Do You Have a Plan for
Personal Growth in the New Year?

How would you like to live your life in the new year? Will you continue pretty much in the same ways you have in the past? Or does the thought of a fresh new year fill you with energy and ideas, or unexpected and unexplored longings for a change? What goals would you set for yourself, what changes would you make? How would you go about making those changes?

They key steps to personal growth are: 1. Expanding Your Horizons, 2. Living in the Moment, and 3. Learning to Trust Yourself. Below are a series of questions you can ask yourself, challenges you can set for yourself, and behaviors you can use to make changes in your life. These questions, first developed by Dr. Robert Albertini, in his book Your Perfect Right, provide a model you can use to develop and implement a plan for personal growth.

Expanding your Horizons

How recently have you:

• Participated in a new sport or game?
• Changed your views on an important (political, personal or professional issue)?
• Tried a new hobby or craft?
• Taken a course in a new field?
• Studied a new language or culture?
• Spent 15 minutes or more paying attention to your body feelings, senses (relaxation, tension,
  sensuality)?
• Listened for 15 minutes or more to a religious, political, professional, or personal viewpoint with which you disagreed?
• Tasted a new food, smelled a new odor, listened to a new sound?
• Allowed yourself to cry? or to say "I care about you?" or to laugh until you cried? or to scream at the top of your lung capacity, or to admit you were afraid?"
• Watched the sun or moon rise or set? or a bird soar on the wind's currents? or a
  flower open to the sun?
• Traveled to a place you've never been before?
• Made a new friend or cultivated an old friendship?
• Spent an hour or more really communicating (actively listening and responding honestly) with a person of a different cultural or racial background?
• Taken a "fantasy trip" - allowing your imagination to run freely for an hour or more?

Living in the Moment

How recently have you:

• Done something you felt like doing at that moment, without regard for the consequences?
• Stopped to "listen" to what was going on inside you?
• Spontaneously expressed a feeling-anger, joy, fear, sadness, caring-without thinking about it?
• Done what you wanted to do, instead of what you thought you "should" do?
• Allowed yourself to spend time or money on an immediate payoff rather than saving for tomorrow?
• Bought something you wanted on impulse?
• Done something no one (including you) expected you to do?

Learning to Trust Yourself

How recently have you:

• Done what felt right to you, against the advice of others?
• Allowed yourself to experiment creatively with new approaches to old problems?
• Expressed an unpopular opinion assertively in the face of majority opposition?
• Used your own intellectual reasoning ability to work out a solution to a difficult problem?
• Made a decision and acted on it right away?
• Acknowledged by your actions that you can direct your own life?
• Cared enough about yourself to get a physical exam (within two years)?
• Told others of your religious faith, or philosophy of life?
• Assumed a position of leadership in your profession, or an organization, or your community?
• Asserted your feelings when you were treated unfairly?
• Risked sharing your personal feelings with another person?
• Designed and built something on your own?
• Admitted you were wrong?

These are some ideas for achieving personal growth. Most likely you can think of more. The point is that these are behaviors you can initiate and follow through with to discover and define goals, change habits and achieve personal growth.

So, how will you choose to live your life in this new year?