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600 Personal Development Exercises

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Who do you Toast?

12/31/2020

 

TOAST

 On this New Year’s Eve
I cast my mind back and remember
all who are no longer here.
I think of my Mum and my Dad.
I remember my Granny, Aunts and Uncles.

And I remember different times,
different places and different scenarios.
Each New Year’s Eve has been filled
with thanks and joy, or with sorrow
or relief that certain things have passed.

And as we look forward tonight
we will raise our glasses and our hearts,
and wish each other happiness.
Just like we did with you all
on many a New Year’s Eve before.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Who will you remember on this New Year's Eve? 

Day 282 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is God?

12/30/2020

 

QUANTUM PHYSICS

It is easy to explain
what God is,
for God is in everything.
God is everything.

How can you not
believe in God
when you, yourself
are part of everything?

God is mega!
In every galaxy.
Beyond the heavens.
And we too are part of this.

This is our eternal gift.
To be with an infinite
ever expanding God.
On his journey.

For we will grow beyond
all human imagining,
as part of everything.
That is God.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What does your journey as part of God look like? 

Day 281 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Cumulative Thinking?

12/29/2020

 

REPOSITIONING

We can get stuck in cumulative thinking.
We keep thinking ‘what’s next?”
We move forward step by step,
based on what we have done before.
This is called cumulative thinking.
 
But the New Year is a chance for us
to reposition where we are.
In other words, we can step
outside of this cumulative process.
We can find a better or a happier way.
 
So, move outside of  your cumulative process.
Start from this moment.  
Start afresh from now.
 Imagine this is the first day of your new life
 and plan to go where you should be.
 
What has gone before no longer matters.
You do not have to behave
as you’ve always done.
 You do not have to carry the past with you.
You have a chance to reposition everything.
 
This New Year is much more than
the charting of a new path.
It’s also a mind shift.
It’s freeing up your thinking
and allowing yourself to start again
.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Can you see how you might be in the cumlulative thinking process? 
2. How might you completerly reposition your life?

Day 280 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Is time a Commodity or a Gift?

12/28/2020

 

TIMELESS

I used to resent losing my time,
giving up an hour or a day to others,
for activities I saw had little value.
I now realise, that it’s not
my time to lose or to give up.

I used to regret wasting my time,
sitting doing nothing,
when I should have been so productive.
I now realise, that it’s not
what I think is productive that matters.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How do you view time -  as a commodity or a gift?

Day 279 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is the Core Law of Humanity?

12/27/2020

 

MANKIND

Karma tells us that everything we do
has a positive or negative reaction.
All we do determines our fate in this life,
and what we become in our next life.

In every moment we can
spread love and kindness, or not.
In every moment we can
become love and kindness, or not.

It is the core law of humanity,
building kindness and becoming love.
It’s how we are meant to think
and act in every single moment.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What will you become in this life and in your next life?

Day 278 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What happens between Christmas and the New Year?

12/26/2020

 

EXTRA TIME

Some describe this week
as extra time or overtime.
It’s the space between
Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
It’s a week like no other in the year.
Between the end and the beginning.

We’ve had the busyness
in the build up to Christmas,
and soon we will be back to
ordinary life at the start of January.
But before then, there’s a space for us,
for the world is busy in its own places.

This is our week to step back,
rest, reflect,  rethink, reorganise,
refocus, restructure and regain
a sense of all that is important to us.
And to use this extra time to guide
the next part of our journey.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How will you use your 'extra time' this year?
2. Where will you find a space for yourself?​


Day 277 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Where should we go to on Christmas Day?

12/25/2020

 

CHRISTMAS DAY

The message of Christmas Day
is to go beyond
everything that we think we know
and trust in a place
that we have never been,
and a life we have never seen.
Just like the new born baby
in Bethlehem.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What message will you take from this Christmas Day?

Day 276 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What were the names of Santa's ten Reindeer?

12/24/2020

 

​GUARANTEED DELIVERY

This exercise is for those
waiting for Santa tonight.
It’s a busy time for him and his team.
Can you name Santa's ten Reindeer?
 
There’s Dasher and Dancer.
Prancer and Vixen.
Comet and Cupid.
Donner and Blitzen.
 
Ok, that eight!
Rudolph is number nine and
and perhaps the most famous
because of the song about his red nose!
 
And then, of course, there's Olive,
‘the other reindeer’
(just sing Rudolf’s song!).

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What was the best gift that Santa brought you?
2. How would you desctibe that Christmas Eve feeling? 


Day 275 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What are the most popular Christmas Gifts?

12/23/2020

 

CHRISTMAS GIFTS

I have received
the gift of understanding,
the gift of knowledge,
the gift of truth,
the gift of insight,
the gift of time,
the gift of places,
the gift of serving,
the gift of writing,
the gift of purpose,
the gift of others,
the gift of friendship,
the gift of support,
the gift of love, and
the gift of being with you.
 
But more than these,
I have been given the gift
of how to use these gifts.
And the daily help to do so.
 
You see these are not momentary gifts. 
 They are lifelong gifts
that grow and produce outcomes.
They are the blessings and architecture
of a life I could never imagine.
 And all of these are poured out for me
​every single day.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What gifts have you been given?
2. How will you use these today?


Day 274 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is the Zombie Box of Doing?

12/22/2020

 

ZOMBIES

Take ten minutes each day
to reflect, review,
and to do nothing.
 
Get off the tramlines.
Escape from the zombie box of doing.
Be yourself.
Explore your future.
 
Leave the world
that others dictate behind.
For this is not your life.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Are you stuck in the Zombie Box of doing?
2. What is your Escape Plan?


Day 273 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Where is the Cloud of Unknowing?

12/21/2020

 

THE CLOUD

I’ve just realised that 
I rarely look upwards.

And if I keep looking in the same way,
then I will continue to see
what I have already seen. 
What I have already know..

The 'Cloud of Unknowing' was written 
by an anonymous English monk.
I too must learn to look upwards. 

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Am I brave benough to surrender my mind and ego to the place of "unknowing"?
2. What will I find there?


Day 272 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is the difference between Diversity and Inclusion?

12/20/2020

 

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Diversity has been described by some 
as the reflection of God in the world
for we are all made in His likeness. 

Each of us is a unique piece,
needed  for this complete picture of God.
Inclusion is therefore our mission.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How is your piece unique?
2. Why are you necessary?


Day 271 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What was a Covid Christmas like?

12/19/2020

 

REVISED CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE
 
Covid is trying to force the
cancellation of Christmas this year.
Locked in, our loved ones
are feeling lost and uneasy.
 
The time for family and friends
has been slapped down.
There is a different rulebook
on what we can or should do.
 
But Christmas is safe
within each one of us.
No matter what happens,
we can link up and be with each other.
 
Let’s schedule our daily phone calls
to catch up and chat.
Let’s send our texts randomly and often.
Let’s plan Zoom chats for games,
quizzes and present opening.
For Santa is coming as planned.
 
Let’s watch our TV shows
and films as usual.
Let’s set up the laptop beside the TV
and bring all of us together.
 
Let's also take a moment
to remember those who have died. 
Let's reach out to those missing loved ones
and those struggling with isolation.
 
For we can expand our get-togethers
this year, not restrict them.
Let's use WhatsApp, FaceTime or Skype
to include more people than ever before.
 
Let’s have big bubbles and
little bubbles everywhere!
Let’s encourage and bring cheer to others.
Let’s celebrate all of Christmas this year.
 
So, let’s plan our revised schedule now
with who, and what and when.
Let's send out our invites to our loved ones.
And let's include others with a very
deliberate act of Christmas kindness.
 
And let us look forward this Christmas   
with moments of love and hope. 
For we know, as always, there are babies
soon to be born all over the world.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Plan an amazing Christmas schedule.
​2. Who, what and when - get your invites out!


Day 270 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How can I boost my Personal Productivity?

12/18/2020

 

PRODUCTIVITY

I am at my most productive
when I’m least efficient.
When I don’t have a to do list.
When there is no schedule.
​
When I go off-piste and
my mind has no barriers
or constraints, to keep it on track.
This is where my real productivity is.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. When are you at your most productive?
​2. What does productivity mean for you?


Day 269 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How can we stop being so busy?

12/17/2020

 

DEFROST​ 

You are not behind schedule.
You are not trying to catch up.
You do not have a mountain of work .
You do not need to go crazy.
 
No, you are exactly
where you should be.
For all else is just activity,
and not you.
 
You are okay.
All is totally fine.
You can relax.
 
What is really important
will eventually get done.
And all else will melt away
.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What is making you so busy?
2. Is it time to defrost?


Day 268 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What Gift should I bring a new Baby?

12/16/2020

 

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

What gift will you
be bringing the baby
Jesus, this year?

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Who, and what, is on your shopping list this year?

Day 267 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How can we find New Beginnings?

12/15/2020

 

WRITE OFF

So often I have
been caught out.
You’d think that I
would know by now,
how to approach these things.

We are all faced
with events, activities
and duties which we are
not really looking forward to,
or even dread.

And yet somehow,
maybe because my expectations
are so low, or I have
allowed my brain some space,
these turn out to be okay.

Indeed, the events we dread
can often become
a lesson for us, a magical moment,
or a joyful experience.
When something new happens.

So turn your switch to positive and
give yourself the possibility,
that the event or activity
you have written off,
might just be okay.

For when we trust
in the process,
life can unfold and evolve
in ways we could not imagine.
New beginnings can emerge.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What meetings, activities or events do you dread?
2. Could you possibly turn your switch to positive ... and see what might emerge? 


Day 266 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What Book have you not read for years?

12/14/2020

 

LENDING LIBRARY

Go to your bookshelf.
Look through your collection.
And choose a book
that you haven’t read for years.
 
Go to your past
and rediscover this time.
And bring it forward, anew.
To all that is now.Go to your bookshelf.
Look through your collection.
And choose a book,
that you haven’t read for years


Go to your past
and rediscover that time.
Then bring it forward, anew,
to all that is now.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Go to your bookshelf and read something from a book you had a few years ago.
2. What does this say to you now? 


Day 265 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Where should Fishermen explore?

12/13/2020

 

CALM

It’s really stormy
The wind is howling.
The dark sea
throws us around.
It seems that we
are forever on this boat.
 
I wake up
relieved that I am
no longer a fisherman.
I now explore
a different world at
the bottom of the ocean.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Have you woken up yet?
2. Have you got arond to exploring a different world? 


Day 264 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What does a Green Light mean for you, personally?

12/12/2020

 
​
GREEN LIGHT


Now is the moment.
Not later.
Not next week.
Not next year.
 
Now is the time.
To start.
To do it.
To make it happen.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Are you ready to move?
2. What exactly is holding you back from being your total real self? 


Day 263 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Can we be the Giver and the Gift?

12/11/2020

 

GIFT WRAPPED

Thank you for my life.
And let me pause here
for I normally go on to think
about all that I’ve been given,
all those I know, and
all that I am involved with.

But this morning I want
to stop at thank you for my life.
The gift that makes me here and now.
The personal unconditional
force of love that means
I exist in this moment.

The creatives force of love
that makes me possible,
smiles this morning. 
And gently reminds me
that we are all
both the giver and the gift.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How are you a gift of love to others?

Day 262 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is your Thought in this moment?

12/10/2020

 

THOUGHTFUL

I can do nothing about the past
for it has gone.
All is etched in time.
I can do nothing about the future
for the future never arrives.

All I have is this moment
and this thought.
I ask for your mercy
to forgive my past
and to guide my present.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What is your thought in this moment?
2. And what is your thought in this moment?


Day 261 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How is Love shaping you now?

12/9/2020

 

​RELENTLESS

Love is the toughest thing ever.
It challenges all aspects of who we are.
It confronts our ego and our focus on self.
It challenges our behaviours in every interaction.
It calls us to change all that we are and do.
It demands we give all that we hold onto.
It reminds us of our failings and
the pain we cause others.
Love is relentless.
This is how it shapes us and guides us.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How exactly is love shaping you now? 

Day 260 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How do you Compare?

12/8/2020

 

​COMPARISON TABLE

Have no doubt.
We all have a role to play.
Your life has a distinct and specific purpose.
Each person is different and unique,
but equally important and significant,
no matter what we may think.
 
Do not compare yourself with others
or some worldly expectation.
For your role is a collaborative and
not a competitive one.
To become, with God and with all others,
all you can be today,

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How might you collaborate today?

Day 259 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How does Respite Care work for me?

12/7/2020

 

RESPITE CARE

Stop playing around with
all the different pieces of your life.
Stop trying to make this work
and that happen.

Just stop.

All of those things
are what you think
you need to make happen,
to survive and earn.

But they are not.

They are in fact consuming
your time and energy,
and taking you away
from what you should be doing.

So stop.

Go back to basics.
Go back to you.
Go back to all that you are
and let new energy emerge from here.

Look after yourse
lf.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What are the pieces that you are trying to sort out?
2. Are you able to stop for a moment and go back to all that you are?


Day 258 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
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