Practice Makes Progress: Crafting a Personal Development Plan

So, you’ve begun thinking about making significant and meaningful changes to your life. Perhaps you’ve decided you want to learn more about a particular subject of interest, or you would like to be more outgoing. Maybe you’ve decided you want to get into better shape, or you’ve thought about repairing your personal relationships and being more compassionate to others. All of these and more are goals that are worthy of pursuit.

The question that often arises is how to go about pursuing such goals. On the one hand, it’s a question of technique. It’s wise to structure your goals so that you know from the outset that they are attainable. You need a plan for measuring progress and getting accountability to achieve those goals. You also need to build in some flexibility to change your goals along the way if necessary.

On the other hand, how you pursue your goals is also a matter of your attitude as you pursue those goals. It’s important to have goals that bring you joy in some form, even if it’s delayed gratification. Pursuing those goals with zest, intention, and a sense of purpose keeps you going. Keep in mind that your goal, and you, are a work in progress.

The Dangers of Pursuing Perfection

It’s a wonderful thing to want to do things with excellence. One of the amazing things that emerges from the creation account in Genesis is how God works in forming and filling His creation with beauty, variety, and fertile abundance. At the end of each period of creative work, God looks upon what He has done, and pronounces it “Good”. It is in its right place, it is able to do what is has been created to do, and it is delighting in where God has placed it.

We are made in God’s image, so it shouldn’t be surprising when we find ourselves delighting in a job well done, especially if it is good work done well. This impulse, however, can be distorted. It’s possible to want to do work well because it earns us approval from others, or to tie up our identity in work so much that we lose ourselves and have a poor sense of self. Perfectionism can also be a way to try and avoid punishment or disapproval.

The danger with perfectionism is that it can affect you negatively in so many ways. It can affect your mental health, as you’ll be constantly anxious to get things “just right” and getting them wrong can make you spiral. It can affect your relationships too, as you might put enormous pressure on the people around you to conform to your standards. Perfectionism can also affect your physical well-being, for instance through high blood pressure.

When it comes to pursuing your goals, perfectionism can make it either impossible to start your journey toward fulfilling your goals, or it can make it nigh impossible to continue toward them. Perfectionism introduces an all-or-nothing mindset that simply doesn’t help you when you’re trying something new or different. There is always a learning curve, and so you’ll always make mistakes.

Practice Makes Progress – Meeting Your Personal Goals

The way the saying used to go was “Practice makes perfect”. These days, you’re more likely to hear people saying, “Practice makes progress”, and probably for good reason. Not everyone takes it that way, but the idea of doing something perfectly seems daunting, and it can undermine the small gains made simply because you’re not perfect just yet. In other words, the idea of aiming for perfection can be discouraging.

To say “practice makes progress” is to give yourself the grace to fail, and to keep in mind that you’re on a journey somewhere. The more you practice, the more you’re progressing toward what you want to accomplish. Whether you’re picking up a new sport, trying to figure out how to make healthy meals to support your weight goals, or learning better time management, it’s important to have a growth mindset.

The most important tool in your arsenal when it comes to pursuing your goals is your mindset. Introducing change into your life isn’t an easy thing. We all have ingrained habits that can be hard to break, and building new habits takes time and that all-important ability to fail and get right back up again. Each morning that you get up, learn from yesterday’s mistake, and take steps to implement your plan, is an opportunity to grow and get better.

If you’re starting or you’re already on your way with certain goals, the mindset that growth and change happen over time and that setbacks and failure will happen will help you keep pressing on.

You may struggle with this, but it’s something you can grow in. Think about seeking help from a counselor or a life coach to nurture a growth mindset so that you build resilience and continue pursuing your goals despite setbacks. The counselors and life coaches at our location can help. Contact us today.