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Read MoreHow do you keep track of your personal development and career goals?
I developed the Becoming Personal Development Journal as a way to keep my milestone goals, progress, and overall thoughts on my own development in one place. Sure, I have my blog to do that, but after inadvertently deleting my blog of ten years when I switched to a web site, I realized the impermanence of ideas. Plus, writing something by hand requires discipline and it’s discipline that comes into play when you are trying to achieve a bold goal.
Through this journal, I wanted to inspire my clients to stay motivated and maintain their momentum as they were rolling off engagements with me.
I started using early versions of the Journal two years ago. I had quit my job to finish my doctorate, was fresh out of my final defense with my committee, recovering from some very painful surgery, and felt a bit rudderless. Because I started this process for myself in August 2015, I made the journal undated. Change starts the day you decide it starts. You do not have to wait till January to get started. In fact, it’s almost better if you do start at an odd time of the year since you are not distracted by three months of holidays. I noticed that my clients felt a bit overwhelmed with papers and information I had pointed them to during our time together. Many didn’t have a system for keeping their learning in one place. I experimented with PowerPoint and worksheets, with varying degrees of success. There are several worksheets inside the Journal that will help you get organized, focused on your goals, and really learn about yourself as a catalyst and leader. These are informed by both my research and my experiences coaching.
Using the Becoming Development Journal
I make it easy to get going with this journal. I Set up your weeks starting on Mondays and ending on Sundays. Each week, you’re prompted with a question to make you think about your goals and how you plan to get them done. You have space to write the things you are working on (like noticing your attention in meetings or with certain people, noticing your decision making and the quality of your thinking, and even noticing how you felt that day). Some people might develop symbols for some of these concepts. Smiley faces makes a good one for mood. A numerical rating system can also quickly denote how your day is going. I provide example entries to help you get started.
There are a lot of extra sections in this journal, including different approaches to managing stress, avoiding burnout, and a lot more. Over time, see if you utilize the whole journal or only focus on specific sections.
Why Journaling Works
It’s been said that writing down your goals makes them more concrete. Pysch Central has a great article about the benefits of keeping a journal. I noticed that as I logged my goals and the milestones to getting there each day, I learned more about myself, what I do well and where I struggle. I became an effective coach to myself at a time when I couldn’t pay anyone to care. More importantly, the things I want to avoid altogether are there, staring me in the face. I become my best accountability partner. Here, I can be completely honest with how I’m doing and notice trends along the way. Friends are great, but they are soft on us. Managers are great too, but when given a choice to talk about the status of the business v the status of you, they will opt for the business. They generally have extremely limited bandwidth for deep conversation on your personal development. We all have those times in our lives when we need support coupled with an accurate reflection of where we are at.
Using this journal has been helpful for me and my clients. While I love writing about concepts related to coaching on the blog, it’s so much easier to flip a few pages through the journal. A few weeks ago, I had spike in networking activities. Thanks to the Becoming Development Journal, I was able to pinpoint that it happened as a result of being asked to write an article for a local newspaper, which resulted in an invitation to speak on a panel. From there, several meetings sprung up, and in one of them, I received some valuable advice that gave me something to think about in terms of my approach to getting business.
What are your development goals for the coming month? Do you use a journal or a similar method to log your progress?
Steve Howell, blacksmith and forger
BEST PRACTICE: TRAIN YOUR MIND BY DEVELOPING A EVENING PRACTICE
PURPOSE: TO DEVELOP A PERSPECTIVE AND EXPERIMENT WITH AN APPROACH FOR A REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THAT INCREASES YOUR SELF-AWARENESS AND ABILITY TO SELF-ASSESS.
At the end of an interview about his daily practice, master blacksmith and forger Steve Howell comments,
“All these epic sayings in our language: strike while the iron is hot, full blast, losing your temper, commenting that something is riveting—that’s every New York Times book review—riveting! All these phrases are still in our vernacular. That’s how powerful different mediums of craft are. Craftsmanship has a permanence not only through what it physically shapes in our society, but how as language it shapes our thinking.”
Steve’s reflection helps illustrate the point that compartmentalization is a myth. Who are you at work is who you are at home. And, our language is a reflection of our thinking.
If you believe that your work is an expression of who you are as an individual, how do you keep watch over yourself to put each day up for review? How do you get perspective from the different contexts you exist in? How do you learn to effectively self-evaluate? No amount of apps, surveys, or external diagnostics will give you an accurate read on your progress. Only your internal processing, once it is developed, can tell you how you’re doing. If we don’t look back upon our own lives, how will we improve them? We generally focus on that which we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future come from the past.
Odd how that works, isn’t it? The morning begins with questions that prepare us for the day. The evening concludes with reflection and analysis about how it all went—so that tomorrow one can be more present, patient, effective, freer from fear and anxiety, happier and more content. These two rituals, if practiced regularly, create a learning loop that, over a lifetime, contributes to making us strong and resilient.
The mindset craftsmen cultivate their day is the embodiment of this kind of virtuous cycle of learning. What they learn when they are alone in the quiet of their studio, at the end of the day—and what they retain for themselves about themselves is what makes them somewhat mysterious.
More difficult than achieving expertise in something is describing it. This is where you may lack vocabulary for the feel for their material you are developing. Or, where you are starting to gain a nuanced understanding of the pace of the work. But it is here where the actual work is described as “meditative” and you have brief interludes of creative flow.
Craftsmen are natural observers. Howell summarizes his learning approach by sharing this ruler:
What’s wrong with this picture?
It took you a while, didn’t it?
Steve was making railing. He measured, made and went to install is work only to find that it didn’t fit. He was aghast. The measuring tape was incorrect.
He explains,
“We don’t question what we’re told. That’s a big part of what I’ve learned about working with engineering societies and these bridges I’ve been a part of. I go to consult on a project and they’ll say, “By our analysis these things shouldn’t even be standing. They’re old, and we don’t trust old technology. We’ve lost the ability to see, hear, feel—to trust our senses. We rely on instruments to tell us everything! Temperature, distance…and we don’t question it. I could have just stuck my arms out and had a better gauge than what that tape measure told me.”
It’s important to keep your own journal, whether it’s saved on a computer or phone, or in a little notebook, so that you can put every day up for review.
You might not think of yourself as someone who journals. Maybe you’ve started and never found a way to keep it up. And, anyone can start.
Journaling is a way to call yourself to the present, to recall the past, in order to more effectively manage the future. Recall events from the day or previous day. Be unflinching in your assessments. Ask yourself tough questions. Notice what contributed to your happiness and what detracted from it. Write down what you’d like to work on or like to see more off. It won’t magically happen—but by making the effort to record your thinking, you’re less likely to forget them.
There are many benefits to journaling, or even light note taking. First, you’re creating written “data” of your progress. Over time, you can start to look back on your efforts and take note of your progression. Second, journaling helps with sleep as it helps you purge anxious thoughts or unfinished business that can cause your mind to spin up when it should be winding down. Journaling helps you lay to rest those last thoughts of the day, allowing it to close in reflection rather than avoidance. And last, it can give us a very literal understanding of something we may already intellectually know—that our first thoughts are never our fault.
DEVELOPING A PRACTICE: to reflect on the day’s learning, be specific.
…what did I learn today?
…what new thing did I try I try today?
…what risk did I take?
…did I remain in integrity with my Craft?
…how can I improve?
…how can I amplify my knowledge and share what I know?
Alongside technical skills, people who can master a range of subjective skills are better able to influence, deal with ambiguity, bounce back from setbacks, think creatively, and manage themselves successfully in their pursuit of mastery. Learn more about the 25 Skills.
Photo by Jungwoo Hong
Best Practice: 3 Reasons you should be logging your personal development
Purpose: developing perspective around a personal, self-accountability practice.
Whether you are just starting your career, or thirty years (or more) into it, a personal development journal has many benefits. Until recently, I never logged my development. Sure, I had several moleskin notebooks for note taking in meetings. But my personal development, the thing that occupies my life’s focus, had little more than whatever annual reviews I completed that were dictated by the company I worked for. I knew my Compa-Ratio, seniority level, weekly status goals, overall training plan, etc. But I never had anything printed out and tracked daily like I did when I was training for big physical goals. There has never been a reminder to reflect deeply consider my behavior or the quality of my thinking on a daily basis. When I was training for something big, I would cross off each day as I narrowed in on my goal. But when it came to developing myself, it felt more like I was at the mercy of a benevolent manager, enough promotion budget, or the politics of the organization.
Here are the top 3 reasons I have adopted and continue this practice with myself and my clients:
1. Goal Setting
Aiming for and working towards good goals that motivate you helps keep things interesting. It helps you to continue to improve and take charge of your growth. Once you reach one goal, set another. Push yourself, maybe even more than you want to.
2. Progress
Feeling discouraged? Do you not notice improvement? If you are keeping a development journal you will be able to look back and find what may be holding you back. On the other hand, your development may be going great! If so, you can go through your journal to see what is working for you and keep it up. Logging progress can also help you to determine future goals.
3. Accountability
Having a development journal can help to keep you dedicated when you’re having one of those ‘I don’t wanna think about it’ days, and we all have them! On days when I don’t feel like reflecting on myself I will read though my journal. Remember that day you had a great meeting or won over a skeptical stakeholder? Or the long, all day session where you presented material several times and nailed it? All of this info should be in your journal. Your ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of developing will all be there too, and it isn’t going anywhere. It will be right there waiting for you to complete it. It is like having an accountability buddy with you!
When I didn’t see a development journal that I would use or recommend to my coaching clients, I wrote one. It is 12 months, undated so you can start page one at any time of the year. It includes everything from development tips to quizzes, to note taking sections to take all the information in. You have pages dedicated to your goals and to your upcoming milestones (i.e., a meeting, a speech, a difficult conversation, a key deliverable, etc.). It focuses on offering a holistic framework for you to get the most out of your development journal as possible.
You can write directly in the book. Highlight different activities in different colors, or use symbols to quickly communicate your progress. It’s not meant to be a tome, and trains you to be succinct. For ideas on how to start, check out posts on developing a Morning Practice, Evening Practice, and what it means to Maintain Tension.
Do you log your personal development? If so what do you include?
Alongside technical skills, people who can master a range of subjective skills are better able to influence, deal with ambiguity, bounce back from setbacks, think creatively, and manage themselves successfully in their pursuit of mastery. Learn more about skills of modern craftsmanship.