Read & write

Personal development is just that. It is personal. That means if any development is going to take place it will have to be done personally. That is not to say that outside influences cannot play a part, but the ultimate responsibility rests upon the individual.

Personal development cannot come about unless there is a desire to improve oneself from the present position that they are in. For example if an individual has a golf score that averages 95, then he or she must be dissatisfied with that score, or it will never improve. It will certainly not improve on its own without some degree of change on the part of individual habits that either impede the progress of change, or they just don’t exist yet.

First the problem has to be defined. In the golf example, the problem is the 95 average score. Next an objective must be set, and should be written down. So let’s set the objective of and average of 88 over the period of the next 12 months.

Now the problem needs to be broken down, in order to find out what are some of the causes. In analyzing a person’s golf game, let’s say that the driving portion of the game is fairly good, in that getting near the green is being accomplished by the second or third stroke. However, it is taking an additional 3 to 6 strokes to hole out from there. Boiling things down further, it is determined that the problem is in the short shots in getting onto the green. Once on the green, it is customary to take only one to two shots to finish.

Next, there needs to be a definite action taken to solve the sub-problem of the difficulty of getting onto the green within one shot. So it is decided that the golfer will practice 100 shots per day from various positions around the green, using the nine iron and pitching wedge. This process is to continue until the golfer can reach the green in one shot 80% of the time.

There is no doubt that if a person practiced his short iron game a lot, he or she would improve. And this is the key to the improvement of any skill or procedure. Practice will improve the motor portions of the skill, as well as the mental groove that needs to be present so that things almost become a matter of rote accomplishment, rather than having to think about it all of the time.

Theoretically, in our golfing example, if the golfer gets close to the green in two, gets on the green in one and two putts, then he has a score of five. That would amount to a score of 45 on a nine hole basis, and 90 for 18 holes. If allowance is made for two or three par three holes, the score on those should be less, so the achievment of an 88 average is within reach.

Breaking down the problem and the steps to eliminate the problems lends the practiced skill that is mastered, which in turn becomes the solution.