Transformational Leadership Blog

Personal development is a journey. You cannot rush it. But you can make significant progress if you follow the lessons that others have learned. This way, you do not go on a hit and miss strategy. The best teacher is experience, so they say. But in personal development, it would be better if you learned from the experiences of others and bring your own experience to the table.

If you want to experience personal growth and check where you are going, you need to make a personal inventory. This will help you understand where you are right now. If you knew where you are going, this will also help you understand what kinds of skills, abilities and attitudes you need.

What should this inventory contain? It’s pretty simple. It should contain your personal information, the kinds of skills that you have right now, the knowledge that you possess and it should also contain the things that you are capable of. Completing this personal inventory may be a little time-consuming but if you invest your time in this, it will tremendously help you in your personal development journey.

The following components of your personal inventory are necessary. You can add some more ideas. But as they are, this is a good starting point for your personal inventory.

Your Identity. This starts with your name. Do you realize the importance of your name? Did you ever ask your parents what your name means? You might not realize it but your name has an important impact on how you live your life. If you were named Homer, then you might have to live up to the Greek poet who is your namesake. Good thing nobody names their kids as Ugly or Loser or some other derogatory terms.

When you create your personal inventory, you should also include details about your family, the history of your family, and the issues that defined your identity through your family.

Your Skills and Abilities. This may include your educational background. If you took a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, then I would imagine that you are good in Math and in Physics. You can also list down the various awards that you have received in relation to your skills and abilities.

Your skills and abilities may be divided into several categories. They may be physical, mental and intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual. You may come up with your own categories and that’s perfectly great!

Your Life Experiences. If you ask famous athletes or successful businessmen, or even your successful friends, they can tell you of a life-changing experience that they have. Why don’t you write about your most significant life experiences? These may help you better understand yourself and help you complete your personal inventory. Your life experiences need not be as dramatic or spectacular as your friends’ are. But as long as you are sincere and you truly learned lessons from those experiences, your life experiences will mean so much to you.

It might actually help you write your personal inventory if you also wrote about your life story. I might want to give you tips on how to do that, but I’m gonna need an entirely new post for that.

Your Present Situation. You need to track your physical health. Are you healthy, obese, or underweight? Likewise, you also need to keep track of your emotional and mental health. Are you experiencing depression, anger, and anxiety? Or are you happy and joyful with your life? Another thing is your financial situation. Are you still dependent on someone? How’s your job? Are you doing well or barely surviving? These are all important situations that you have to deal with in describing your present situation.

What Makes You Come Alive? We come to the last part of your personal inventory. This is not an easy question. It might take you a few minutes to answer it. Or perhaps, you might have to leave your personal inventory for now and complete it at a later time. The question is what makes you come alive?

Obviously, I’m not talking about food and drinks. I’m talking about the activities and the things that you enjoy the most. Rather, I’m asking about the kinds of things and activities that give you immense joy and happiness! Come on, think of these things and write them down. This will have a very big impact on how you view yourself and how you can move on to better heights.

Your personal inventory is crucial for personal growth. It gives you an idea of who you are and where you are in your journey. It is also a great tool to assess what you have achieved so far and what more you need to gain. When you complete your personal inventory, you can then have concrete ideas on how to achieve personal growth and personal development.

image credit: TimePowerShop

Related posts:

1. How to Prepare Your Personal Strategic Plan
2. Your Personal Development Plan