What Do You Need To Know About Crafting a Personal Development Plan?

By Mariah Flores

In Brief: (1) A personal development plan is a set of objectives you work towards to improve some aspect of your life. (2) As you craft a plan for yourself, don’t overcomplicate the process, instead view it as an adaptable set of instructions guiding you to a specific short-term goal. (3) Only you can craft a personal development plan, allowing for flexibility, change and small wins. 

Are you struggling to get from Point A to Point B? Struggling to get from where you currently are to where you want to be, in any aspect of your life? If so, it may be time to improve your personal development, as you work to reach your full potential — both personally and professionally. Personal development doesn’t just center on your career, quite the opposite. It can be applied to every single aspect of your life where you desire personal growth. How can you begin crafting a personal development plan for yourself?

What’s a Personal Development Plan?

A personal development plan, sometimes referred to as a PDP, is pretty straightforward in definition. It’s a detailed plan that will provide you with the structure needed to improve your life, through specific actionable steps within a certain amount of time. 

“A personal development plan is just that — personal. It's a set of objectives you’re working towards to improve the quality of your life. Areas that might be included in a personal plan, could include: financial, career, family, spiritual/emotional, physical and mental wellness goals. For example: to run a marathon, to learn to sail, to save money for retirement. Ideally your plan will have SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals”

— Maureen McCann is an executive career strategist, with 15-plus years of experience. She has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Globe & Mail, Global News, Yahoo Finance, JobScan, CareerWise, Higher Bracket and Job Boom.

It’s easy to confuse a personal development plan with that of a career development plan, which can also benefit from SMART goals, but is directly focused on building success in your career. 

“A career development plan is a strategy you put together to achieve your career goals. It begins with introspection (what do you want most to achieve in your career) and the tasks associated with achieving that goal. It too uses SMART goals, but is focused mainly on achieving success (as defined by you) in your career.”

— Maureen McCann

Don’t Overcomplicate Your Plan

Life can be monotonous, but having a clear plan in place can provide you with some much needed clarity. BetterUp writes that personal development, which can increase your self-awareness, self-esteem and skills, and fulfill aspirations, is all about looking inward and focusing on ways to better yourself. Of course, to see any actual results, you need to have that aforementioned plan in place, but don’t overcomplicate the process.

Overcomplication leads to confusion (and procrastination). The main reason people don’t have a personal development plan or misunderstand it is because they’re overthinking the entire process. A personal development plan isn’t as complicated as it seems, but it does take some preparation, self reflection and discipline — if you want to see any change. Sometimes starting is the hardest part of crafting a plan. 

“Most people don't have a personal development plan, because they are making the topic more complex than it needs to be. A 10-page dissertation is not required and it's more of an art than it is a science. A personal development plan is nothing more than a map of the steps you should take to get from where you are to where you'd like to go in a defined amount of time. It's your personal growth roadmap.”

— Gerrie Dozier is a STEM career coach and speaker, helping aspiring & current STEM professionals pivot into new roles without new certs, extra degrees or applying to endless jobs online. 

Think of a personal development as a Lego build. Your plan is like the instructions found within Lego boxes. You’re given a number of steps which, if followed properly, lead to an exciting final build. Personal development plans can serve as your set of instructions to reach a certain goal, or they can be your call to action that you loosely follow. 

“A personal development plan serves as a framework to help people focus on next steps or provide clarity to make a decision on taking action.  Think of it like building with Legos — you can build something using an instruction manual or simply create something from your own imagination. A PDP may fall in-between — not as rigid with one outcome but also providing boundaries to help your brain deal with too many options — [leading to] decision fatigue.”

— Rob Kim, 2022 LinkedIn Top Voice, is a career strategist at UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems, facilitator and Gallup-certified strengths coach. He helps create systems and programs to motivate people to learn.

Look at personal development plans in action. As mentioned, personal development plans tend to be overcomplicated, so two of our experts share some real-world applications. It’s important to remember that personal development plans can be adapted to any area of your life, unlike a career development plan. Additionally, Dozier warns against planning beyond two years. Having long-term goals is fine, but “your [personal] development plan is for short-term goals.”

“A scenario where a personal development plan should be used is in one's career. The reason being, right around the two-year mark, most people hit their stride in their current role and are starting to look for a new challenge. This is a perfect time to do some research and speak with mentors to get clarity on the challenges you'd like to tackle in your next role or career opportunity.”

— Gerrie Dozier

“PDP can be adapted for any part of your life. For instance within your current work, you can identify new projects to deliver work outcomes. I used a “Values Skills Interest Table” to focus on developing a new project to support students in career education. This led to me launching a career podcast for students … Often a PDP can help someone dig deeper into it and create a blueprint towards what they imagine their Lego build could be.”

— Rob Kim

Crafting Your Personal Development Plan

Life is filled with many unknowns, so having a plan in place to help you get from one goal to the next, whether it be getting that promotion at work or taking more time to set healthy boundaries, gives you ownership over certain areas in your life, accountability and the opportunity to improve — however you see fit. If you want to avoid leaving controllable things to chance, which McCann warns can happen, having a plan in place is crucial to self-development. Also, only you can craft such a plan, because no one else will.

“The main reason that every professional, regardless of age or the industry they work in, should have a personal development plan is because no one else is going to create one for you. And without a development plan your career will stagnate, and the feelings of unfulfillment and resentment will set in … The biggest lesson I learned when I became a hiring manager was that most employees are expecting their manager, or leader to create a development plan for them which is not reality. Although your manager and other leaders are charged with giving you direction to help you succeed in your current position, they are not responsible for mapping out your career trajectory. Leaders have their own career development plans to map out and execute, which limits the capacity they have towards focusing the development plans of others.” 

— Gerrie Dozier

So the time has finally arrived for you to begin crafting a personal development plan. As with any plan, including one for career development, it takes some thoughtful assembly, flexibility and personalization. No one personal development plan will be alike, because no one person is alike. Take the leap into personal development, following our experts’ advice: 

• Figure out your desired areas of improvement, taking into consideration where you currently are.
• Write out the specific steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal(s), feeling free to reach out to mentors, coaches or other development professionals for help.
• Determine the skills and tools needed to execute the steps you’ve written out.
• Need a push? Seek out an accountability buddy or other people to connect with for assistance.
• Focus on what you can control, setting regular check-ins to assess your progress, make adjustments and celebrate successes.
• Revisit your personal development plan(s) every year (think of it as a major annual check-in), as goals can change over time for various reasons.

And remember to give yourself grace. Kim shares three pieces of advice when it comes to navigating, reassessing and embracing your personal development plan:

“(1) Avoid thinking about the plan needing to be perfect before you can start. (2) Embrace flexibility and uncertainty. We all know that our goals change with new information, but I have felt many times that by changing my goals in my PDP that I feel like I have failed. ‘Filters’  [as opposed to rigid goals] allow you to recognize that your targets will change as you dive into an experience. (3) Reward yourself for all the good work you have done up to this point.  All the ways you showed up may not be properly leveraged if you do not take the time to reflect and capture your work. A PDP helps us capture these moments and even share it with others.

Many of us have felt frustrated or despair  — typically associated with moments where we feel like we are lacking choices. A PDP opens up possibilities and opportunities in a contained manner to keep us moving forward as we are engaged by having choices — growth and learning. A PDP celebrates past achievements while keeping you excited about looking at opportunities in the future, but helps you take action in the present.” 

— Rob Kim

Explore more

• Gain A Sense of Purpose by Setting Career Development Goals by Mariah Flores for Get Ahead by LinkedIn News
• How To Find a Job That Values Employee Development by NPD for Get Hired by LinkedIn News
• How to Develop Your Career Plan by Careercake for LinkedIn Learning
• Figuring Out Your Next Move by Jenny Blake for LinkedIn Learning

Meet the experts

Gerrie Dozier is a STEM career coach and speaker, helping aspiring & current STEM professionals pivot into new roles without new certs, extra degrees or applying to endless jobs online. 

Rob Kim, 2022 LinkedIn Top Voice, is a career strategist at UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems, facilitator and Gallup-certified strengths coach. He helps create systems and programs to motivate people to learn.

Maureen McCann is an executive career strategist, with 15-plus years of experience. She has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Globe & Mail, Global News, Yahoo Finance, JobScan, CareerWise, Higher Bracket and Job Boom.

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