A coaching client of mine came to our call this week and wanted to figure out how to create a personal growth plan for 2022.

The call created some great ahas for them and I’ll share what we worked on so that you can build your own personal growth plan for the new year.

Planning out how you want to grow is critical for it actually getting done. Without intentionality, it’s easy to allow yourself to get blown in different directions and not achieve the kind of growth you’re hoping for.

Personal growth happens when we go deep, not wide. On a recent podcast, Chris Capossela the CMO of Microsoft told a quick story of his earlier days at Microsoft when he traveled with Bill Gates. Capossela recalled carrying around dozens of books about specific topics relating to the Chinese economy, engineering, health care, etc. so that Gates could learn all that could about those subjects.

We’ll take a page out of Bill Gates playbook and go deep where it matters most to us.

The most important thing on a personal growth journey is to figure out where to put your focus. I recommend 1-2 key areas. Consider your goals, why is growth important and who do you want to become as a result of your growth. This could be totally in business, in other aspects of life or the growth could benefit different areas.

For me, my focus of personal growth is on behavioral change. As a coach, my professional goal is to help people realize their preferred future, which means that there must be change. The by-product is that I get more tools to work on myself through the growth journey that I’m doing primarily for my career.

So, the first thing is to get as specific as you can around where you want to focus, know what is on the other side of that journey and why it’s important to you.

Once you’ve identified your area(s) of focus, then you can figure out what you’ll do to grow in those areas. This is the “how.” Look for books, podcasts, trainings, networking groups, coaching programs, courses, etc. from people who are experts and can help you achieve the growth you seek.

I do this by finding the latest books on how human change works in ourselves and others, focus on a couple favorite podcasts on the subject and go deeper into NLP training programs because I know that external changes start on the inside.

Starting now, you can map out the big ticket items that will help your journey. Do trainings you want to attend cost money or take time? Now is the time to figure out how you can make it work. If not, it will sneak-up on you you might miss out. Create your reading list now or commit to a certain number of books on the subject each month and know that you must find material.

When you are intentional and create a plan for your personal growth, you’ll grow and you’ll actually be able to see tangible benefits of the work that you put in.

Wishing you an Xperiential in 2022.