600 Personal Development Exercises
do one a day - every day!
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FOCUS GROUP I got a sad meal at McDonald’s yesterday. Don’t you mean a Happy Meal? No, the toy was missing and I was a little bit sad. (two young friends discussing their lunch) PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What would others say, in private, about the product or service that you provide? 2. Are you doing all that you should to make you happy? Day 179 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
INDUCTION TRAINING Whatever age you are it doesn’t really matter. The reality is that you haven’t even started yet. Don’t let memory or routine or disappointment hold you back. Get ready now, for you haven’t even started yet. There are no expectations. The world is there for you. It is yours to embrace. You haven’t even started yet Your life is in front of you. All potential and possibilities are here. You haven’t even started yet. For this is the moment beyond all moments, when you finally realise that you haven’t even started yet. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Everything up to now has been a preparation for what is to come. How would you sum up your induction training? 2. Everything starts from today. What are you going to do with all of this potential and possibilities? Day 162 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
SHARING ECONOMY I sit on Platform 2 in the shade, on a sunny August day with a cup of tea and some 'oats and honey' crunchy biscuits. Three pigeons keep me company and make sure that we leave nothing behind. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How can you help others on your journey? 2. Who is in your sharing economy? Day 145 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
INWARD MARKETING True Marketing is an Inward rather than an Outward process. Outward marketing means that we can spend our lives chasing customers and jobs, sourcing products or looking for work. Repeating this again and again. Just like we are told we need to do. Inward marketing means that we are personally driven. We look inwards to our core skills, beliefs, gifts, passions and experience. We work out who and what we are. And then we have exactly what the world is missing and urgently needs. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Make a list of your core skills, experience, interests and passions. 2. Now add your values and beliefs (what's important to you) to help work out who and what you are. 3. How might you share all of this with the world? Day 132 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
MARKET SHARE It’s not about keeping the customer satisfied. It’s not about meeting client needs. It’s not about responding to gaps in the market. It’s not about finding your niche. It’s not about selling more of your stuff. It’s not about being famous or in demand. It’s not about the brand or your reputation. It’s not about anything out there. It’s about saying what you have to say. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What are trying to achieve in your career/business? 2. What are you selling, promoting or marketing? 2. What is it that you have to say? Day 103 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
RELOCATION PACKAGE We’re moving house next week. My wife is busy ensuring all the lightbulbs are working. She will clean the flat from top to bottom. She’s had new window locks fitted as we’d lost the keys. We’ve been to the hardware store and bought a new electric fire to replace the one that we are taking. The Shop Assistant laughed as it was the hottest summer on record! We have even bought better quality ornamental coals for the gas fire. We’ve touched up all the paperwork where pictures used to hang. We have left a welcome pack of notes with instructions on the boiler, door key codes, internet connections, recycling arrangements and heating controls. The last thing will be to leave a bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine. We’ve spent all this time and we will never see the people who move in. We will not know who takes our place here. We will not know if they are kind or thoughtful. We will not know if they are younger or older than us. When I questioned all this activity, I am gently reminded that it’s just about doing for others as we would like them to do for us. She asks ‘If we were to walk in here what would we like to see? It’s not so much about us leaving and moving but, them arriving. Sometimes we need to relocate our thinking. For relocation is not so much about where you go but what you leave behind. (P.S. Three weeks after we left, we received a lovely thank-you card.) PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is your next move in life or work? 2. What will you leave behind? Day 91 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
BUSINESS DRIVERS Are you the driver? This is the question I was asked when paying for tea and a scone in the cafe by the ancient monastic site at Clonmacnoise, in Ireland. I guess it was my solitary nature, the sunglasses or absence of a camera that led to her question. I was clearly not part of the Japanese tourist group. Now, every day, I ask myself: ‘Are you the driver?’ PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What are the drivers in your business or work? 2. What are you driving? Day 89 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
NETT GAIN If you pull back the net curtain you will see clearly. You will see forever into the distance. If you don’t pull back the net curtain all you will see is the net curtain and a vague light behind it. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What would you like to see more clearly? 2. What is the net curtain? Day 68 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
CLICK AND COLLECT Sometimes we can act like a tortoise moving very slowly step-by-step, sometimes making progress, and sometimes standing still. But what if we were a seagull kicking off from a standing start, zooming at great pace , covering vast distances, deciding where to land and then mmediately placing ourselves there? Let's re-design our delivery. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is your starting point? 2. Where do you want to get to? 3. Now think like a seagull - and create a new route.... Day 38 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
OPERATING SYSTEM Spirituality is not something airy-fairy. It is simply the way that we give meaning to all that we are and all that we do. It is the fabric of who we are. Spiritually isn’t outside of us or detached from us. It is our operating system silently working away. PERSONAL DEVERLOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How would you define your Operating System? 2. What keeps you going? 3. How often do you check on it, service it or update your Operating System? Day 25 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
PHOTOCOPYING To make money just copy someone else's product or business. I'm sure you can make it cheaper or improve it. Add a new feature, make it faster, quicker acting or longer lasting. To change lives and change the world, create your own solution. Are you still photocopying? PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How much of what you do is photocopying? 2. What is your idea to make things better in our world or to help others? What's the first step? Day 17 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
CURRENCY FLIPPING Some say that Business is about doing and Spirituality is about being. These are the two sides of the coin of life - doing and being. And they sit together within each of us. But the two sides face in opposite directions so unfortunately, cannot be viewed at the same time. We have to consciously choose to flip over the coin. Then we get the full picture for a moment. We see everything in totality. But what if we could sit on the edge of the coin and touch both sides together at the same time? Doing and being. The edge of the coin. Business and Spirituality as one. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. In a sentence write down what Spirituality means to you. 2. The language of Business and Spirituality are very different. Make two lists of five words in each area that are rarely used in the other area. 3. How might Business and Spirituality link together to create new perspectives, questions and opportunities for all? Day 3 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
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