PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN REMINDERS

Who needs a Personal Development Plan? A PDP?

More like who doesn’t.

From cradle to grave we’re either doing personal development, or planning personal development.

It’s good to have a plan to work.

But if your goal, your plan, is to become a world class jackass, keep working.

What’s it called when you show more than you have?

When you speak more about what you don’t know?

Call it what you like, but it’s a bad look all the way around.

Who hasn’t seen a showboat who never turns it off?

Or been around a talker with no reference?

Do you wrap your arms around them as if you’ve been waiting your entire life for the privilege?

The correct response is to slowly back away and avoid eye contact.

Sometimes the correct response is immediate, sometimes it takes years, but the results are always rewarding.

I’m not saying anyone needs to avoid these characters, just be aware.

They have a different view of a PDP.

 

From indeed.com:

Short-Term Goal: Stop using social media

Objective: Reduce distractions from social media immediately so I have more time to focus on work and study

Step 1: Access social media accounts.

Step 2: Delete social media accounts or apps.

Step 3: Delete saved sign-in information.

Step 4: Set web browser to block social media websites.

Tools and resources: Computer and smartphoneMeasurement: Did I spend time on social media today?

 

When a man wallows in wealth to the point of living a gilded life and descends a golden escalator, what’s the message?

Is it, ‘I’m like you?’ Or, ‘I’ll never be like you?’

Personal Development Plans For North Bend 

If you grew up in a town like this, congratulations.

It’s a small town located on the western edge of North America in a place called Oregon.

Look at the biggest cities in America and you can fine neighborhoods that still look like this.

What people forget is that even the biggest cities started like this.

Switch the cars to the more modern 1970’s of my day and it would still look the same.

Which is a comfort if you don’t know.

You change, I change, but the memory of growing up in North Bend has never changed.

Like Americans all across the country, we started in an apartment, then a small house on a dead end street, then built a house in a subdivision across town.

Thanks to Mom and Dad.

I wonder how my father would view the man in the ring who’s disingenuous enough to win the presidency, claim victory, then spend four years whining about how unfair he’s being treated.

Do I wonder? Not really. My Dad would scrape it off his shoe and watch his step.

My Mom? She was a big believer that people respond well with a good hard clout.

My parents met in high school while attending class in a logging town that makes North Bend look like LA.

Their wood-hewn values continue in some of their kids:

Winner Never Cheat And Cheaters Never Win.

At least they had a baseline.

 

The Next Phase Of Personal Development?

When you meet someone for the first time and like them, you hope they are who they say they are.

One of the best, and worst, compliments you can get is, “They are just who we thought they were.”

Consider the case of two men in comparison.

One is grandiose, verbose, and plays loose with facts and evidence and perceptions.

I will not call anyone out as a lying, treacherous, motherfucker because this is not that kind of blog, and such language is not a part of my personal development plan.

But there are words to describe a guy sharp enough to talk the talk, but not strong enough to walk the walk.

 

Then there’s the other guy plodding along little by little to get things done.

But he needs reminding to tout his work because he’s a reluctant self-promoter.

He’s seen the machinations of government up close and personal, been in the arena and won some, lost some.

You might say he’s earned trust by being bland, which isn’t a bad thing.

Who do you want to see more of, the man who over promises and under delivers, or the one who under promises and over delivers.

At the root of the choice for some is money. It’s money for them, money for their causes, money for people like them.

One man over delivers by cutting regulation to protect clean air and clean water, you know, the basics.

He cuts programs and pushes policies for a smaller government footprint for greater savings.

What does this guy do with those savings? Give a tax break to the big boys, the big donors, also known as his constituency.

The plodder takes another path.

 

With a closely divided Congress, presidential administrations have increasingly turned to federal regulation to implement policy changes.

Federal rules impact virtually every aspect of everyday life, from the food we eat and the cars we drive to the air we breathe and homes we live in.

President Joe Biden’s administration, for example, has issued a host of new regulations on the environment and other priorities, including restrictions on emissions from power plants and vehicle tailpipes, and rules on student loan forgiveness, overtime pay and affordable housing.

 

Keep moving forward in breathable air and drinkable water and make the adjustments because you’re not going anywhere short of breath and dehydrated.

Look at your circle of friends and notice if they look like they need help staying healthy.

Look at your parents, your grandparents; look at your kids and grandkids.

Then ask yourself who you want them associating with, the work of a guy you can’t trust on a daily basis, or the guy with an eye on the future.

Who do you want to be, the guy who says, “I had no idea he was as nutty as he sounded,” or the guy who says, “He had his chance to show who he is, and he did. That was enough.”

Take it from a writer with experience in Boy Scouts, the Army, non-traditional college, long marriage, kids, grandkids, moving forward is never easy.

The experience competing on football teams, wrestling teams, along with coaching youth sports in soccer, indoor soccer, basketball, baseball, football, and wrestling, has shown that moving forward is hard.

But the benefits are more rewarding than doing nothing and expecting the same results.

Elton John explained it like this:

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night
For unless they see the sky
But they can’t and that is why
They know not if it’s dark outside or light