600 Personal Development Exercises
do one a day - every day!
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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
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
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
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
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
QUIET ROOM There are two types of prayer. Busy prayer and Quiet prayer. Busy prayer is doing, helping, sharing, listening, encouraging, supporting, fixing, joining, and much, much more. Quiet prayer is beyond silence, beyond thought, beyond all that we know and all that we are. Busy prayer will one day disappear but Quiet prayer will open for us a doorway that we already know. It makes sense to get to know Quiet Prayer by learning to be silent, to go beyond all thought and explore all that we are. For here we will find that doorway to whom we will become, to God, to love and to all that is. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. 1. Tell me about your Busy prayer today. 2. Tell me about your Quiet prayer today. Day 218 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
INBOX Every day holds a message for you. It will come in what someone says. It will come in the words you read. It will come in a video on your phone. It will come in a thought from heaven. It will come from deep within your soul. It will come from those who love you. It will come from those who have left and are still with you. It will come in the breeze and in the sunshine. It will come in her smile and his gentle laugh. It will come when they hold your hand and says it’s okay. Every day holds a message for you. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. 1. What is today's message? Day 215 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
SPACE EXPLORATION There is a world I can enter which is not of this world. It is not about my work, or my family, or my health, or my age, or my journey. This is a world I cannot see or touch or even feel. It is simply a space that sits with a door and is always there. But I am so busy doing so many things and getting on with my life. But today I stand looking into this space. I put the words around this and I try to describe for you what cannot be described. For there is nothing to see. There is nothing to feel. There is nothing to know. There is just an awareness, of otherness, of separation, from all that I am and know. And yet, I am part of the space. I am in the space. I am this space. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. 1. Think about 'the space' within you . Write down the words that come to you.... Day 214 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
PARADIGM SHIFT It is not what I must do. It is not what I must be. It is not who I am. It is not which direction to take. It is not about time. It is not about action. It is not about the world. It is not about me. So, what is it? PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How do we step out of all that we know and all that we are? 2. How can we change everything? Day 203 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
AUTOPILOT My thoughts are all over the place. I flit from one thing to another. But I’ve learnt to go with this, and not become too engaged in any one thought. But to flit onwards. For me, reflection or contemplation are not about breathing techniques or trying to empty my brain of all thoughts. Rather, they are about meandering, and using the thoughts that come long, simply as stepping-stones. For if I am patient and sit here, I will get to where I should be.My thoughts are all over the place. I flit from one thing to another. But I’ve learnt to go with this, and not become too engaged in any one thought. But to flit onwards. For me, reflection or contemplation are not about breathing techniques or trying to empty my brain of all thoughts. Rather, they are about meandering, and using the thoughts that come long, simply as stepping-stones. For if I am patient and sit here, I will get to where I should be. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Take some time today and place your trust in your Autopilot. Give it time to take you to where you should be. Day 189 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
TAKEAWAY Let us talk of inward reflection rather than prayer. For it is by going inwards away from the clamour of the world ... ... into the gentle silence, that we see our real selves reflected in love. And this is what we take into our lives and all that we do. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Where do you find the gentle silence? 2. When will you have your next takeaway? Day 180 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
PARALLEL INTERFACE We all live parallel lives. Our daily work, our relationships and the things that we do are all part of our outer living. What goes on in the deep recesses of our mind and consciousness, is our inner living. Both co-exist together. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How much time and thought do you give to your inner living? 2. Have you explored how you outer living and your inner living work seemlessly together? Day 174 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
WORD Thinking differently about everything encourages us to focus on a word and to hold this word. We place this word at the centre of our hearts and allow it to grow in these moments. It is in this process that we move beyond our normal definitions of words and meanings We try not to get distracted and keep coming back to this word resting gently within us. It is only when we free the word to be in and off itself that it becomes all that it should be. We then become one with the word within us, for we are the word and the word is with God. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Choose a word, sit quietly for ten minutes and just hold this word gently within you. 2. Images and feeling will emerge after a short time. Follow these. Then write it all down. Day 156 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
LIQUIDITY We become so busy in life doing all we should and getting on with everything, that it is easy to forget to look closely and to assess it all. This is more than thinking about where we are or planning our future. It’s about something internal beyond all our actions. It’s about going closer towards the essence of life itself. Being part of the liquid of life flowing through all of us. As one. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is the ‘liquid of life‘ that connects and flows through all of us? 2. How can you boost and improve that liquidity – to benefit yourself and all others? Day 134 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
EMPTY CHAIR This is a spiritual journey, not a business or work one. This is the journey in my eternal now, not a plan for the next year. This is a journey beyond this place, not a marketing or income strategy. This is a journey away from me, not a reliance on myself. This is a journey which cannot be described, not one plotted by success or failure. This is a journey without family or friends, and without myself. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is your journey? 2. Why is this called empty chair? Day 121 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
TIMESCALE Time is not a linear concept. It is a circle. It is the never-ending present for there is no start and no finish. Live in this moment for it holds all moments and as you live in all moments you live forever. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Draw your life as a complete circle. Where have you placed everything - people, events, relationships, understanding....? 2. What is on the rim of your circle? What sits within the rim? What is at the very centre? What is outside your circle? Day 108 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
ICEBERG If we spend all of our time looking at what’s happening, planning and organising and sorting out stuff, we will miss what’s going on beneath the surface, where a whole other world exists. Where 80% of our life is happening. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is happening beneath the surface in your life? 2. What are you going to do with all of this hidden potential? Day 102 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY DEGREE FEEDBACK Love is not something we have to search for. Love is with us, beside us, and in us always no matter what. So, this journey of life is an inward one, to be love in all we are and an outward one, to love all who we meet. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What does your love look like – inside and out? 2. List and celebrate the top five real, practical and visible outputs of your love Day 88 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
INTERIOR DESIGN I'm using this time as an opportunity to rethink where I am and to start afresh. I even moved all my office furniture around yesterday and it made a huge difference. You see, I'm now able to look out of the window at the trees and not stare at the wall. Moving around the furniture has literally changed how I see things. It’s my interior design process. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. How could you rearrange your furniture for a different perspective? 2. How could you rearrange your day for a different set of outcomes? Day 82 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
SELF ACTUALIZATION Mission and purpose ask us to reach into ourselves and try to understand who we are, why we are here and what we are meant to do at this time. Self actualization is made real and visible for us every day through this ongoing inward search and the ever-present uncovering of truth on our lifelong journey. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What is your mission and purpose? 2. What have you uncovered today about yourself? Day 64 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
CAUSE AND EFFECT If you move sideways You’ll get a better view. If you take a few steps back You’ll make bigger jumps. If you need to stop for breath You’ve already gone too far. If you laugh and smile You’ll learn to enjoy yourself. If you feed someone You’ll not go hungry. If you stop and plan your route You won’t go round in circles. If you are tired You can rest. If you close your eyes You’ll see more clearly. If you can sit in silence You’ll hear the answer. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Which of the above nine statements has most meaning for you at the moment? 2. How will you act on this? Day 54 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
YIELD Give way. Let the other win. Operate at a higher level. Give way. Let it all pass you by. Stay detached in your own place. Give way. Let your rate of return be what cannot be measured. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. What are you trying to win? 2. Who are you competing with at work or at home? 3. How do you measure your yield - your rate of return? Day 53 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX Imagine if we go through this time not asking the real questions. What if our focus is solely on present events? Do we not realise that there was a time when we were not here? An eternity before we existed. And do we not realise there will be a time when we will not be here? An eternity still to come. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Look beyond present events and list the 'real questions' for you. 2. How are you planning to find the answers? Day 40 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
MEDITATION MASTERCLASS And when nothing happens, nothing seems to work and there is no conversation, then recognise that this is about just sitting and just being. There is no need for productivity. There is no need for thought. There is no need for inspiration. Just sit with no expectation. Just relax. Just be in that moment. For our failure to meditate or reflect or pray or even sit, takes us closer to our greatest success. When the world wants to drag us back, stay with the failure. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Create some 'me time' and just sit on your own with no thoughts and no expectations. 2. Write down what happens - and remember there is no such thing as 'failure' or 'this doesn't work for me' . 3. Rinse and repeat this process when you can. Day 34 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
NEEDS ANALYSIS Sometimes there is no need to think no need to speak no need to act. Sometimes we just need to stop just need to sit just need to be. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE 1. Find a quiet place with no distractions. Sit down and relax. Try and empty you brain of all thoughts. Deliberately leave a space of nothingness. Keep coming back to this emptiness. Just be. 2. At the finish time, write down what happened and what you've learned. 3. Repeat the above process every day for five days. Day 31 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
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