600 Personal Development Exercises
do one a day - every day!
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DIRECT MARKETING If you really want to make an impact. If you really want to get that sale. If you really want to build your business. If you really want to achieve a new position. If you really want to win someone’s support. Send a hand-written letter. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. When might you use direct marketing - that is truly personal? 2. Who do you really need to make an impact with?  Day 533 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises SELF-EMPLOYMENT We no longer work for companies. They now work for us, to help us achieve our plan, as we build our future. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Who are the companies, businesses and individuals that are working for you? 2. How is each one giving you income, support and help as you to build your future?  Day 531 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 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 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 RETAIL THERAPY Years ago, our parents went to the local Corner shop, chatted briefly to the shopkeeper, greeted others who were there, and got all that they needed. Now we go to the supermarket with a trolley, and scan items without talking with anyone, and leaving behind, what we really need. This lack of human interaction is presented as a good thing. The lack of conversation and engagement, is apparently saving us money. But where is the welcome, the smile or the 'thank-you'? Shopping may be more efficient, but have we lost the real value of our retail therapy? PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. 1. How can you add value with a welcome, a smile and a 'thank-you' during your shopping trips - with other customes and staff? 2. How might retailers re-discover the real value of retail therapy? 3. Where can we create a real personal interaction in online shopping?  Day 490 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises NUMBER ONE Yes, at last! I’m number one on the Amazon list! It was announced to me in person today by my Amazon driver. I was his first delivery of the day, at 4:30 this afternoon. He has 75 calls to local farms with seven minutes between each call. Will you find them? I ask. ‘Easy!’ he grins. ‘All mapped out!’ He laughs and says ‘You’re number one on the Amazon list!’ PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How well have you mapped out your day to achieve your objectives? 2. How enthusiastic are you about what you have to do today? 3. How positive and motivating will you be with the people you meet today?  Day 477 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises GROWTH RATE If we want to move forward, if we want to grow, if we want to become more, then we must do something new today. Something fresh or different. Something fun or challenging. Something exciting or overdue. Somthing unplanned or unexpected. Something that brings us joy. For every day holds for us our new times of doing, our new chapter of learning, our new moments of discovery, and our new space for growth. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What will you learn today? Where will you visit? Who will you meet? What will you discover? 2. What is your Personal Growth plan for today?  Day 469 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercise CLIENT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY Imagine if your customers and clients, were your best friends. Imagine how that would transform a one-dimensional business relationship, into something of real potential. Start now to reimagine your customer and client relationships, as friendships. Begin to reposition, redefine, play, explore and create something amazing together. For together, with all of our past and present clients and customers, we have a new way. It’s an invitation beyond business and sales. It's an opportunity as vast as our imagination. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE? 1. Use your imagination! How might you work in a different way with some of your customers and clients? 2. What is the 'something amazing' you could create together? Day 415 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
EVERLASTING GRANTS Many voluntary organizations and community groups, are trapped on the hamster wheel of grants. They work on applications. They apply and get funding. They spend it. They go again. They work on applications. They apply and get funding. They spend it. They go again. But we can step off the hamster wheel, with an Everlasting Grant. You see, every grant offers the opportunity to create a product or service, at the same time as we deliver the work. Your training course, your support service, your advice, your report and case studies, can all be captured, and then shared. Every grant offers us the potential to create new products, share our experience and bring us income on an ongoing basis. Everlasting Grants are stepping stones to financial sustainability, If only we can get off the hamster wheel. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What products or service can you create with your current grant? 2. Look through all of your previous grants. What can you harvest from this work to create new products and services? Day 411 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
THE ONGOING CONVERSATION The words are simply an output. The work is simply an output. The activity is simply an output. The way forward is simply an output. My success and my failure. My sadness and my joy. All simply outputs. I keep looking at outputs and missing the ongoing conversation. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How would you describe your internal conversation and your dialogue with yourself? 2. Is this spoken, secret, acknowledged or cherished? Day 409 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
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
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
DYNAMIC INTERPLAY We sometimes think of love as not the most practical of things. We see love as an emotional connection or something we need more of in the world. But love is real within each of us, in every moment, as our inspiration, our guide, our teacher, our helper, our personal assistant and our friend. Love sits within us and with us, as a dynamic interplay that gives us ideas and direction, comfort us and keeps us safe. It is a priceless resource that is available and working for us, in every moment of our lives Love is our personal group of experts, our own support network and our team of freelancers, all working tirelessly for us. But often they work in the dark, for we do not actively engage with all the resources and expertise at our disposal. And because love is given to us freely, it is easy for us not to value it, in the ordinary and mundane activities of life. Yet love is there, in our lives, our work, our relationships, our family and in all that we are. So, talk to your team every day. Listen to them. Tell them all that you need. They are excited to be working with you, in this ongoing dynamic interplay that is your amazing life. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How can you develop your dynamic interplay with love? 2. When do you talk, listen and tell love what you need? Day 356 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
SELF-EMPLOYED When you’re self-employed the focus can be on cash flow, finding new business, and keeping current clients. In all of this juggling, it’s easy to get lost in the money trap. We can end up chasing business rather than building our dream. So, our priority must be to focus on our purpose and to work on activities that take us forward, every day. And if we share our vision with others, they too can help us. We can do more than make a living. We can be delivering our dream today. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Write down your dream. Describe it in detail. Read this description each day. 2. Now be determined to do something every day to make your dream a reality. Make this your daily priority. Make this your new habit! Day 352 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
KEYWORD Imagine if we could find a way to work together that was for the benefit of those most in need, as well as our own personal interests. Imagine if governments across the world were to work collaboratively, not on the basis of trade, but in looking after everyone on our planet. Imagine if all religions and beliefs were to act together, to help all of those in need. Imagine if all situations of conflict could be transformed, now, to communities of peace. Imagine if we could understands our true purpose, and could live this in every moment. Imagine if we could find something so precious that we give our whole life to it. Imagine that one word holds the key to all of this. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is this keyword for you? 2. Now that you know this keyword, what are you going to do? Day 337 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
TEAMWORK You must work with us. If you go off on your own to do your own thing, then it’s solely about you. If we could all work together then everything becomes about us, We can help each other to achieve all that we should. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Who is on your team? 2. How are you helping them to achieve all that they should? Day 331 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
SIGNATURE SPEECH Your signature speech is the last two or three words in every conversation. Your signature speech is how you sign-off your emails. It used to be Yours Sincerely, Yours Faithfully, Yours Truly, Kind regards or Best wishes. Now we say: Take care. Enjoy your day. God bless. Look after yourself. Keep well. Your signature speech is your opportunity to show some kindness in two or three words. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. 1. What is your signature speech? Day 315 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT If the sea was grass we could walk on water. If the world lost its gravity we could fly. Nothing is impossible If we change properties. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. 1. Describe the property that you would like to have. Day 293 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS Please submit your Management Accounts for the past week. Tell me how you have been kind to others. Tell me when you have helped others. Tell me where the gentleness in your life is. Tell me where you need help or support. Tell me how you are managing at the moment. Your accounts should be submitted to the Chief Accountant within the next ten minutes. Thank you. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. Complete your Management Accounts and answer the five key questions: 1. Tell me how you have been kind to others. 2. Tell me when you have helped others. 3. Tell me where the gentleness in your life is. 4. Tell me where you need help or support. 5. Tell me how you are managing at the moment. Day 226 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
TIP If we seek to gain something by delivering good service, then we lose the true value of service. We simply exchange service for money. If we can view service as an opportunity for giving, without thoughts of return or benefit, then we will receive more than we can imagine. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. 1. What does service really mean? 2. What does it take to make service exceptional for you? Day 225 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE For twenty years I cut the grass the same way from the back door to the beach and back again, stripes leading outwards from the back door taking me to the beach and back again. Today I cut the grass a different way. I don't know why - it just happened. I cut the grass from the left to right and then right to the left. Starting at the back door and slowly getting closer to the beach without going back to the house. I had stripes across the lawn rather than up and down. Today, after twenty years I cut the grass in a different way. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is your routine or standard operating procedure? 2. What might you change - just to get a different perspective? Day 197 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
SPECIAL OFFER Buy one and get one free. Green Shield Stamps. Nectar Card. Air Miles. Smart Rewards. Two for the price of one. Premier Points. Avios. Clubcard. Loyalty rewards. Tiger Tokens. 50% off. Last minute. Weekend Special. Happy Hour. Member Offer. Double points. Gift Certificates. Cashback. Frequent Flyer. Christmas Club. Introductory Bonus. Buy three - cheapest one free. Trading Stamps. Free gift. Sale price. Buy one - get one half price. Blue cross day. Why do more of the same? Make an offer that really matters. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is your offer? 2. Why does it really matter? Day 187 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
CASH FLOW The birds of the air get their food. The money will come. The fish in the water get their food. The money will come All of my life I’ve had food. The money has come. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What does your life cash flow look like? 2. Where and how has the money come? 3. What does this say to you about your future hopes and dreams? Day 184 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
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