I love to plant flowers and vegetables and see them grow. At the moment, in the UK, it’s summer and although the temperature can rise to a maximum of 30 degrees, we usually get sufficient rain to allow the plants and the fruit trees to give us apples, pears, plums in addition to an extensive crop of vegetables.

Starting about February, a tiny seedling becomes a green shoot then a flower and, finally, at the end of the season of continuous growth, a fruit develops and matures.

So I ask you: Are you developing and growing as you should? Is your career progressing well? Are your skills improving and your expertise maturing? Have you, as a person, grown bigger or smaller — not physically, but professionally?

When you started out, the chances were that you were filled with energy, promise and expectation. You dreamed of great personal achievements. However, maybe you now settle for an ‘ordinary life’ and accept that you will just get by. Your vision for a great future may no longer exist as you just go round and around on a circular treadmill.

However, life is a ‘work in progress’ and personal growth is a lifelong pursuit. It takes dedicated effort and commitment to achieve continuing personal development. Each day brings you new opportunities for growth and learning, but you need to recognise those opportunities and to grab hold of them before the other person does.

Making excuses

Of course, if you are not happy in life, you can blame others for your situation. You can blame your past. You can blame your education. But by blaming others, you are not taking responsibility for your own actions.

Why not use the summer to launch yourself into the life where you really want to be. A job that you find fulfilling? A life that has purpose and value? Your life is what you make of it. Your job may not be the best in the world but you can make it better. Your home life may not be exciting, but you can improve it.

Continuing personal development

Personal development is about the process of improving oneself. It includes self-awareness, increasing self-knowledge, gaining new skills, finding out who you really are, identifying your passions, unlocking your potential, enhancing the quality of your life and realising your dreams.

Once you have taken the first step to this commitment, there is no turning back. You will then create a personal development plan that will provide the framework for you to optimise and capitalise on your existing skills and capabilities. When you construct this plan, it will provide you with self-reflection and self-evaluation and can give you a much clearer awareness about your situation by clarifying your strengths and weaknesses, and highlighting your career opportunities.

When you know which areas you would like to develop and have taken the requisite steps to enhance or increase your skills, you may have a clearer picture of where you are heading in the future. A personal development plan is very much the same as a business plan; only the cashflow forecast is replaced by a career step attainment record.

Personal development is a lifelong process. It’s a way for you to assess your skills and qualities, consider your aims in life and set goals to realise and maximise your potential. It will not stop as long as you want it to continue so adopt it into your life and let it be a key motivator for you.

And so back to my garden, where I will continue to grow my flowers and vegetables. Every year I will be able to recall with satisfaction of a worthwhile harvest over the past summer months from the seeds that I planted at the beginning of the year.

Nature grows to its full potential unless damaged by environmental factors. You also have the opportunity to grow to your full potential, the same as a strong tree reaching to the sky and bearing its harvest of fruit and seeds for the next generation.

So I leave you with one question: Are you allowing yourself to grow and develop? And if not, why not?

 

Key points

* Do you plant seeds for your future?

* Do you grow professionally each year?

* When did you last update your career plan? 

— The author is a BBC Guest-Broadcaster and Motivational Speaker. She is CEO of an international Stress Management consultancy and her new book, ‘Show Stress Who’s Boss!’ is available in all good bookshops.