5 Year Personal Development Plan
Where will you be in 5 years? What will your life be
like? What will you do for a living? These are questions that many of us think
about this time of year. When I look back at previous choices that I have made
in my life I realize what profound differences a simple decision can make.
I am currently reading a simple but profound little book
entitled “Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet!” Author Joachim de Posada, a
world-renowned motivational speaker, writes about a landmark Standford
University study of children who were able to delay gratification in the form
of a marshmallow they’d been given to each with the promise that they’d be
rewarded with an additional marshmallow if they resisted eating the first one
for fifteen minutes. Revisited ten years later, the children who held out had
grown up to be significantly more successful than those who had eaten their
marshmallow immediately.
When most people think about “success” the subject of
“delayed gratification” rarely comes up yet as Joachim points out in the book
it may be the single most important decision you can make on your life journey.
The decision to say “I pass” so we can say “I won” is significant.
A simple decision to put away $50 a week instead of
spending it now on frivolous things can lead to a significant savings account
over the period of a few years. A decision to save for a down payment on a
house instead of moving to a larger apartment has created many prosperous
property owners. The decision to finish school instead of taking that entry
level job may pay big dividends.
As Joachim puts is so succinctly in his book; Successful
people are willing to do things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do.
Why not take a few minutes today and create a 5 year
personal development plan for yourself. Visualize yourself as successful and
write down your passions and visions of your life 5 years from now. Write down
what you see in your mind. Only a small percentage of the population ever set
goals for their lives, yet the ones that do have much greater success than
those that don’t. Develop a marshmallow mindset and develop some long term
habits that will take you to your destination.
My daughter and son-in-law gave me this book for
Christmas. I want to say “Thank You” for the timely wisdom that this little
book estols. This is life changing stuff!
http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress/2006/01/5-year-personal-development-plan/
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