600 Personal Development Exercises
do one a day - every day!
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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?  Day 536 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises 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?  Day 489 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises 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?  Day 481 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercise 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?  Day 468 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercise
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'?  Day 467 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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