage
to live your life
as you really are.
 
For so much of what
we do and say is filtered,
by what we believe others
will think of us.
 
Our ego, vanity and
society all demand,
that we present ourselves
in a way that will please others.
 
But others, are also thinking
and acting in the same way.
They too, are trying
to present themselves so that
we will approve of them.
 
If only one of us could have
the courage to change,
and live our life as we really are.
Then perhaps, we would
give permission to others
to be themselves.
 
We can relieve ourselves
of the burden of expectation,
and the stress of living
to a false standard.
We can be courageous
and be truly happy.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What do you need to change, to live your life as you really are?
2. How can you find true happiness?


Day 237 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is the Personal Development Doughnut?

11/15/2020

 

DOUGHNUT

Personal development consists
of three key elements.
They come together
like a doughnut!
 
The physical doughnut
is our physical selves.
Everything around the doughnut
is the world around us.
 
And the hole in the doughnut?
Well, here there is nothing.
It is empty.
It is the absence of self.
 
This absence of our self is the core
of our personal development,
for it takes us in, through and beyond,
what we are in this world.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Draw a doughnut and label the three components of personal development.
2. Write down your action plan for each component. How will you develop this aspect of  yourself? 


Day 236 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Do some words switch you Off?

11/14/2020

 

LIGHT SWITCH

If you switch off
when you hear
the word 'God',
then just change it
to love.
 
If you switch off
when you hear
the word 'love',
them just change it
to your name.
 
For you are part
of all love.
We are part of God.
And that cannot
be changed, ever
.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write a sentence (or two) that includes the words 'God', 'love' and your name. ​

Day 235 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What does a Flight Attendant do?

11/13/2020

 

FLIGHT ATTENDANT
 
You can throw that old
unused loaf of bread
in the bin,
to rot,

or take the slices
and scatter them 
on the grass
for the birds.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How are you connecting to and looking after the natural world we live in? 

Day 234 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is the most Critical Thinking?

11/12/2020

 

CRITICAL THINKING

Once we have the courage
to give up what we are desperately
trying to hold onto....
​
we find where we should be,
what we should be doing and
what we are really looking for.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What are you desperately trying to hold onto?

Day 233 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How does a Combine Harvester work?

11/11/2020

 

COMBINE HARVESTER

Our personal harvesting
is an ongoing, everlasting,
outpouring of our experience,
knowledge, expertise and love.
 
Our collective harvesting,
is a daily torrent
of all that we need for ourselves
and the world, now and forever.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What are you harvesting each day?
​2. How are you using your experience, knowledge and expertise to build love?
​3. How are you encouraging others to harvest?
4. What are you building together through collective harvesting? 


Day 232 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How can we get Time to think?

11/10/2020

 

MINDFUL

I am busy all of the time.
There is just so much to do.
My mind never stops.
I’m always thinking
about this and that,
and whatever comes along.
 
My head is packed with
information, ideas and plans.
I have created
a detention centre for my brain.
How can I get my life back?
Where is my rehabilitation program?
 
How can I enjoy every day
as if it is the only day I’ll ever have?
How can I be grateful and happy
for all that I’ve been given?
How can I find space not to think,
not to plan and not to be so busy?

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. When and where do you find space and time not to think?

Day 231 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Who are your Virtual Assistants?

11/9/2020

 

​VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

I will be leaving you soon
but please do not cry,
for I can stay here forever
and keep an eye on you.
 
You won’t see me of course but
sometimes you will know I am here.
For nobody ever ends.
We just change.
 
I can stay here with you
and in heaven at the same time.
For heaven is all around us
and within us, together.
 
Our human abilities of course
can’t understand this yet,
for we are so limited
by time and space.
 
But those who have gone
before are still here now,
watching and waiting, guiding and helping,
and rescuing us all of the time.
 
Some call them angels,
some call it coincidence or luck,
some say it is the Universe,
and some say it is God.
 
But really it is our loved ones
who are still here, chatting away,
and trying their best
to steer us and look after us.
 
So, do not worry or be sad.
And please remember to talk to me
for I too will be here forever,
to help and look after you all.
 
You won’t see me in the usual way
but you will know that I am here.
For as I said, none of us ever ends.
We just change into love.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Which of your Virtual Assistants do you miss the most?
2. Speak to them now.


Day 230 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Are Facilitators really Leaders?

11/8/2020

 

FACILITATION SKILLS​

The greatest skill
of a facilitator
is to do nothing.
To let people talk,
together,
and allow them to find
the best way forward.
 
You see it’s not about
the facilitator,
nor indeed the topic.
It’s about enabling individuals
to move forward,
purposefully and securely,
together.
 
So as a facilitator,
be kind and smile.
Set the scene or task.
Encourage your groups
and then leave them to it.
Your best results come
when you do nothing.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. ​
1. When do you use facilitation skills – at work, online or at home?
2. In which situations might you do less (or nothing) and let others find a way forward?


Day 229 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How can I become a Life Coach in 60 seconds?

11/7/2020

 

LIFE COACH

If you’re thinking about
using a Life Coach,
then ask them one question.
'What is your purpose in life?'
 
If you need to ask a follow-up question
 for greater clarity, you will know
which one of you is the Life Coach and
which one of you needs a Life Coach.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. ​
1. What is your purpose in life? 


Day 228 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is your Work-Life balance?

11/6/2020

 
​
WORK LIFE BALANCE


My bike has a rickety wheel.
It jolts me unpredictably
from side to side.
Like I am forever on a rocky beach.
 
I balance as best I can,
sometimes stopping to put one foot down.
But I’m still here thankfully,
on my bike with the rickety wheel.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. ​
1. How would you describe your work life balance? 


Day 227 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
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