600 Personal Development Exercises
do one a day - every day!
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TOOTHBRUSH When we go on holiday or stay in a hotel room, we make it like home, and place our toothbrush where it should be. We create a cognitive map for where all our things now are, in our new room. When we move house it’s a much bigger map. And it takes time for us to work out where to put everything, and to remember where everything is. It’s the cognitive map for our new home. We create our cognitive maps by walking around and doing things We work out the layout of the rooms, and try to remember where all those personal essentials, and practical items are now located. When I was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and moved into a care home, it took me a bit longer to get used to the place, and to work out where everything was, including my toothbrush. And now, when I want to make a cup of coffee they tell me 'it’s okay', and that they will do it for me. They stop me walking around and building my cognitive map. It then appears to others that I am ‘getting worse’. You see, my brain now works in a different way. It isn’t just forgetfulness. It’s the skill of remembering that I need to practice. So, let me go and clean my teeth, make a cup of coffee and wander around and do things. And when you visit, please don't sit there talking, Walk around with me. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Where do you put your tootbrush when you go into a hotel room? 2. Write down 'step by step' the exact steps a new visitor should take to make a cup of coffee in your house. Day 519 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises WEIGHTS AND MEASURES Popularity is not a measure of value. Success is not a measure of happiness. Knowledge is not a measure of understanding. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is most important for you? 2. How do you measure this? Day 518 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises FALSE POSITIVE Numbers that add up do not always give the right answer. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Write down the three numbers that are most significant for you. 2. What are the events/places/times that these represent? 3. How do you feel about these? 4. In a perfect world, would you like to have a different answer? Day 517 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises HAMSTER I want to escape but there is no escape. This is it. This is the price of freedom, to be captured now. All seems so pointless and meaningless. Here on this hamster wheel. More stuff comes around but it’s the same stuff. Again and again. If I can’t get off the hamster wheel, how can I move forward? All is faith and trust, for there is nothing else. So we go on, round and round, going nowhere on the wheel. We are simply doing what we should to find the freedom we crave. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Are you doing the same stuff -going round and round? 2. What is the freedom that you crave? Day 516 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercise MIRROR IMAGE We are made in the image of God. This does not necessarily mean that God looks like a human. But if we look closely at each other, we can see that God, (or love), exists in each of us. And when we look at everyone, we can see that, together, we are all in God. For we are not apart from God, but part of God. Each one of us and all of us, together, forever, as one. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Describe in practical 'doing' words what love looks like. 2. If we bring all of the love that ever existed together, what would that look like? Day 515 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises DISCOVERY CHANNEL With a pen and a notebook, you will write. What is hidden will be found, and be seen. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Take out your pen and notebook - and write what comes. 2. Start a new page, with a new thought, and write what comes. Day 514 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises WEALTH MANAGEMENT If we give to those in need, we will always have more than enough. If we continually try to build wealth, we will always have less than we want. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Have you enough? Day 513 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises THE FOG The fog always lifts. It always clears eventually. But how do I cope when I am in the fog? Any progress I try to make is so painfully slow. Perhaps I should just sit and be in the fog. For there’s nothing to see or do when the fog is in my head. The fog always lifts. It always clears eventually. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Some people live in the fog. Other live with the fog. What is the fog in your head? Day 512 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises DUAL ASPECT This is a special place, a room with windows on two adjoining walls. Dual aspect they call it, because we have two perspectives all the time, as we look out from here. Our life, too, is a special place, for it also has a dual aspect. Our worldly responsibilies and our presence with God, are the two windows of our life. We can switch between the two as we look out from here. This is our dual aspect, our two windows, our two ever present perspectives, of God and neighbour, of life and love, of doing and being, as one. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What do you see at the moment when you look out of your two windows? Day 511 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises HOURGLASS They tell us that our time is running out, that our life is slipping away. Like the sand in an hourglass. What they don’t know is that we have learnt to turn the hourglass upside down, and begin over again. And we can continue to do this forever. For our repositioning is not based on time, but on an understanding of who we are. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. If time wasn't the way that we measured our life, what would you put in its place? 2. What measure would never end, never run out? Day 510 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises MONK Away from everything, the way of the monk, is to find his way. We too must discover our way, in our way. We uncover and cover, what we find. We enter and exit, where we are. We open and close, what is here. For we are all part-time monks, trying to find our way. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How might the way of the Monk help you to work out your way? Day 509 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises WORK RATE If you were given $10 million, would you still do the work that you are doing? If the answer is 'no', then you're not doing, the work that you should. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is the work that you really want to do? 2. How mught you begin to do this today? Day 508 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises JELLY The jelly (Jell-O in the US) is one flat splodge on my plate. It didn’t set. It needed a mould. It needed time to chill. My life is a bit like that, one flat splodge on a plate. I need a mould to help me get set in the right way. I too, need time to chill. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What mould would you pour your life into? Day 507 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises PROBLEM SOLVING We tend to think of shop assistants, cleaners or bus drivers as providing a service, when in fact they are solving a problem, or a need that we have. It would be good if we could recognise the impact that they have made, providing us with food, sorting out our house, or getting us home safely. Let us say 'thank you' each time, to all of our problem solvers and solution providers, who are busy doing their job, and making life a bit easier for all of us. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. When you think of the work that you do, what problem do you solve or what needs do you meet? 2. What should your job/work title really be? Day 506 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises BUSINESS MODELS In every business transaction we choose to be helpful and kind, or not. We choose to smile and say thank-you, or not. We choose to try and make life easier for the other person, or not. In every business transaction we choose a nicer way of of working together, or not. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Which business model will you choose? 2. How will you change your interactions to create a nicer way of working? Day 505 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises FACIAL RECOGNITION Our face is a mirror for all that we have found in the world. Our eyes are a window for all that we are still searching for. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What do you see when you look closely at your face in a mirror? 2. What do you see in your eyes? Day 504 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises DEFICIT Sin seems like an old-fashioned word. It’s not one we typically find in our management training and businesses processes . Sin means absence. Absence of love. Absence of compassion. Absence of gratitude. Absence of giving. This absence means we are less than we can be. It lessens our potential to grow into what we should be. Sin is a deficit. Inclusion addresses this deficit when we build love and compassion, gratitude and giving, in our management training and business processes. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How is inclusion made real in your management training amd business processes? 2. What is our personal deficit? Day 503 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises ANGEL INVESTOR Little Beth never made it into this world. She died early in the womb. That was 25 years ago, and yet little Beth is here with me today. She arrived this morning to guide and help me, like an angel. It’s just the two of us here for breakfast. Wonderful! PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Who might be your angel? 2. What age are they? Day 502 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises CIRCUS TENT The clown, the juggler and the ringmaster, are taking down the Circus tent in the big field. All of the pieces are laid out, like the contents of flat pack furniture, on the grass. By mid-morning everyone has gone. All that is left are impressions on the grass. Signs of a magic once here. It’s the planned dismantling of what we are, in a way that enables us to begin again, in another field. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What are all of your pieces when they are laid out on the grass? Make a list. 2. How will you put them together, so that you can begin again? Day 501 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises LOVE LETTER Thank you for your faith in me. Thank you for your trust in me. Thank you for your unfailing ability to see the best in me. Thank you for being consistent in your love for me. Thank you for your unwavering loyalty and support of me. Thank you for cherishing my ongoing mistakes, and accepting that these are a vital part of me. Thank you for being there. Thank you for being here. Thank you for loving me. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Write your letter and say thank-you to the one you love. Day 500 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises CATERPILLAR THINKING The caterpillar is crawling along the garden hose. He has never seen or met anyone like this before. So much stronger and longer, than him, stretching out for miles across the lawn. Our caterpillar wishes that one day, he too, might become a garden hose. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is your ambition for the next phase of your life? 2. Can you imagine something unimaginable? How will you fly? 3. How can we ensure that we do not limit our thinking to garden hoses? Day 499 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises SNOW GLOBE Human life is such a small part of all existence. Of all that ever was, and will be. We know so little beyond our thinking, and our world. We are in a snow globe shaking a few flakes. But what if we were the manufacturer of snow globes? What sort of worlds would we create? And would we stop at snow globes? For beyond us is thinking, imagination and creativity that is not limited to snow globes. And now we understand why snow globes are transparent. To let the light in, and for us to look outwards, beyond all we know PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Describe and draw a snow globe that contains your perfect world. Day 498 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises EMAIL MARKETING If you throw a plate load of spaghetti at your wall, a couple of pieces might stick. But you have wasted a plate full of the very best spaghetti. Of course, you can reuse it, but we all know it’s been on the floor. Email marketing software is like you throwing your best spaghetti at a wall. There is no better way of telling your contacts, that you are totally disinterested in them. Authenticity, respect and real interactions are now driving our mutual success - not spaghetti. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How can you develop the quality of your interactions with your contacts? 2. How can you gain a competitive advantage by being authentic and real? Day 497 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises ELEPHANT They say that the best way to eat an elephant (meaning, to tackle that big task), is one bite at a time. Or to cross the river, is to go, from one stepping-stone to the next. Or to finish the jigsaw, is simply to, take one piece at a time. And so it is, with our elephant, our river and our jigsaw. They are all there for us to take one bite, one step, one piece, today. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. 1. What is your elephant?? 2. What is your river? 3. What is your jigsaw? Day 496 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises PRESCRIPTION 'Do something every day' is what I say to delegates, who are looking, to build their futures. This is about pushing forward step-by-step, in the direction you want to go. It takes you closer to your goal. But it’s also about more than just getting things done. It builds within you a culture of success and achievement. It ensures that you focus on your priorities every day, rather than get ambushed by life all around you. And it gives a context for everything else you do today, and what needs to be done, tomorrow. Do something every day is our ongoing reflection and action plan for making all that we are, real. It is our prescription for life to take this regular exercise, just one step at a time, and do something every day. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. 1. What will you do today to move forwad in the direction you want to go? 2. What will you do tomorrow to move forwad in the direction you want to go? 3. How will you make sure you 'do something every day' from now on? Day 495 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises |
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