But how do we put this into practice? How do we keep on our path of learning and growth as the year goes on, especially when it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day of work, family, or other life responsibilities.

Making a commitment to personal development isn’t always easy or doesn’t always come naturally–but it’s definitely a worthwhile investment of your time and resources. Growing as a person doesn’t require a formal education or spending a lot of money on workshops by well-known experts. There are tons of ways to expand your mind and to become a more fulfilled person, the benefits of which are immense.

• Avoid Boredom. Boredom is one of the biggest contributors to the feeling of being stuck in a rut. Being bored is a symptom of a mind that is not fully engaged, and it can lead to complacency. The longer you remain unexcited about the life you’re living, the harder it can become to motivate yourself to look for ways to change. Instead, look for ways to stretch your comfort zone. Make a list of ways to do this. It can include new topics or skills you’d like to learn, types of people you’d be interested to meet, experiences that would delight you or something as simple as a different kind of food you want to try. Your list should include baby steps and large leaps. Start with the small stuff and work your way to bigger things or mix it up as the mood strikes.
• Expand Your Life. By remaining stuck in a rut, you’re limiting yourself. You’re missing out on new experiences, satisfying relationships and career fulfillment. Taking time to learn something about a topic of interest or about yourself expands your life through knowledge and opportunity. Each item you place on the list of steps you take toward self-growth adds a little more to your world. Perhaps it’s a new skill that can open up exciting job prospects or maybe it’s an encounter with a person who may become a trusted friend. It could also be an idea or concept that was previously unknown to you, but which could transform your entire belief system. You never know what wonderful things are out there if you choose to remain where you are. For me, connecting with other solopreneurs this year presents an exciting opportunity to learn from their experiences and explore potential collaborations that could open up new possibilities.
• Increase Creativity. Your creativity can become stagnant, even if you’re a person who likes to create, like an artist, singer, crafter or writer. Sometimes we simply find our creative outlets take a back burner while we are focused on other aspects of life. That’s fine, but it can be incredibly difficult to find your way back to creativity again when it’s been absent for a while. Even if creating has never been at the top of your list, you can benefit from adding a spark of imagination to your life. Setting aside specific time to read books or take classes on some form of artistry can inspire renewed interest in you. Simply deciding to add some new recipes to your usual menu choices can be enough to inspire a change in your outlook.
• Make Priorities. As you begin to explore various topics of personal development, you may start to notice that your priorities shift. Something in your exploration is likely to strike a chord and excite you enough that you want to dedicate more of your time to learning about it. This means you will be forced to step out of your current routine in order to make time for your new interest. This simple action can be the catalyst for additional changes to come.
• Gain Happiness. Through your exposure to novel ideas and information, you are bound to come across experiences, people and, hopefully, passions that may shift your worldview. You may begin to appreciate nonmaterial things more and begin to focus on the joy that comes from such riches.

These are all some good basic principles to guide our thinking, but let’s drill down a bit more into how to apply some of these elements to your self-growth plans more concretely.

Map out Your Self Growth Goals for the Coming Year

It’s amazing how many of us go through life on autopilot. When you don’t know what you specifically want from your life or which direction to go, you are probably just spinning your wheels and remaining stationary. If you want to progress and move forward, making a plan is crucial. A map known as a personal development plan can help you to organize your thoughts, view your strengths, clarify your desires and set goals to achieve them. Putting your thoughts and wishes into a formal plan and writing them out is an amazingly effective way of getting what you want. Use the following strategies to map out your self-growth goals for the coming year and watch your life begin to move on track. (Goal-setting is, of course, always a favorite topic of mine and if you’re looking for a quick refresher on how to help define and stay on track with your self-help goals, you can check out my blog series from last year covering the basics of getting started with goal-setting, maintaining motivation, creating accountability, and sticking with the work toward your goals as the year goes on.)    

• Reasons for a Personal Development Plan. Writing a personal development plan just works. It’s definitely worth a try, even if you’re skeptical. Mapping out your goals and desires for life puts things into perspective. It gives you clarity regarding where you want to go within the next year. Starting with a year at a time is a good way to practice this mapping concept. You can later make a five or ten-year plan. As you’re developing your plan, you will begin to focus on the “why” of your goals. Keeping your motivation regularly in mind will push you further when you think about quitting or settling in life. Your personal development plan provides some structure in an uncertain world. You have a map for approaching each day, and you can mark your progress as you go along.
• About a Personal Development Plan. There are lots of different formats out there when it comes to setting up a personal development plan. Your plan should be unique to your lifestyle, needs and goals. You can include whatever you think is most important to focus on for the upcoming year. The goal is to develop a document that you can refer to for guidance as you traverse through your days. Your plan will serve to keep you on track and give you focus.
• What to Include in Your Plan. You can begin by creating a vision or an overview of what you’d like to achieve. This is more like a general mission statement, rather than one that includes specifics. Next, you’ll hone in on the details by writing down your areas of focus. Which parts of your life are most in need of change or do you want to see the greatest change? Write them down, along with what you hope to gain in each segment. List goals in each section. These are the things you wish to attain by year’s end. You can then lay out a tentative schedule for reaching each goal. This may require modification or tweaking as you go along, and that’s okay. You just need a rough guide to start. Basically, your personal development plan should include what you want to gain, why you want to attain these goals and how you plan to make them a reality. The way you structure your plan is entirely up to you.

Now’s the time you get to be creative. Set up your plan in any form you wish. It can be in a digital document or you can grab a journal or notebook to use. The important thing is that your plan resonates with you and is easily accessible for review and progress monitoring. Have fun with it, and enjoy seeing your dreams unfold.

If you need a little support and inspiration to get started on your goal-setting and personal development plan for 2024, I still have a few spots left in my Chart Your Course workshop in-person for my Chicagoland readers on Sunday, January 21st or coming up on January 25th or January 31st via Zoom. (And if you’re interested, but catching this blog post after those January dates have passed, don’t worry–I’ve got more workshops planned throughout the coming year, so stay tuned here or sign up to be notified by e-mail by downloading my free resource here to join my subscriber list.) In the meantime, I’m wishing you all a healthy, productive, and prosperous–however you define “prosperity,” whether it be financial, emotional, spiritual, or some combination of all those things–year ahead in 2024!

I made “gratitude” the theme of my November blog posts, but really, gratitude is something I hold throughout the year, and I’m continuing to feel that grateful spirit as I look back on some of my proudest accomplishments–and biggest challenges–of 2023.  In fact, over two weeks later, I’m still coasting on the overwhelming rush of excitement, relief, and gratitude that I experienced when I learned about my student loan forgiveness.  Honestly, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve re-read that letter from MOHELA in the days since I received it. Sometimes it doesn’t feel real still, and I have to keep reminding myself it is!

But as much as that life-changing news was a major highlight of my year, when I took a pause to think back on 2023, I realized it was one of only many highlights, many events and moments that took me out of my comfort zone, pushed me to think differently, taught me new things, and encouraged and energized me to continue pursuing my goals, the first highlight being: I launched this blog!  As I was strategizing how to grow my business, share knowledge, and reach my existing audience along with new audiences, starting a blog had been a goal of mine, and in early 2023 I committed to making it happen. I launched Flourishing Fiercely with a goal of posting at least once a week. As it turned out, that didn’t always happen–I missed a few weeks here and there–but that’s OK too! It’s great to set ambitious goals, but also important to give ourselves grace and honor those times when we may need to take a pause.

And what better way to tackle one of my goals than by…writing about goals!  Readers who’ve been with me since the beginning earlier this year may remember that I kicked off by talking about how to get started with goal-setting, keeping up motivation, finding ways to keep yourself accountable, and sticking with the new habits that you might make in service of your goals.  Of course, as a trained coach, you know I also couldn’t help incorporating lots of content throughout those posts about how important SMART goals are! Actually, my blog goal gave me a perfect example of a SMART goal: Launch a blog on my Mission ENSPIRE website in Spring 2023 (Specific and Timebound) and commit to posting weekly (Measurable, and mostly Attainable other than my few missed weeks) as a way of sharing my knowledge and deepening engagement with Mission ENSPIRE clients, prospective clients, and other interested readers (Relevant).

I’d also set a goal for myself of using 2023 as a year to level up my business, connect more intentionally to the entrepreneur community, promote my business and its services, and help inspire others on their own entrepreneurial journeys. I joined my first accelerator for my business (the Launch and Profit Accelerator) and one of the tasks I created was my “I help statement” to guide Mission ENSPIRE’s direction and work: “I help professional women prioritize themselves so they can lead impactful lives without sacrificing their own personal growth.” I launched one of Mission ENSPIRE’s first products: the Momentum Mastermind Set, a personal planning journal, business goal journal, and e-book bundle designed to help you track your notes, appointments, ideas, goals, successes, challenges and more — while teaching you how to make every moment count.

I’ll admit, the “connect and inspire” part of taking my business to the next level came the most naturally to me; the “promote” part perhaps a bit less so.  Throughout my career, I’ve always served in roles that involved building community, creating partnerships, bringing people and organizations together. As I discovered coaching and facilitation, that helped me put myself out there more, but still largely in roles where I’m listening, asking probing questions, helping my audience draw out insights. In those practices, my clients and my training or discussion participants are at the center (intentionally so), not me.  

But 2023 was the year that I realized that part of growing my business meant talking more about myself and my services–and that that’s not a bad thing, especially if I can also be an example to other aspiring entrepreneurs the way that so many have been to me on my path over the past few years.  One of my most exciting accomplishments was becoming a best-selling author, when I contributed a chapter to a book called The Entrepreneurs’ Toolkit for Success (Volume 1). (As I wrote in one of my May blog posts on bucket lists, I definitely got bit by the writing bug through that experience, and authoring an entire book someday is another one of my bucket list items.)

Thanks to some of the connections I made by participating in the book, as well as folks I’ve met throughout my business journey, I was fortunate to be profiled in forums including Canvas Rebel and She ROCKS It magazine. I attended the Dreamer’s Women’s Networking & Celebration event at the beginning of the year, which was the first event where I represented Mission ENSPIRE as a vendor. In November, I participated in my first speaking engagement as a business owner, giving a talk titled “Entrepreneurial Leadership: Scoring Success with a Legendary Mindset” at the Success Junkie Summit hosted by Serita Love. I’m accustomed to public speaking somewhat, since I do so much training and facilitation in my work, but something about giving a “real” speech as founder and CEO of my own company felt different–definitely a growth moment for me! I was nervous but had so much fun once I got started, and even decided to keep the momentum going by applying to be a speaker at a retreat in New Orleans next March. (I’ll keep you posted on how that goes!)

Having said all that, I strongly believe that my learning comes not just from things I accomplished but from things I didn’t accomplish as well. For example, one of my goals and plans was to be a guest on a podcast at least monthly.  Though I did have the privilege to be a guest on the Embrace Your Power podcast with Host and Career Success Coach Denise Taylor, that monthly goal didn’t happen. I researched interesting and relevant podcasts and worked on some applications to appear, but never ended up submitting them. More to the point, I didn’t set aside dedicated time to work on this goal, and that can make all the difference.

Still, I’m proud of what I accomplished, while also working full-time in my nonprofit job. Reflecting on what kept me motivated and on track throughout 2023, one factor in being able to accomplish so much was the time I spent in early December 2022 planning for 2023 at Candace Junee’s Go-Getter Retreat where we prepared our mind, spirit and business to prosper in 2023. Since I know the value of having intentional time for reflection and planning, I’m excited to share about my “Chart Your Course” Workshop that I’m hosting next month.  If you’re feeling uninspired, unmotivated, or in a rut–or even if you’re feeling good as 2023 winds down and looking to keep that momentum going for another year–this goal-setting workshop is for you. We’ll celebrate your wins and growth from 2023 with thoughtful reflection exercises and clarify your big audacious goals for the coming year so that you can “Fiercely Soar in 2024”.  Go HERE for session dates, times, and further details.

Thank you all so much, again, for being part of this blog journey–and our collective learning and growth journey–with me in 2023. I’m excited to stay connected and also find new ways to engage in 2024, and I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season and New Year!