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600 Personal Development Exercises

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What will you hand on?

9/11/2021

 

CHAIN REACTION
 
You don’t have to know
where this leads, or to
see the plan completed.
 
You don’t have to
see the consequences of all
that you have set in motion.
 
For this is for others
to take from here,
and to follow through.
 
Just like all
that was handed to you,
many years ago.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What was handed to you many years ago?
2. What will you hand on? And to whom?


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Day 536 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Are you taking part in the Olympics?

7/26/2021

 

​BATON
 
The purpose of life
is to pass on to others
all that we learn
about life itself,
before we finish
our leg of the race.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. ​
1. What have you learned so far about life?
2. How will you pass on your baton? Who to? 

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Day 489 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is The Pilgrim's Progress?

7/18/2021

 

​THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
 
Our life is one pilgrimage.
It’s an ongoing journey
with ourselves and with others,
to places and events,
through activities and learning,
through success and failure, and 
with happiness, regret and hope.
Our life is one journey.
It’s a pilgrimage to who we are.

​​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Where is your pilgrimage to?
2. What have you uncovered along the way so far, about who you are?

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Day 481 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercise

What is in your Suitcase?

7/5/2021

 

UNPACK

As we go through life we collect
more skills, knowledge, contacts,
relationships, activities and experience.
 
Our suitcase by now is at breaking point.
It doesn’t make sense to
keep carrying all of this around.
 
Let us think about
who we really are and
​what we need to move forward.
 
Let us unpack our suitcase
and take a smaller bag,
for the rest of the journey.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What do you really need to carry with you?
2. What do you no longer need to hold onto? 


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Day 468 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercise

Where is your Boat?

7/4/2021

 

​BOAT
 
There is no point having a boat
sitting by the shore.
It is meant for the sea.
It is meant for the journey.
Get on board.
Push your boat out.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Where will your boat take you now?
2. What do we mean by 'boat'?


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Day 467 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is your Pet Project?

5/27/2021

 

PET PROJECT
 
I dropped off my car as usual,
 at my local garage for its service.
Yaz and the boys always
look after me.
 
I asked Yaz about his red TR5
that still sits aloft, overlooking
us all, covered in a dust sheet.
It’s Yaz’s pet refurbishment project.
 
I get a similar response every year when
I ask ‘How’s the TR5 coming along?’
‘Too busy mate. Too much to do.’
He sighs.
 
I know how much Yaz loves
that  bright red iconic car...
Sometimes we are all too busy
to focus on our pet project.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What is your Pet Project?
2. What is the dream that you would still love to see happen?


Day 429 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Can we Speak Without Words?

5/25/2021

 

SPEAKING WITHOUT WORDS
 

When my dad was getting older,
we used to meet up
every few days, for a coffee
in the local café.
 
He didn’t have much news
for me, and I’m not sure
that my updates were
really that riveting for him!
 
But we read the papers together,
commented on the football,
and both knew that
 we didn’t need to talk.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE?
1. When and where do you speak without words?
2. Who is with you? 


Day 427 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Have you tried a different Conditioner?

5/17/2021

 

A DIFFERENT CONDITIONER 
 
The phone pings
and I don’t lift it up,
or even look at it.
 
The phone pings again
and I consciously ignore it.
I am somewhere else.
 
The bell rings
and Pavlov’s dog salivates.
In the hope that food is coming.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE?
1. What is managing how you respond - phone, habits, others?  
2. How much of your life is in reactive mode (conditioned responses) and how much is in proactive (inner) mode? ​


Day 419 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What Time is it?

5/14/2021

 

TIME  
 
Time to re-set.
Not to continue as before.
Time to re-frame.
Not to continue as before.
Time to rejoice.
Not to continue as before.
Time to renew
Not to continue as before.
Time to start again.
And not, to continue as before.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE?
1. How can you re-set, re-frame, rejoice, renew and be ready to start again?​

Day 416 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is a Three Year Plan?

4/29/2021

 

THREE YEAR PLAN

Have you created the picture
of what your life
will look like ,
three years from now?
 
Can you see
where you are living,
who you are with, and
the work that you are doing?
 
Can you imagine how you feel,
what your health is like,
what is happening around you,
and what is bringing you joy?
 
It’s time to draw,
to map out in words,
exactly what your life will be
three years from now.
 
For if you do not know
who you will be, or
where you are going,
then how will you get there?

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Who will you be in three years time?
2. What will you be doing in three years time? ​


Day 401 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Which Phase of your Life are you in?

4/23/2021

 

PHASES OF LIFE

As we go through life,
it’s easy to see it all
as one journey.

And yet, if we stop
and look back,
we can notice
​different periods.

A time when we did this.
A time when we were that.

So, look at the present time
and realise that this too,
is a period of transition,
and transformation.

You are in the middle
of something now.
And soon it will end.

And then you will be
into the next phase
of your journey.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What are the key characteristics of this Phase of your life?
​2. What do you think your next Phase will look like? 


Day 395 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is your Future Self saying to you?

4/21/2021

 

FUTURE SELF

Write yourself a key message for today.
It’s a message from your future self.

Write a message to encourage you,
 lift you and inspire you.

It’s a message to focus on what matters, 
reset your direction, and sort out your future .

Your future self is reaching backwards,
 smiling as you are handed this message.

Write yourself a key message for today.
What is your future self saying to you?

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write out a message right now, from you future self?
2. How exactly are you going to act on this?


Day 393 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How do your Teenage Years shape you?

4/18/2021

 

TEENAGE YEARS

When I was fifteen,
the teachers shouted at me,
for daydreaming and looking out
of the window. I only scraped
a pass in a few subjects.
 
Every day now,
I sit quietly
and daydream.
 
When I was sixteen,
I wrote a book of song lyrics.
Teenage love and
aspirational words.
I never shared them.
 
Every day now,
I write new words
for all to see.
 
When I was seventeen,
I created my first business idea
and bought a candle making kit
which came in a box.
It never got off the kitchen table.
 
Every day now,
I light a candle
which sits on a little table.
 
When I was eighteen,
I decided to become a priest
and go off to Africa
and help the poor.
I never made it.
 
Every day now,
I try to build
a world of kindness.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Think back to your teenage years. Where are those activities, dreams and ideas happening now in your life?
2. Look after our teenagers - for they are already living their future right now.


Day 390 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Can we Live our Life Backwards?

4/16/2021

 

LIVE YOUR LIFE BACKWARDS

​To live our lives backwards frees us
from the expectation of our past.
It lifts the burden of
everything that we are carrying.
It allows us to start afresh from
a position of where we end up,
not where we are now.
 
Living our life backwards takes us
out of ‘cumulative thinking’
where we keep asking ourselves
‘what comes next?’
For all of our current options are
created from our experience,
expectations and learning to date.
 
However, if we start at the end
 and live our lives backwards
we begin from a completely new place,
one of no history or expectation.
 It means that we can
completely and freely design
the rest of our life.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What will you be at the end of your life?
2. Where will you be?
3. What will you have achieved?
4. Now live your life backwards and make it all happen! 


Day 388 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is your Future Story?

4/15/2021

 

FUTURE STORY

Write down your future story!
State exactly what will happen.
Read your story every morning.
Read your story every evening.
 
Put your story on your phone.
Put it beside your computer.
Put it inside your notebook.
Put in your wallet or purse.
 
Put your story on your fridge.
Put it on your office wall.
Put it on your bathroom mirror.
Put it on your bedside table.

Read your story now.
Watch your future unfold
every moment, every day,
everywhere.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Write down exactly what you want to see happen in your life.
2. Make it real every day.....


Day 387 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Qualitative Easing?

4/13/2021

 

QUALITATIVE EASING

There is talk of slowly
getting back to normal.
But this is much more
than a call to gradually
ease back, into the way that
 we used to work and live.
 
We have been given the
opportunity to reposition
exactly who we are.
We have been given an
amazing moment of choice
and the time to make it happen.
 
This is a call to lift our lives
from where we were
and to place ourselves
where we want to be.
This is the life-changing moment
of our real new normal.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Are you going back to where you were?
2. What would you like your new normal to be? 
3. What is you plan to reposition who you are and to place yourself where you want to be?


Day 385 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What happened on Holy Saturday?

4/3/2021

 

HOLY SATURDAY 
 
When we die a bright white light
appears and welcomes us home.
There is no fear or pain,
simply peace and joy at a level
we can never imagine.
 
This is the account of many
near death experiences from people
who briefly died, started this journey,
and then came back to this life.
Their time had not yet come.
 
But where did Jesus go on
Good Friday, after he met the light?
He came back, not as he was,
but as he is now, to show us all,
that  beyond the light, we are real.

​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What can we do to get ready for our journey into the bright, white light?

​Day 375 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercise

How do we measure Wisdom?

4/1/2021

 

WISDOM
 

Just because we know
what needs to happen
and others do not,
doesn’t mean that we are right.
We could still be miles away
from the truth.
Indeed we may be close to zero
on the real activity scale.
 
Just because we have
the answer to the situation
and others do not,
doesn’t mean that we are right.
We could still be miles away
from the truth.
Indeed we may be close to zero
on the real knowledge scale.
 
Just because we have
experienced this before
and others have not,
doesn’t mean that we are right.
We could still be miles away
from the truth.
Indeed we may be close to zero
on the real wisdom scale.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What does wisdom mean to you?  
​2. What do you really know? 
3. What is the one thing that you would like to know?


​Day 373 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Is it time to Recharge your Battery?

3/28/2021

 

BATTERY RECHARGING

​My watch battery
has run out of power.
I plug it in, and it is
quickly restored to 100%.
 
My phone battery
has run out of power.
I plug it in and
it is restored to 100%.
 
I have seen these
power levels decrease
over the last day, and
I should have acted sooner.
 
My own energy level
is running low on power
It's time to plug myself in, and be
quickly restored to 100%

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. Where do you get your inner energy from?
2. What is your inner energy level today?
3. How do you restore yourself?


​Day 369 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What is Intergenerational  Learning?

3/20/2021

 

​INTERGENERATIONAL LEARNING

Always speak well of older people
for they have made a journey
beyond all your understanding.

​And in due course, I hope,
that you too, will come to see
what they already know.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. How do you speak well of older people?
2. What is it that older people already know about the journey of life?    
3. When will you sit down and ask them? 


Day 361 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Where is your Soul?

3/9/2021

 

VISITING TIME

​We are already in heaven.
Our soul was created as pure love
in the beginning,
for an eternity of love.
 
Our soul has already given
totally of itself,
so that we can experience
life and love in this world.
 
For when we were conceived,
ownership of ourselves
was entrusted
to our human self.
 
Our brain has no memory of heaven.
Our ego knows nothing but itself.
So, our journey in life
is one of understanding.
 
For soon we will go.
Back to our souls.
Back to heaven.
Back to reality.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What would you like to say to your soul? 
2. What have you learned on this journey of understanding about who you really are? 


Day 350 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises​​

What do we mean by Non-Stick?

3/1/2021

 

NON-STICK

The opportunity of life
is to focus on what we will become
and not to be stuck
in who we are.
 
The opportunity of today
is to focus on what we will become
and not to be stuck
in who we are.
 
The opportunity of this moment
is to focus on what we will become
and not to be stuck
in who we are.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. What will you take from this moment and the opportunity it presents?
2. How will you make the most of today?
3. Where (or how) do you need to unstick aspect of your life, work, relationships or future? 


Day 342 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

How do we Read Between the Lines?

2/5/2021

 

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

The evening train derailed yesterday.
You could see it happening
in slow motion, as the engine
came off the tracks and lay there.
A sorry sight.

The driver died.
No one else was hurt.
Just wreckage and lives,
all turned upside down
in the moment.

And overnight the cranes came
and lifted the wreck.
Workmen cleared the track.
And life goes on as before,
for all around.

A new train arrived this morning.
Others will never know
what took place here.
It is, as if, for them, that
nothing has happened.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. ​
1. What do you read between these lines?
2. What events and sadness are hidden in your lines?


Day 318 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

What are you Sweeping?

1/29/2021

 

SWEEPING

It’s so challenging when the life
you imagined for yourself,
is not the one being played out
by you, in real time.

It’s so difficult when you see,
your plans can no longer happen,
and your stories of self,
are not what you dreamt of.

But there is no failure here.
It’s just the sweeping of the path.
It’s the uncovering
of your real self.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. ​
1. What sweeping is happening in your life?
2. What is your real self starting to look like?


Day 311 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

Is there a Route Planner for life?

1/27/2021

 

ROUTE PLANNER
​
​Sometimes you see that
the road you’re on,
isn’t going where
you want to go.
 
You then have to decide
to keep going
in the wrong direction,
or to create your own path.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE. ​
1. What road are you on?
2. Where exactly are you going?
3. Could you create a path that meets your needs? 


Day 309 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises
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